July 28, 2000 The Old Nipissing Road and Relay 2000

The Russell House Hotel, known as Bummer's Roost.  One the early stops on the old Nipissing Road.

The Trans Canada Trail Relay 2000, that will bring the water of Canada's three great oceans together in September, will pass through our area starting on Saturday, July 29th.

This column looks at the route from Nipissing Village to Magnetawan on the historic Old Nipissing Road.

More details on the celebrations are available at the Chamber of Commerce, the Conservation Authority and in the Nugget and Community Voices.

Before arriving at Nipissing Village on August 1st, the relay will pass through Verner, Sturgeon Falls and Cache Bay on Saturday July 29th, North Bay on July 30th and Callendar on July 31st.

On August 1st the relay will travel by various means from Nipissing Village (9:30 a.m.) to Commanda (1 p.m.) to Bummer's Roost (at nearby Michel's farm 2-10 p.m.). 

It will move out of our area into Magnetewan at 11 a.m. on Wednesday August 2nd. There will be special events at all locations. Some new signage will be in place for these festivities.

Congratulations to the hundreds of carriers and the communities for their part in this millennium event.

The Nipissing Road 

The Ontario government earned an average of one million dollars, or 28% of its revenue, from the lumber trade between 1867 and the turn of the century. 

The settlers became the work force in the forests and mills and bought some of the lumber to build their homes and barns. The Nipissing Road (or the Rosseau Nipissing Colonization Road as it was officially called) was built the 110 km from Lake Rosseau to the mouth of the South River near Nipissing village over 8 years beginning in 1864.

The road started at Lake Rosseau because people could get there by stagecoach, and later by train and steamboat from the south. 

There were a few people at the time in Nipissing Village who had come down the Champlain Trail along the Mattawa-Ottawa route.

The Nipissing Road was more or less parallel to highway 11 (the Muskoka Colonization Road) and approximately 20 km to the west. 

The survey pattern of the area the Nipissing Road travelled though was a series of townships of approximately 10 square miles of 100 acre lots. 

The colonization road was superimposed on this pattern and had approximate hundred acre lots touching it on both sides, for a total of 217 pairs of lots.

In the early stages the road could only be walked or travelled by the use of "jumpers"-two poles dragged by a horse or oxen and loaded with goods.

Eventually, other horse drawn transportation developed, including regular stage coach runs. The trip, depending on the weather and the destination, took several days and required stops along the way.

Entrepreneurs set up "stopping places" along the way, and several small communities serving the traveller and local settlements developed. 

General stores, blacksmith shops, churches and homes, etc. followed. 

Some of these stopping places, like Magnetewan on the river of the same name, developed because of water access.

Others developed as new cross-roads were built to access the acreage in the adjoining townships as well as to connect with the Muskoka and Parry Sound colonization roads.

Several ways to access road

Several small communities developed nearby, off the Nipissing Road, at desirable locations. 

The Nipissing Road served its purpose temporarily, but as one author noted, it became a trail of broken dreams.

Unbearable conditions, poor soil, the demise of the lumber business and the coming of the Grand Trunk Railway to the east doomed the road. 

Several ghost towns and numerous abandoned farms followed, as people relocated. 

With the development of interest in local history, and the establishment of several museums in the area, some of this history has been recorded. 

The wonderful trend toward trail preservation is a remarkable achievement and much of the history is now more than paper, pictures and artifacts.

The Forgotten Trails project out of South River is an excellent example of the development of trails to access these old sites.

The Forgotten Trails includes a 40 km section of the Nipissing road which is a part of the Trans Canada Trail.

Celebration of the Nipissing Road 1875-2000

The 132 page book In Celebration of the Nipissing Road 1875-2000 written by Helen Stewart as a Magnetawan Millennium project is an excellent guide book on the Road. It has numerous photographs, useful maps and human interest stories.

The book is available at the Magnetewan Public Library and at the Municipal Office (705) 387-3947. The book is also available at Gulliver's Books in North Bay, and it will be sold at the relay sites on the road by the Discovery Routes people.

Another useful source of immediate information for those with Internet access is the web site www.onlink.net/~woodland/trail.htm. 
 

The Spence Inn. A temperance inn from the hamlet of Spence on the old Nipissing Road relocated to the Pioneer Village in Huntsville in 1977.

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