Winner of the 
Ontario Historical Society's
Fred Landon Award for the 
Best Ontario Regional History
for the year 2000
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The Fossmill Story

The Fossmill Story cover

Life in a Railway Lumbering Village on the Edge of Algonquin Park 

Based on over 50 interviews with former residents, newspaper articles, and archival material, and with over 350 photographs, maps, and illustrations, The Fossmill Story tells the dramatic story of the people who lived in a company village through the boom years of the twenties and the bust years of the Great Depression. It describes the logging and lumbering operations of the Fassett Lumber Corporation and its railway that drew logs from the highlands of Ontario’s Algonquin Provincial Park to its mill in Fossmill. Read about forest and mill fires, crime and punishment, tragic accidents and death, poverty and affluence, and much more.

Size: 8.5 x 11 softcover, 224 pages with over 350 photographs, illustrations and maps. Full colour front and back cover with colourized photographs. $29.95  ISBN 1-896974-10-4 

The Fossmill Story is available from many local outlets such as bookstores and gift shops. If you can not find it there you can order from Past Forward online, by mail or by telephone.

To order online go to our Company Store.

Read an excerpt from the book or view the Table of Contents

Listen to Paul Mackey talk about the book and video with:

Jeff Goodes of CBC Radio's FRESH AIR
Link to Fresh Air web site.

Dan Lessard of CBC Radio's POINTS NORTH
Link to Points North web site.

1920s radio

What reviewers are saying about The Fossmill Story

"This is one of the best researched, best written, and best illustrated Algonquin Park books it has been our pleasure to review...it’s a great story well told, and we heartily recommend it to you."-Friends of Algonquin Park (Read full review

"An extraordinary amount of research effort, organizational ability, writing competence, and designing skill have all been combined to relate the history of a small place over a relatively short period of time, The result is quite wonderful."-Ontario Historical Society Bulletin (Read full review

"I found this a most enjoyable read and an excellent window into one of Canada's important resource industries during the boom years in the first half of the century."- Branchline (Read full review

"What is so unique about The Fossmill Story is that it is about life in a railway lumber town as remembered by those who live it....The Fossmill Story one of the most exciting sagas to hit local bookshelves in recent memory."- Almaguin News (Read full review

"Their many interviews of people who lived in Fossmill and the surrounding area provide a wealth of intriguing anecdotal material that makes the story burst into life.A companion to their video, Logging by Rail in Algonquin Park, this book, a bargain at $29.95, will be treasured as you find yourself again and again, looking back at ‘forgettable moments in our history."- Huntsville Forester (Read full review)

See a companion video of film from 1934 of the logging, railroad, and mill operations of the Fassett Lumber Corp.