This article is about the village of Bobcaygeon. Bobcaygeon is also a song by the Tragically Hip.
Bobcaygeon is a village on the Trent-Severn Waterway in east-central Ontario, Canada.
Known as the "Hub of the Kawarthas," it is part of the amalgamated City of Kawartha Lakes. Its name comes from the Mississauga word bobcajewanunk, which means "shallow rapids".
Founding
In 1833, shortly after the settlement of this region began, Thomas Need settled here at "Bobcaygeon", the narrows between Sturgeon and Pigeon Lakes. When the government began the construction in that year of a small lock and canal, Need surveyed a village plot, which was named Rokeby by Lieutenant-Governor Sir John Colborne but was still commonly called Bobcaygeon. Need later opened a store and erected a sawmill and a grist-mill. By 1857 the community contained only 150 inhabitants, but subsequently its growth was stimulated by the construction of the Bobcaygeon Colonization Road and by the development of the large lumbering business of Mossom Boyd and his son. Bobcaygeon, with a population of about 1,000 was incorporated as a Village by a Victoria County By-law of 1876.
(The text above appears on a historical plaque erected by the Ontario Heritage Foundation at the library in Bobcaygeon.)
External links
Last updated: 05-26-2005 06:10:50