KAWARTHA LAKES-Bobcaygeon was home to the first lock built on the Trent Canal in 1833. In the late 1850s, the Bobcaygeon Road was among the colony’s first colonization roads, built north from the village to Dwight (similar to modern 49/121/35). This infrastructure ensured that much of the traffic connecting northern settlements like Kinmount and Minden—as well as many logging camps—went through Bobcaygeon. Later in the century, Bobcaygeon became a centre of steamboat navigation with Elijah Bottum’s business and the Boyd family’s Trent Valley Navigation Company. Though it was among the first villages connected by the waterway and colonization road, the railway came to Bobcaygeon late.
In the mid nineteenth century, the railway was the fastest and most economical mode of transportation for long distance travel. In an era when many roads were simply linear clearings where the stumps were cut low enough that an oxcart could pass, the cost of transportation was prohibitive for many goods. Before the advent of the railway, it would take days to travel from Bobcaygeon to the towns on Lake Ontario. A railway connected Port Hope and Lindsay in 1857, then the Toronto & Nipissing Railway (actually terminated in Coboconk) and Victoria Railway (Lindsay to Haliburton) connected many communities to the north in the 1870s. Though many nearby communities were integrated into rail networks, Bobcaygeon would rely on horses and steamships throughout the century. Once railways connected the northern communities, much traffic switched from the Bobcaygeon Road to the iron horse.
Bobcaygeon’s lack of a railway connection was not because of a lack of effort. Bobcaygeon’s civic leaders worked hard to secure a railway, but for decades, each plan ended in frustration. In 1852, as arrangements were being made to connect the Kawarthas to the Grand Trunk Railway, then under construction, Bobcaygeon council tried to attract one of these new lines. But the priority at that time was to connecting regional centres. By the 1870s, when the secondary railways were built, Bobcaygeon representatives pursued several different railway schemes. In the early 1870s, the Midland Railway considered building a branch line to Bobcaygeon, but the scheme collapsed when the depression began in 1873. Municipalities in the Bobcaygeon area offered bonuses for the Bowmanville, Lindsay and Bobcaygeon Railway in 1872, the Omemee, Bobcaygeon and North Peterborough Junction Railway in 1873, the Cobourg and Peterborough Railway in 1874, and the Whitby and Bobcaygeon Railway Extension Company in 1878. In 1880 they spoke to the Grand Junction again about a proposed link with Cobourg, Peterborough, Marmora and Chemong Lake. But none of these schemes amounted to anything, and in the case of the Cobourg and Peterborough, many wondered if the company had any serious intention of building the road, as they demanded $250,000 in bonuses, the right of way, and tax exemption. In the late 1890s there was also an unsuccessful campaign to build an electric railway to Bobcaygeon.
With many villagers frustrated at Peterborough’s apparent lack of interest in securing a rail connection, in the 1890s the village focused on Lindsay. As the Grand Trunk Railway already served much of the region, promoters argued that a competing line was necessary. They planned a route via Lindsay from Burketon Junction on the Canadian Pacific Railway track from Toronto to Peterborough—even though this was longer than the other proposal to connect Bobcaygeon to Omemee on the Grand Trunk Railway. Mossom M. Boyd, W.T.C. Boyd, John A. Barron, Charles Fairbairn, H.J. Wickham, John D. Flavelle, William Needler, George Bick, John Petrie, John L. Read, John Kennedy, and John Dobson were the key figures in the Lindsay, Bobcaygeon and Pontypool Railway Company—essentially the Boyds and their associates. The Boyds took a great personal interest in ensuring that the railway would be built, arranging for the charter, urging residents to attend votes on the bonuses, and even personally negotiating to purchase some parts of the right of way. The survey was completed in 1900.
If there was any business in Bobcaygeon that would greatly benefit from the railway, it was the Boyd’s sawmill. Ironically, the Boyds finally managed to secure a railway connection to Bobcaygeon, just as their sawmill was closing. The tracks reached Lindsay on May 30, 1903, as land was being cleared to extend the line to Bobcaygeon. The Boyd family was concurrently trying to sell the Little Bob Mill, liquidating many of their best timber limits, and planning to move their lumber operations to British Columbia. If there was any business that would be impacted by the railway, it was the Boyd’s Trent Valley Navigation Company, because the railway would compete for traffic. Nonetheless, the Boyd family led the effort to bring the iron horse to their community. The first train left Bobcaygeon on April 25, 1904, and Willie Boyd retired as President of the Company three days later at the official opening. By the end of the decade, the Boyd family’s main Bobcaygeon businesses had all but disappeared.
Initially, two trains a day served Bobcaygeon, and much of the freight and passenger traffic to and from the village rode the rails. In the 1940s, a traveller could leave Toronto at 8 am and arrive in Bobcaygeon by 3 pm. The railway made it far easier for tourists to come stay at Bobcaygeon—perhaps at the Whyte House, which was just across Sherwood Street. Bobcaygeon residents could take the train to attend community events like an Orange Parade or church picnic. Youngsters could take a hand car to Dunsford to enjoy an evening at the Greenhurst Dance Pavillion. It was no coincidence that Bobcaygeon’s feed mill was right beside the railway station.
Within a few years of the first train rolling into Bobcaygeon, the first automobiles motored into town. Cars were faster than the train and could go anywhere there was a road. Though the train remained more economical for long distance haulage, once trucks began to appear, for many goods it faster and less expensive to truck it direct, rather than haul it to the train station, load it on a train, load it back into a vehicle or wagon, then take it to its final destination. By the mid twentieth century, practically everyone had a car, and few passengers took the train any more. As traffic declined, the train made only one run per day. The last train left Bobcaygeon in 1957, then the line was abandoned four years later. Bob Thompson moved the rail station to his aggregate business, subsequently sold to Fred Reynolds to develop Victoria Place. Today, the former site of the railway station is part of Bobcaygeon’s beach park, and is a larger lot than it was in the days of the locomotives, as much fill has been deposited in Big Bob Channel.
This story is part of our partnership with Maryboro Lodge, The Fenelon Falls Museum and was written by Glenn Walker.
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