Hours: Monday to Friday, 9:00am-4:30pm (Open daily during summer season)
Location: 549 Little Lake Park, Midland, Ontario, L4R 4P4
Contact: (705)-526-2844; huroniamuseum@gmail.com
Access: Open to the public, but appointments are preferred. General admission rates for the museum apply.
Website: https://huroniamuseum.com/
The Huronia Museum Library and Archives contain over 3300 books concerning the local history of the Midland region, including books written by and about local individuals and families. The records are mostly genealogical.
The Archives contain an extensive collection of vertical files, including newspaper clippings and photographs of local individuals, families, and general goings on in the Midland region. The vertical files are available in searchable PDF files for free to download online.
The Archives maintain an online blog on locations of note in the Midland area. The Georgian Bay Lumber Company Waubaushene Mill was the headquarters of the Georgian Bay Lumber Company in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The mill employed approximately 250 men, including millwrights, blacksmiths, sawyers, filers, lumber pilers, and general labourers. Most were seasonal employees and many of them were single men. In winter hundreds moved north to work in the lumber camps and on drive. The Company’s early bush camps were close to home in the surrounding townships. As the logs were cut to length they were branded with the Company’s registered mark and driven down the Severn, Wye, Sturgeon, Black and North Rivers. The mill was torn down in 1925.
The Midland Coal Docks, established in 1901, was owned and operated by Playfair-White Associates. Coal was brought in on ships and sent out on trains. It was also the source of fuel for the ships coming in and out of harbour. In the first year of operation, the coal dock handled over 7000 tons of coal. In 1917, a crane was built to streamline the loading process. In the 1930s the coal dock was taken over by Canadian Steamship Lines, but fuel oil was already starting to overtake coal as the fuel of choice. Coal was gradually phased out and the need for the coal dock disappeared. The coal dock was permanently dismantled in the early 1970s.
The Midland Harbour and Town Docks were a hive of activity in Midland during the early 1900s. The shores of the bay were crowded with lumber mills, shelters, a grain elevator and a steel works, all of which required access to water for transport. The current town dock housed docks specific for shipping and receiving of lumber and coal. Mid-century, the town dock had transformed into a tourist destination for cruise and passenger ships sailing the Great Lakes. Currently, Midland Harbour is a winter berth for grain ships with the town dock being a tie-up for recreational vessels and the occasional Coast Guard ship.
Midland opened the Midland Shipyards in the early 1900’s by a Midland Drydock Co. They began with above-water repairs before moving on to build freighters. The yards closed in 1928 only to be reopened in 1940 to help fill demand for warships. The shipyards built Corvettes, mine sweepers and submarine trawlers for the British and Canadian Navies. After the war, the shipyards continued to build freighters, tugs, and barges for the commercial shipping industry. The Midland shipyards, largest shipyards on the Great Lakes, were permanently closed in 1957.
In the mid-19th century a burgeoning lumber industry grew in the area, based upon the plentiful white pine in the forests along Georgian Bay. In 1843 John Hogg built the first local sawmill at the mouth of the Hogg River. In 1886, all the mills in the Midland region were incorporated under the banner of the Victoria Harbor Lumber Company. The lumber mills were the only source of employment money for most workers. They worked 10 hours a day, 6 days a week, with only Canada Day and Labour Day as holidays.