STEAMBOATING ON LAKE SIMCOE

Title

STEAMBOATING ON LAKE SIMCOE

Description

The “Sir John Colborne”, launched in 1832, was the first of many steamboats on Lake Simcoe. A link in the land-water transportation route connecting the upper and lower Great Lakes, steamboats opened lands around Lake Simcoe to settlement. They carried passengers, freight and mail to developing ports and catered to tourists and excursionists as the region prospered. Steam tugs were used by the lumber trade to tow log booms across the lake. By 1877, railways encircled the lake and thereafter monopolized freight and passenger traffic. Steamboats continued to run pleasure cruises until the popularity of private motorboats brought Lake Simcoe’s steam era to an end in the 1920s.

Ontario Heritage Foundation, an agency of the Government of Ontario

Creator

Sarah J. McCabe

Date

October 2, 2022

Files

20220801 Steamboating on Lake Simcoe.jpg

Tags

Citation

Sarah J. McCabe, “STEAMBOATING ON LAKE SIMCOE,” Historic Plaques of Ontario: An Omeka Demo Site, accessed March 29, 2024, https://ontarioplaques.omeka.net/items/show/699.