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The town of Huntsville is situated on the Muskoka River, 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of Bracebridge, and it derives its name from Captain George Hunt, who was the first permanent settler of the village. Hunt arrived here with his wife and family in 1869. He was responsible for the Muskoka Road reaching farther north to Huntsville and for the bridge being built across the river. Huntsville’s first church services and school classes were held in his log cabin. In 1870 a post office opened, with Hunt as postmaster. He was a man with temperance principles and he made it a condition on the deeds, issued on his original acreage, that no intoxicating liquor was to be sold on the premises.

Construction of the locks on the Muskoka River between Mary Lake and Fairy Lake in 1877 augmented the growth of this settlement. The same year the steamer Northern was launched at Port Sydney. Travellers could now get from Bracebridge via Utterson to Port Sydney by stage, then by steamer to Huntsville, Fairy Lake, and Lake Vernon. Two years later Huntsville had two hotels, five general stores, a hardware store, a butcher, shoemaker, tailor, two blacksmiths, seven carpenters, a pump and wagon shop, and two sawmills.

Huntsville was incorporated as a village in 1886, with a population of 400 residents. The same year, the Northern Railway reached the village and the lumber industry began to flourish with shipping potential increased. Several sawmills were built, including those of the Whaley Lumber Company and the Whiteside Lumber Company. Fred Francis and Duncan McCaffery erected planing mills, and a gristmill and a woollen mill were also built. Ten trains a day connected to the lake steamers. Promotional books encouraging tourism also appeared, books such as the Muskoka and Northern Lakes publication.

Seven years after the firey tragedy at Gravenhurst, the community of Huntsville experienced its own firey blaze on April 18, 1894. What started out as a spring cleanup resulted in a loss of 75 percent of the business sector. At 10 past noon, a blaze travelled, without discrimination, on both sides of Main Street. The fire was fanned by a stiff southeast wind and spread so quickly that people were powerless to stop it. Many residents took to boats in the river to escape the orange-black haze that hung above the community.

The steamer Excelsior was moored at the wharf when the fire broke out. George Hutcheson and his son thought the ship was a good place to store what they could salvage from their burning store. A thousand dollars worth of goods were placed on the lower deck, but, unable to steam up in time, the ship did not escape the flames. The Excelsior became a towering inferno, and all that was left was a charred hull. Hutcheson remarked, “It was a burning furnace with all of my goods on it. We cut it loose during all the excitement, hoping to save the boat and my things, but the craft was taken up by the current and sucked into the sheet of fire.”

In the meantime, four firemen from Bracebridge and Gravenhurst had been locked up. Apparently, the firemen were intoxicated with liquor, singing dirty songs and cussing. Their cohorts threatened to destroy the jail if they were not released, and so they were, indeed, released from jail. The whole town suffered losses, but nevertheless, they rebuilt and eventually regained their former prosperity.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Huntsville developed into a tourist resort as steamer cruises became more popular. The Hanna and Hutcheson Brothers established a factory to produce flooring, broom handles, and other products. In 1902 they organized the Muskoka Wood Manufacturing Company and built a mill and flooring factory which produced the well-known “Red Deer” brand flooring.

In 1891 the Huntsville Tannery was established. It was certainly a large operation, with a weekly output from 1,200 to 1,600 dressed hides, averaging 9 kilograms (20 pounds) each. The hides were imported to the United States, and the hemlock bark used in the tanning process reached 6,000 to 7,000 cords per annum, which, at five dollars a cord, represented $30,000 to $35,000. Sawmills monopolized every navigable lake and stream in the district.

In 1920 C.O. Shaw opened the Bigwin Inn, which soon became a popular summer resort. Other inns and campgrounds also began to appear in the area. Tourists flocked to the Muskokas, and Huntsville was a prized attraction. The development of ski resorts gave them a year-round clientele and a busier-than-most downtown.

Muskoka is indeed a special place. No wonder the Natives admired and respected it so. Tradition abounds in every nook and cranny of this district, and the people who live here can be quite protective of it. Concern and caution are the two words often spoken today. Many people worry about future development and the impact it will have on the water and on the wildlife. The existence of parks like Algonquin and the maintenance of crown lands is essential to the protection of this natural splendour — the guarantee that this magnet of nature will continue to pull at people.