1819-1945

Some of the information below was taken from a history of the Canadian Land and Emigration Co. Limited, and Cummings, H. R. "Early Days in Haliburton." Ontario: Department of Lands and Forests, 1963.)

1819

Although not specifically where the Scout Reserve now exist, parts of Haliburton County were explored by Lieutenant James P. Catty of the Corps of Royal Engineers as part of an expedition seeking a possible canal route between Ottawa and Georgian Bay. He crossed by way of Balsam and Kashagawigamog Lakes and the York and Madawaska Rivers.

1847

The territory now known as Haliburton was partially surveyed by a Mr. Robert Bell.

1851

In 1859, the Crown Lands Department in Canada advertised a block of land for sale in the District of Haliburton. The purpose for the sale of the land was to promote rapid settlement of the newly created townships in the District through private enterprise. The townships included in the sale were Dysart, Dudley (in which HSR is located and which took its name from the Royal Garrison town of that name in Worcestershire), Harcourt, Gilford, Harburn, Bruton, Havelock, Eyre, Clyde, and Langford. Dudley township

1856

The Bobcaygeon Colonization Road was designed to open up the districts lying inland from the settled townships. Construction began in 1856 from Bobcaygeon running northward to the interior of Haliburton. In 1858 Richard Hughes was appointed government land agent at Bobcaygeon and directed the progress of settlement. Free grants of land along its route were made to persons fulfilling the required settlement duties. By 1863 the road, sections of which follow the boundaries between Victoria and Peterborough and Muskoka and Haliburton, was completed to the Oxtongue River in Franklin Township. The southern section, between Bobcaygeon and Minden, is still in use.

1858

Muskoka Falls was the western terminus of the Peterson Road, a colonization road named after surveyor Joseph S. Peterson. Constructed 1858-1863 at a cost of some $39,000, it stretched about 114 miles between the Muskoka and Opeongo Roads and formed part of a system of government colonization routes built to open up the southern region of the Precambrian Shield. Poor soil disappointed hopes of large-scale agricultural settlement along this road both on government "free-grant" lots and on the lands of the Canadian Land and Emigration Company. By the 1870's portions of the route were overgrown, though certain sections aided lumbering and now contribute to the development of an important Ontario vacation area.

1861

Brookes Wright Gossage, PLS with other surveyors under his direction began work in the townships of Dysart and Longford. At first, Gossage was in partnership with John Stoughton Dennis and later with Vernon B. Wadsworth. As many as sixty or seventy men were employed on the project at one time, and large sums of money were required for wages and provisions. Although the Company had to pay for all the land except swamp. When the survey was completed it showed 403,125 acres in the ten townships of which 41,000 deducted as swamp, leaving 362,125 acres to be paid for at 50 cents per acre.

1862

The Canadian Land and Emigration Co. (CLAEC) was formed in England under the laws of Great Britain, to promote the colonization of the territory which was "wrongly assessed" as land suitable for settlement and agricultural purposes. The Honourable Mr. Justice Thomas Chandler Haliburton was the chairman of the company and gave his name to the district.
The objects for which the company was established were:
- The purchase, holding, alienation, sale, lease and disposal of lands or property of any kind, in the Province of Canada.
- The survey, improvement, clearance and cultivation of the lands belonging to or under control of the Company.
- The promotion and encouragement of settlement thereon, by the loan of money to settlers and others, and the establishment of Schools and the erection of places of Worship.
- The opening, making, improving and maintaining of roads, railways and other communications and the subscription of any Railway Undertaking, with a view to the settlement, cultivation and improvement of such lands.
- The promotion of emigration into the said province from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland or elsewhere and generally the performance of such acts, matters and things as are incidental or otherwise conductive to the attainment of the before mentioned objects or any of them and also such additional or extended objects as the Company may from time to time, by special resolution, determine and resolve.
Lengthy negotiations were carried on between the Company, and the Department of Crown Lands concerning the selection of townships and the terms of sale. The Department agreed to pay for the survey of the outlines of the townships, but the Company had to pay for the survey within the townships and their subdivision into lots.

1864

Early township map labelled Kennabi Lake as "Ken-ne-big".
The town plot of Haliburton was surveyed by 1864, a sawmill erected there that year, and a grist-mill built in 1865. Charles R. Stewart was appointed the first resident land agent.

1865

The Kennaway Road was started between the Town of Haliburton and the Village of Kennaway. It was built by hand labour and primitive equipment and was completed about 1872. It was named after Sir John Kennaway, the High Sheriff of Devonshire and a member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Land and Emigration Co. (see 1992). He was also the Member of Parliament for Honiton Riding in Devon, first elected in 1885. Grace Lake was named for Kennaway's wife and Farquhar, Percy and Kingscote Lakes were similarly named after company officials.

