101 Muskoka Rd. N.
Gravenhurst, Ontario
P1P 1X2

Ontario Tourism Region : Muskoka, Parry Sound and Algonquin Park

Phone : (705) 687-4630
Your Host(s) : Canada Post Gravenhurst

Description From Owner:

• Pop. 9,060. In Dist. Mun. of Muskoka at the S end of L. Muskoka on C. Rds. 17 & 169, 18 km S of Bracebridge.
• Explorers passed through the area in 1826, but there was little settlement until completion of the Muskoka Rd. in 1858-1859. The town is nicknamed 'Gateway to Muskoka.'
• James McCabe, who built a tavern at the site in 1859, is considered to be the first settler. Lumber-ing was the major industry, and by the 1870s there were 17 mills and the settlement was nicknamed Sawdust City
• The place was variously known as McCabe's Landing, McCabe's Mills, and McCabe's Bay, but when the post office opened in 1862 postmaster James McCabe selected the name Gravenhurst from the book 'Bracebridge Hall' by Washington Irving.
• In 1864 the postmaster-general of Canada referred to the same book to name nearby Bracebridge.
• Dr. Norman Bethune, remembered for his heroic work in Spain and China as a field surgeon and medical educator, was born in the manse of Knox Presbyterian Church in 1890.
• Today the home is a museum and a shrine of sorts for Chinese visitors to Canada.
• The R.M.S. Segwun, last of a fleet of steam-powered ships that once provided transportation through the Muskoka Lakes, still operates in summer out of Gravenhurst. The ship was built in Scotland and reassembled in Gravenhurst in 1887.
• From Ontario Place Names 2007 David E. Scott Ph. 866 471 4123 or 905 680 7884

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