A BRIEF HISTORY OF EIGHT MILE POINT

By John McCulloch – Summer resident since 1934 (written in 2003)

This is a story of Eight Mile Point, written about events and developments since 1931, with some minor history thrown in for good measure. Hopefully, the facts and dates as presented are correct – we beg pardon for any discrepancies.
The name Eight Mile Point is found on a map dated 1881. The “Eight Mile” probably refers to the distance from the narrows at Atherley to the tip of the Point. When the property was sold for development in 1931, the project was given the name “Point Cahiague”. Cahiague was the name of an aboriginal tribe that had an encampment off what is now Highway 12, north of Warminster. Incidentally, an archeological dig has been conducted at this site intermittently over the years. The native name disappeared in the mid-forties, possibly because there were some problems in spelling and or pronunciation.
The property that lies south of the cross-road, running from Carthew Bay up to Lake Simcoe and lot 1, was sold to Mr. George McLean Sr. and Mr. Jack Warner, both of Orillia, in September 1931. The vendor was Mr. Noah Cotton, a farmer who lived in a stone house on the east side of Concession 13 between the Ridge Road and Highway 11. At the time of this writing, the house is occupied by Mr. Marshall, a son of Mrs. Marshall, nee Cotton. Mr. McLean Sr. was a real estate and insurance agent in Orillia as well as Liberal M.P. for the town, 1940-1945. Mr. Warner was known to be an affluent retired lumberman.
Up to 1931, the Cottons drove their cattle down the 13th Concession (hopefully consulting the railway schedule in advance) and left down to the bay, along what has recently been named Lakeshore Boulevard. The herd was driven along the beach, onto the Point property and fenced in by fencing from the bay side to lake side across the narrowest point. Well-fed and watered, the cattle returned to the home farm in the fall. One of the participants in this cattle drive was a young lad by the name of Archie McPhee. It is possible that some of the top flight lawns, flowers and vegetable gardens, found around the Point are beneficiaries of a legacy from the Cotton herd.
The lowing herd and drowsy tinklings are no longer heard in our land. We have compensated for the loss of these rude bucolic sounds with man-made sounds more in harmony with our culture – the gentle chuckling of the chain-saw, the fine-tuned hum of the lawn-mower, the thrum of the leaf-blower in autumn, and more recently, the rolling chorus from jet-skis. As Napoleon was heard to say, while returning from a winter holiday in Russia; “Tout passe, tout casse, tout lasse.”
In the fall of 1931, the McLean Warner Group enlisted the services of local farmers to put in the road. Two of these farmers were the Hazlett brothers, Creswell and Norman, whose family owned and worked the land now developed as Maple Wood Estates. The initial road went up the bay side from Lot 128 to Lot 95. This road went through two swamps and was well built. A cross road was put across the centre property from Lot 95 to Lot 37 and this road enabled Mr. Delagran, in 1932, to truck in building materials to construct his cottage, on Lot 34. Mr. William Delagran still owns this cottage.
By 1933 the road went up the field and through the woods, still on the bay side. This road stopped about Lot 55 and continued as a wagon track across the field on the lake side and on through the woods. The road was made more evident by the occasional passage of a car or a truck. About Lot 32, the road, such as it was, made a sharp right turn to the lake where it continued, after a fashion, across the stone beach. The road on the lake side was completed by 1938, when Mr. and Mrs. McLean built a cottage on Lot 19. Apart from minor straightening, ditching, some widening, and cutting down too many trees along the road allowance, the road was as it is today.
The road through the four swampy areas was strictly a one-way passage. Many an unwary (or foolish) driver slid off the road into the swamp, trying to pass an on-coming car.
Speaking of roads, how did people get from Toronto to the Point? No matter how fast your car could go, it was still a two hour trip, provided you wished to arrive in one piece. The road, Yonge St. or Highway 11, was a two-lane highway that ran from downtown Toronto to North Bay with a speed limit of 50 mph (80 kph) – 30 mph (50 kph) through towns. And if you think the Don Valley Parkway is bad at 8 a.m. on a weekday, try Main St. in downtown Barrie at 12 noon, July 12 1936!
Immediately beyond Barrie’s eastern limit, Highway 11 made a long curve north in the direction of Crown Hill. Just before Crown Hill the highway turned east into what was then, as now, is known as Gasoline Alley. The highway continued its north-east direction toward Orillia much as today but with a lot more curves until arriving at the Hawkestone sideroad, where it made a sharp left turn up to East Oro. A right turn took Highway 11 across country to end at Oak ridges. A left turn took the highway through Forest Home and on to Orillia past ‘The Buildings’, previously known as the “Hospital for the Feebleminded” and earlier still; “Asylum for Idiots”. There was no bridge across the across the highway beyond Forest Home – because there was no highway – just a hill.
Old Highway 11 is traversed for a short bit by those coming from Orillia via the Oro-Orillia Town Line (Oro-Medonte Line 14). A very pretty drive it is, up the hill to East Oro and beyond. Those interested in antiquities can find remains of old Highway 11 at various places – south-east corner in East Oro, behind the Schoolhouse Gift Shop and other places.
We have digressed. In the early days most people drove on Highway 11 to the 13th Concession, down a very dusty road (unless it was raining) and down the hill toward the lake and across the tracks to the cross-road. After learning the local geography, many Torontonians heading for the Point cut down to the Ridge Road at Hawkestone. Some who were tired of the highway rat-race could pick up the Ridge Road at the east end of Barrie and go all the way to Concession 13, through Shanty Bay, Oro Station and Hawkestone.
The first two cottages built in 1932 were Wainwright and Delagran. In 1933 Mr. C. Awry, a lawyer from Windsor, built on Lot 64. In 1934 Mr. C.V. Bennett built on Lots 59, 60 and 61. Lot 60 and the still extant cottage, sold to John McCulloch Sr. for a sum less than today’s annual real estate taxes.
McLean and Warner, as they had promised, installed a nine-hole golf course in the center property. This was done in style, with board-walks through the swamps to enable the golfers to get from one hole to the next tee. The course was maintained until the war, and then abandoned. The greens can be identified today by the quality of the grass compared with the fairways. It is a fine-blade grass.
Of more use to young people was a tennis court, located just up the hill from the present courts, in the centre property. This court was probably sited better than our two courts, running north and south – and out of the wind.
It is easily visible as the level, (now treed) area of land part way up the hill just north of the Cottagers’ Lot.
By 1940 there were approximately 22-23 cottages on the Point, with the majority on the bay. From 1946 there was a slow but steady build-up on the Point. Sometime about 1955 Mr. McLean had the distal portion of the Point surveyed and located the roadway in the middle of the property. This produced 23 Lots.