1869

In 1869, Messrs. Boyd, Smith & Company, lumbermen from Port Hope, obtained the timber rights on the Company's lands in the townships of Dudley, Gilford, and Havelock. The lumber business caused an economic boom in the region.
Mossom Boyd Co. granted the right to cut the white pine in the whole of Dudley Township. Township lumbered except for Concessions 11, 12 & 13.

1871

Census of Haliburton shows 6 ratepayers, 13 souls, 9 cattle and 3 hogs.
By 1871, The Canadian Land and Emigration Co. had sold 16,650 acres to settlers and a number of town lots to various purchasers.

1872

In 1872, the Company built a road between the villages of Kennaway and Haliburton. Also, the Company contributed greatly to the cost of the connection of a telegraph line to Haliburton.

1877

In 1877, The Canadian Land and Emigration Co. contributed to the construction of the Victoria Railroad Company line from Kinmount to Haliburton with the hopes of increasing settlement in the Townships. This did not happen. Although the Victoria Railway never extended any further, it became an important regional timber and mineral carrier with a link to other systems at Lindsay. In the mid-1880s it was taken over by the Grand Trunk Railway and later became part of the Canadian National Railway system.

1978

The Haliburton Railway station was built in 1878 as the terminus of the Victoria Railway, an 88-km-long line from Lindsay. The building was completely remodelled by the Grand Trunk Railway around 1900 and given its decorative woodwork and trackside bay window. It was acquired from the Canadian National Railways by the Municipality of Dysart et al on its centennial in 1978, and restored and adapted for the Haliburton Highlands Guild of Fine Arts.

1883

By 1883, the Province of Ontario had begun to open up neighbouring townships with offers of free land grants. The Company was unable to cope with this competition. As a result, the Company decided to offer for sale its complete holdings and undertakings in Canada. The Company was purchased by W. H. Lockhart Gordon and James Irwin on April 11, 1883. It should be noted that Mr. Irwin had previously been involved in lumbering in the area, beginning in 1877, and had entered into partnership with Mr. Boyd, who was already involved in the timber industry at that time.

1889

On April 10, 1889, Letters of Patent were issued by the Province of Ontario incorporating the new Canadian Land and Immigration Company of Haliburton Limited. From 1890 to 1897 little activity took place. Sales of land and timber cutting right had practically ceased.

1891

Boyd resigned the township of Dudley and the right to cut timber was granted to Robert A. Strickland of Lakefield. (Logs branded with an "S" were found by early camp staff in Hollen Lake.)

1893+

Farming by John Z. Nellis, David H. Pollard and Francis Spiers attempted but later abandoned.

1895

In 1895, Mr. Irwin declared bankruptcy and the bank (most likely the Canadian Bank of Commerce) took possession of his rights and interest in Haliburton, which included Irwin's shares in the new Company.

1906?

Laking Lumber Company lumbered between HSR and Haliburton Village. Their depot camp was at what we now call "the mill site". This location had originally been the site of David H. Pollard's Farm.

During World War I, Jim Robertson while apparently evading conscription, lived in a small shack on Twister Point where he trapped and collected ginseng roots which at that time were quite abundant and as now, valuable for export to the far east. A few years later, he was believed to have built a small trappers cabin on Hidden Bay although by the 1990's no remains could be found.

Around the same time, our Trapper's Cabin (between Little Chip and Ojibway Rock) was built by Ken White with the help of his friend, trapper Len Holmes. Len is credited with first stocking our Kennabi Lake with small-mouth bass which were carried overland in a kettle fitted in a back pack, probably from Grace Lake, which he had previously stocked in the same way from Paudash Lake.

1920's & 30's

During the 1920's the Company sold the entire township of Bruton to the Ontario Hydro-Electric Commission and proceeds from the sale allowed the Company to buy back from the bank the timber cutting rights previously licensed to Irwin. During the depression, lumbering activities ceased once again, but as more roads were constructed, the region began to develop as a tourist and vacation area, and land sales began to increase.

1939

At the outbreak of World War II, lumbering activities intensified, and carried on into the post-war years.

1940

Mill Valley Lumber Company starts lumbering in area. Their office and mill site were also at the old Pollard Farm site which remains the only significant cleared site on the Reserve.

1945

Fire on the shore of Burnt Bay (on the north shore of Kennabi Lake part way along the "admin channel") burns for 3 1/2 weeks as the result of carelessness of fisherman who failed to properly extinguish their campfire.

1946

By the end of 1946, all of the land originally purchased by the Company had been sold. The Canadian Land and Immigration wound up its affairs, surrendered its charter, and ceased to exist.

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