The Peterson Road

Photo by Alan L Brown - May 8, 2005

Plaque Location

The District of Muskoka
The Town of Bracebridge
In Muskoka Falls, on the grounds of a church on the north side of Morrow Street at Fourth Street just west of Muskoka Falls Public School

Plaque Text

Muskoka Falls was the western terminus of the Peterson Road, a colonization road named after surveyor Joseph S. Peterson. Constructed 1858-1863 at a cost of some $39,000, it stretched about 183 km between the Muskoka and Opeongo Roads and formed part of a system of government colonization routes built to open up the southern region of the Precambrian Shield. Poor soil disappointed hopes of large-scale agricultural settlement along this road both on government "free-grant" lots and on the lands of the Canadian Land and Emigration Company. By the 1870's portions of the route were overgrown, though certain sections aided lumbering and now contribute to the development of an important Ontario vacation area.