1912 request for canoe catalog from Muskoka Station Ontario (Canada)

Request for a catalog on canoe products, to be sent to Muskoka Station CPR.

Typewritten reply letter from famous Canoe and Boat builder, J.H. Ross Boat & Canoe Co. Ltd, Orillia Ontario.

1. Muskoka Ont May 5^th 13  ...Dear Sirs, Would you please send me one of your catalogues on canois ___ .... (Signed) Harry Gilmour Muskoka Station CPR
2. May. 7^th / 12. Typed reply to above (carbon copy)..We have your letter of the 5th. Inst. re - canoes and are sending you...our catalogue. Our standard 16 ft. canoe Basswood, either painted or vanished we think would suit your requirements, and as we have a very large stock of them on hand, can make immediate shipment. These canoes were painted in the winter and so are thoroughly hardened and in first class condition for use. The price of the painted canoe is $28.00, and the varnished one which is made of extra choice materiel would cost you $35.00. We furnish two paddles with each canoe we sell...The J.H. Ross Boat & Canoe Co. Limited

Lefroy is located near Lake Simcoe.

Two punch-holes in letter for filing.

Customer letter is 16 X 12.5 cm and reply is 26.5 X 21 cm.

Four names dominate the boat manufacturing scene in Orillia in the century from the 1870s to 1964. They are Ross, Dean, Ditchburn and Hunter. 

Southeast of this to the foot of Elgin Street is where Orillia's boat building industry sprang up. J. H. Ross Canoe and Boat Company was "first to begin selling craft on the waterfront" in 1870.

"Ross built fine sailboats that won races throughout Ontario", Richmond quotes Hunter as saying. "... and what was likely one of the first motorboats on Lake Couchiching." And Ross evidently until 1964. John Dean began with building canoes. He designed and produced "the famous Sunnyside racing canoe that was shipped all over the world."

www.orilliapacket.com

MacTier celebrates a century thanks to the railway

It was the Canadian Pacific Railway which first brought attention to the region in the early 1900s. CP Rail was famed for its transcontinental line, but it also maintained thousands of miles of secondary tracks that spread out into every corner of the nation. In 1905, work began on a line to extend due north from Toronto to join the transcontinental line near Sudbury, thereby linking Canada’s largest city with its most important railway. Three years later, in 1908, the line was complete.

A divisional point, a place intended to serve both trains and work crews, was established exactly halfway between Toronto and Sudbury. This became known as Muskoka Station.

Muskoka Station was a vital railway facility. Here steam engines were taken off for maintenance at a roundhouse, coal could be secured from extensive warehouse facilities, and a ready supply of water was available from large tanks. Work crews, maintenance staff, and administrative employees were accommodated in boarding houses lining the tracks. Soon a village began to develop around the bustling railway yards.

www.tcrc295.com