‘Putting Muskoka on the Map’ Lecture with Patrick Boyer

Between Samuel Champlain’s first map in 1615 and today’s satellite images of Muskoka from outer space lies a centuries-long drama which proves that putting Muskoka on a map was neither easy nor simple. In this second book in his MODERN HISTORY OF MUSKOKA series, author J. Patrick Boyer presents a parade of human endurance and ingenuity, the indispensable roles of First Nations, the determined efforts of military planners, treachery and betrayal, the aspirations of land developers, the evolving relationships between First Nations and settlers, stellar Canadian map-maker David Thompson’s unique Muskoka maps – and solving the mystery of why they appeared to be “lost” maps just when needed most for Muskoka land settlement and homesteader benefit, the tribulations of surveyors seeking to subdivide raw Canadian Shield landscape into a neat grid, the obstacles encountered by road-builders on the same terrain, governmental land policies in conflict with themselves, and how the shift from logging and homesteading to a vacation economy put Muskoka on the continent’s social map.