Steamboats on the Lake

When Peter Perry purchased 40 acres of land along the shoreline of Lake Scugog in 1840, he saw more than quiet water and marshy edges. He saw potential. Determined to spark industry and settlement, Perry persuaded five businessmen to build lumber mills along the waterfront. These mills, set right at the water’s edge, would rely on the lake both for transportation and for power.

Perry went a step further. He convinced two grain buyers, Thomas Cotton and James Rowe, to finance something entirely new for this area: the construction of a steamboat. Their investment led to the building of the first steamboat in the Kawarthas, right here on this lakeshore.

The vessel was the Woodman, built by Hugh Chisholm and launched in 1851. At first, the Woodman had a very practical purpose. It was used to pull great log booms down the lake to the mills, helping to feed the growing lumber trade. But it also became a vital passenger and freight boat. Three times a week, the Woodman ran a regular route between Port Perry and Lindsay, stopping at small but important communities along the way: Port Hoover, Washburn Island, and Caesarea.

The success of the Woodman opened the door to a new era on Lake Scugog. Over the following decades, as many as 50 different side-paddlewheel steamers travelled these waters. They carried lumber, grain, and goods, but they also brought tourists and day-trippers eager to see the lake. Most of these boats were built either here in Port Perry, or at the north end of the lake in Port Hoover, turning the shoreline into a modest, but thriving boatbuilding centre.

Launched in April 1867, the 72-foot steamer Anglo-Saxon was built to operate between Lindsay and Port Perry on Lake Scugog in Ontario. Often mentioned in accounts of 1860s steam navigation in the province, she was first launched at Port Hoover, then towed to Port Perry in May 1867 to be fitted with her machinery.

Designed as both a passenger and freight vessel, the Anglo-Saxon played an important role in linking the communities of Lindsay and Port Perry, carrying people, goods, and supplies across Lake Scugog at a time when steamers were vital to regional transportation and commerce.

The largest steamboat ever to sail Lake Scugog was the Crandella, launched in 1891. Owned by George Crandell, who operated one of the biggest steamboat companies in Ontario, the Crandella was both an impressive sight, and a symbol of the lake’s busy, commercial age.

Steamboat traffic on Lake Scugog reached its peak around 1875. After that, changing transportation methods, including the arrival of better roads and railways, slowly reduced the need for steam-powered vessels. By 1910, only a few steamboats remained. In 1930, the last of them, the Cora, was finally hauled ashore, bringing the steamboat era on Lake Scugog to a quiet close.