In the heart of Muskoka.
Huntsville is a town in northern Muskoka, a region considered to be the gateway to the North in Ontario: the spacer between Northern and Southern Ontario.1 Located on the land of Algonquin-speaking Anishinaabe (Ojibway), Huntsville was founded in 1860 mainly due to the effort of Captain George Hunt (go figure), with authority from the Free Grants and Homestead Act and assistance from the Aboriginals. George Hunt’s end goal was to turn what was a small informal farming settlement into a shipping, commercial, and tourist hub up north.
Unfortunately, Captain George Hunt did not live to see the founding and naming of his village in 1886, dying of pneumonia in 1882. However, Huntsville continued to grow, gaining a water route from Port Sydney in 1877 and a rail connection in 1885. Despite a fire in 1894 that led to downtown buildings being reconstructed in brick, Huntsville continued to grow as a tanning (leather), lumber, and milling hotspot. As these industries declined, Huntsville still managed to maintain its relevance by growing into the popular resort town it is today.
Downtown Huntsville is very cozy, nice, and well-maintained. Starting at what I think of as the beginning
(but is really the east end), there is the historic swing bridge. It no longer swings, but the rest of it is still there, and it’s really nice! It acts as a gate to downtown (without having to build an actual gate), and announces that This is it!
Moving on, we have the main intersection in town, between Muskoka Roads 2 & 3, and That Little Place by the Lights, a delicious and to-the-point Italian restaurant. Also around here are Beaver Tails,2 delicious dessert as always, and The Mill on Main,3 a pub with good food (and excellent COVID service).
Each building is picked out in excellent heritage brickwork or wood, and it’s fun to just wander around and see what there is to see and pop in to the shops that look interesting.
The downtown itself is short, but that’s good because you can wander around for half an hour, an hour, and feel like you haven’t missed anything!
Road & pedestrian traffic don’t really seem to be balanced,4 although the roads don’t seem to be busy enough that this is really an issue. The sidewalks are separated from the street by planters, hanging flowers, and lamp posts, which help mitigate the feeling of walking next to a “highway”.
Huntsville downtown is right on the river, so you can wander along that for a scenic promenade or eat dinner right down by the water at a couple restaurants.
In addition, there’s a train! Muskoka Heritage Place runs a train that used to portage people between two nearby lakes using refurbished horse-drawn Toronto streetcars! It’s cool and very scenic. There’s also a whole pioneer village (no, not that one) made from buildings that have been collected from the area of various ages that is pretty interesting (and colonialistic).
To get a grand overview of the town (and a great hike), Lion’s Lookout is a large rock you can climb up and look out over the town. It’s pretty cool, although the climb up is very steep. (It makes coming down fun, though!)
Huntsville has rightly earned its place as the resort town of Muskoka. Its downtown is cozy, picturesque, and has just the right amount of things to do. The town itself is interesting, with the Lookout and the train, as well as bountiful scenery. Huntsville is a good place.
See more in the photos | Huntsville Historic Plaques
Of course, like all vague cultural things, this is debatable: https://atthemanse.wordpress.com/2014/07/17/what-is-north-of-7/ ↩
The Original is very good. ↩
The Mac & Cheese is delicious, as is the Garlic Naan & Melted Cheddar and root beer. ↩
And no allotment is made for bicycles or other forms of movement, although I suppose the streets are wide and quiet enough that they can share the street. ↩