Natural Archives | "Are We There Yet?" Highway-Based Tourism In Kawartha Lakes

Corduroy Roads Made Travelling a Bumpy, Bone-Rattling Experience!

Among the earliest means of transporting tourists in present-day Kawartha Lakes were the dreaded corduroy roads. Fashioned from logs laid side by side through the bush, they were […]

Greetings From Rosedale

This postcard captures the essence of what it was like to drive into the natural beauty of northwestern Kawartha Lakes.

A Local Legacy: Vintage “GAS” Sign at the Balsam Lake Park Store Celebrates the Heritage of Highway-Based Tourism in Northwestern Kawartha Lakes

This vintage porcelain sign was originally decorated in Texaco markings. Installed in front of a gas station on Highway 46 west of Balsam Lake Provincial Park in the […]

Tourists Enjoy Branson’s Gallery in Rosedale

In 1952, the Lindsay Daily Post ran an editorial which urged every town or hamlet in the municipality to open a small museum or other roadside tourist attraction. […]

Walking Towards a Sustainable Future: Highway 46 Becomes the Lakeshore Legacy Trail in Balsam Lake Provincial Park

In an effort to reverse decades of human impact on the natural environment, Balsam Lake Provincial Park has converted nearly two kilometres of the former Highway 46 along […]

Changing Times: Demolition of a Gas Station, Coboconk

At one time, Coboconk was home to half a dozen gas stations. Due to changes in technology and consolidation among oil companies from the 1970s onward, that number […]

Information Sheet, “This Abandoned Car Is On The Road To Recovery,” Ontario Ministry of the Environment, 1975

By the 1970s many of the thousands of cars which took to the open road between the 1930s and 1950s had been traded in, scrapped, or parked in […]

The Dangers of Excessive Speed: Ontario Department of Highways Advertisement

This dramatic advertisement was developed by the Ontario Department of Highways in 1957 to warn motorists about the dangers of excessive speed. The ad was unique in that […]

Keeping Kids Off the Road: Gate Separating Falcon Lodge From Highway 46

This gate was used to keep children and pets staying at Falcon Lodge from darting out onto busy Highway 46. “Remarkably as a kid, I took it for […]

Full Speed Ahead! Widening the King’s Highway (Highway 35 North)

By 1970, parts of Highway 35 North had become so well-travelled that they required widening. This Ministry of Transportation photo was taken between Norland and Minden, and shows […]

Making Road Trips Faster and Smoother: An Ontario Department of Highways Crew Spreads Mulch Pavement on Highway 46 near Lorneville

In 1914, a gentleman named George H. Payne wrote a letter to the editor of the Lindsay Post urging municipalities to purchase a grader for use on every […]

Steam Shovel at Work on Highway 35 North, Rosedale

Originally called the Cameron Road, the route running between Rosedale and Minden, Ontario, became known as Highway 35 on April 1, 1937. By the 1940s the section between […]