Wood and Glory: Muskoka's Classic Launches

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

With more than 150 color plates and numerous reproductions of historic
photos, Wood and Glory is an impressive coffee-table album honoring a
small but intriguing sliver of Canadian social history.

From approximately 1900 to 1935, more small wooden power boats were
built in the Muskoka district of Ontario than anywhere else in Canada.
These weren’t putt-putts: rather, they were luxury recreational craft
custom built by hand to the specifications of rich patrons. Muskoka was
an international resort area selected as a playground by wealthy
Canadians and Americans.

For most Canadians, this period of our history was the time of the
Great War and the Depression. To those with summer mansions in the
Muskokas, it was a time to play. And in order to play on the pristine
lakes, they needed boats. Builders such as Ditchburn, Minett-Shields,
Duke’s, Greavette, and the Port Carling Boat Works responded with
beautiful launches, lovingly built from exotic imported woods. Today
many of these classic launches have been meticulously restored and
returned to a life of exhibits and shows on the lakes where they
originally “cut a dash.”

Gray’s brief text and DuVernet’s abundant photos combine to create
a detailed, captivating portrait of these gleaming boats and the
lifestyle they represented. Anyone who has vacationed, however briefly,
in Ontario’s Orillia–Muskoka area will respond favorably to the lure
of this beautiful album.