The Founding of Gravenhurst
The Muskoka Road, constructed to open the district north of Washago for settlement, had reached this point at the head of Lake Muskoka by 1859. A community soon developed and in 1862 a post-office named Gravenhurst was opened here. Four years later Alexander Cockburn launched the "Wenonah", the first steamboat on the Muskoka Lakes, and Gravenhurst was established as the southern terminus of navigation and the centre of a developing tourist industry. Lumbering further accelerated the village's development and the extension of the Toronto Simcoe and Muskoka Junction Railroad to Gravenhurst, its northern terminal, in 1875, consolidated its position as the "Gateway to Muskoka". The community, with over 850 inhabitants, was incorporated as a village by a County by-law of 1877.
Plaque via Alan L. Brown's site Ontario Plaques. Full page here.