Scottish Settlement in Muskoka

Roxborough Church (photograph) © 2009 Michelle Basic Hendry

I finally got back out to see the Roxborough Church (St. Peter’s Anglican) with the camera on Tuesday after accidentally discovering it on the weekend. It seems I am the last person in Muskoka to find this little gem of a Church in the wilderness. I think this one is even smaller than Vankoughnet’s St. Stephen’s. This church is still very active and its neighbours are year round, many of which descend from the earliest settlers.This church is a relative latecomer, built in 1933.

A few miles further down the road, the Fraserburg Church is now a United, but, I am willing to bet it started out as a Presbyterian. It is much larger and sits on the edge of a community that had to fight to get recognition. Both Roxborough and Fraserburg are towns in Scotland, attesting to the large concentration of Scottish settlers, one of which was William Fraser.

Fraserburg Church (photograph) © 2009 Michelle Basic Hendry

Derelict houses are in great number here and have largely succumbed to the heavy snows of many Muskoka winters. I took a few shots of one out on the snowmobile trail that I have been watching collapse over the last 7 years. When I first discovered it, I had no camera and when I finally was able to take a photo the roof was broken. Sometime over the last 18 months, it has utterly collapsed.

Fraserburg Farmhouse (photograph) © 2009 Michelle Basic Hendry

While taking photographs of the last house I found on this particular trip, a curious neighbour stopped and chatted with me. A furniture maker, he know everybody in the area, including a lady who had grown up in this Fraserburg farmhouse (above). According to him, this farm was held in the same family since the 1860’s. Checking the Atlas, I can guess as to the lady’s maiden name, however, I hope to get into direct contact with her this summer to learn more about the history of this oft forgotten and very unique Muskoka town.

Another collapsed house (photograph) © 2009 Michelle Basic Hendry

I am a couple weeks late getting into the season this year, not because my calendar is wrong, but, because the ice has been out for two weeks and Spring came early. I am excited that the season has begun again. There is lots to see before the forests hide their secrets for another year. I have been slowly plugging away on “Crystal’s Room” with several distractions slowing me further. I am getting there…

This last image is of a roadside stream that I admire every time I pass. I thought I’d share.

Creek (photograph) © 2009 Michelle Basic Hendry