Gone Fishin’

Torontonians have a long and happy tradition of heading north to cottage country during the long, hot days of summer.

Judge Joseph Easton MacDougall and his family proudly display their catch at their summer cottage, 1890.
MacDougall family Fonds S260

Muskoka Club, ca 1866
Albumen print
JRR 1128

From left to right, back row: John Campbell, William M. Smith, John G. Fraser, James Bain
From left to right, front row: John King, William James Loudon, William Tytler, William B. Fleming, of the Muskoka Club, 1866.

In the 1860s the Muskoka Club was established by a group of Toronto adventurers who led annual expeditions to the Muskoka wilderness. By the 1870s several of the members had purchased land on Lake Joseph, and the tradition of summer cottaging was born.

In 1898 a group of professors and alumni from the University of Toronto joined together to purchase recreational property in Go Home Bay, on Georgian Bay, held as shares in the Madawaska Club. Many of the cottagers in Go Home are descendants of those first Madawaska Club members.

Donald T. Fraser cleaning up after a camp meal on Go Home Bay, c 1920.
Donald Fraser Papers, S238