Economic History Archives | "Are We There Yet?" Highway-Based Tourism In Kawartha Lakes

Building Tourism and Enhancing Hospitality With the Kawartha Lakes Tourist Association

The Kawartha Lakes Tourist Association ran this advertisement in the Lindsay Daily Post throughout the summer of 1965 to help citizens, politicians, members of the hospitality industry, and […]

A Shell of its Former Self: What Comes Next for Coboconk’s Abandoned Shell Station?

Built not long after the Second World War, this abandoned two-storey wooden Shell gas station stood well into the first two decades of the twenty-first century. Operated by […]

Changing Times: Demolition of a Gas Station, Coboconk

At one time, Coboconk was home to half a dozen gas stations. Due to changes in technology and consolidation among oil companies from the 1970s onward, that number […]

Overgrown Gas Pumps at the Former Shell Gas Station, Coboconk

As many of Ontario’s privately-run gas stations closed during the last quarter of the twentieth century, derelict buildings and overgrown gas pumps became common sights along the highway. […]

Margaret Valentine Remembers Her Family’s Service Station

Recorded at the Kirkfield Museum, February 12, 2022 Interviewer: Ian McKechnie Videography: Ekaterine Alexakis Duration: 3:42 Margaret Valentine sitting in front of white wall. Text on screen reads: […]

A Vintage Gas Pump Still Operates at the Balsam Lake Park Store

When Balsam Lake Provincial Park opened in 1967, Highway 46 was re-routed around the park. A Texaco gas station immediately west of the park boundary began serving customers […]

Statement of Account Issued by Brentnell’s Garage, Victoria Road

Durant cars were popular in Victoria Road, with Charles H. Davey (1883-1953) being the local Durant agent prior to H. Brentnell becoming a dealer in “Durant Service and […]

Finding a Place to Park: Automotive Traffic on Nelson Street in Downtown Kirkfield

Highway 46 was known as Nelson Street within the village limits of Kirkfield. By the early 1930s, it was seeing more automotive traffic as cars grew in popularity […]

Coboconk Sees its First Car: Robert Callan’s Ford Model “T”

Among the first owners of a Model “T” in northwestern Kawartha Lakes were Robert A. Callan and J.E. Jackson, both of Coboconk. The finished cars were brought to […]

A Feat of Engineering: A Steamboat Being Locked Through the Kirkfield Lift Locks, Trent Valley Canal

This hand-tinted postcard shows the Kirkfield Lift Lock as it appeared during its first decade of operation. Opened in 1907, it remains the second-highest hydraulic lift lock in […]

“Ahoy, There!” The Stoney Lake Passes Through the Kirkfield Lift Lock

This Edwardian-era postcard depicts the Stoney Lake being locked through the Kirkfield Lift Lock not long after it opened for traffic in 1907. Launched in 1904, the Stoney […]

“Choo, Choo!” Sounding the Whistle in Coboconk

By the mid-1950s, railway passenger service had become little more than a tourist attraction. No. 2644, one of the Canadian National Railway’s N-4-a class of locomotives built in […]