Looking Back covers the history of Highway 41 (formerly Old Addington Road)

Jeff Green | Aug 31, 2022

The latest publication from the Cloyne and District Historical Society (CDHS) is a book that was put together by Marcella Neely, a long-time board member and active member of the CDHS and a current member of the communications committee

It is called Looking Back, and it follows Highway 41 from just south of Hwy. 7, where Kaladar was located years ago. The village was originally called Scouten, and the name was changed to Kaladar Station in 1890.

Looking Back takes a trip up Hwy. 41 all the way to Denbigh, and it chronicles business that have come and gone, and others that remain and/or have changed their focus.

Some of the information in the book was gathered for the book, and much of it is taken from the CDHS’ popular longer publication, The Oxen and the Axe, and from the archives in the museum. It is a conveniently packaged small book, easy to carry around when visiting the Hwy. 41 corridor and looking around.

For every story about a business that remains in place, such as Bence Motors, which has grown and expanded since it was founded in 1946, but is still owned and operated by members of the Bence family, there are those like the Kaladar, which was moved and went through many owners before it was close din 2006 and torn down in 2018 to make room for future highway improvements.

Families that owned the hotel over the years include the Vilneffs, Murphys, Morris’, Browns, Trickey and Andersons.

The book looks at major enterprises such as the Rathburn (later Sawyer-Stoll) Saw mill which was built in the 1940’s, and closed and moved to Tweed in 1967.

While there are no more active mines in the corridor, there were a number in the early 20th Century. One of them was the Bey Mine (later Ore Chimney Mine) , which was located between Northbrook and Harlowe on the Harlowe Road.

Another was the Star of the East, from the late 19th Century. It was a gold mine, located on the north side of Marble Lake.

Looking Back progresses north through Cloyne, passed the new school and the former school (now Hotel Bon Echo) and passed Skootamatta, Mazinaw, McChesney Ashby and Buckshot Lakes all the way to Denbigh.

It is chock full of historical and more current photos. Like the Pioneer Museum itself and all of the materials that the CDHS has published over the years, Looking Back is an engaging look at what life in the communities along the corridor was like for business owners along the corridor back in the day and where the communities are going today.