The Founding of Bobcaygeon

Photo by Alan L Brown - May 18, 2004

Plaque Location

The City of Kawartha Lakes
In Bobcaygeon, on the south side of Canal Street East, just east of the Main Street bridge

Plaque Text

In 1833, shortly after the settlement of this region began, Thomas Need settled here at "Bobcaygeon", the narrows between Sturgeon and Pigeon Lakes. When the government began the construction in that year of a small lock and canal, Need surveyed a village plot which was named Rokeby by Lieutenant-Governor Sir John Colborne but was still commonly called Bobcaygeon. Need later opened a store and erected a grist-mill. By 1857 the community contained only 150 inhabitants but subsequently its growth was stimulated by the construction of the Bobcaygeon Colonization Road and by the development of the large lumbering business of Mossom Boyd and his son. Bobcaygeon with a population of about 1,000 was incorporated as a Village by a Victoria County By-Law of 1876.

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