This photo was posted in Muskoka History and Genealogy.
This photo depicts Bala Falls Road. It is undated but was likely taken in the 1950s.
Bala was settled by Thomas Burgess in 1868. Thomas Burgess opened a sawmill and store to serve the area’s scattered settlers. Thomas Burgess named it after the town of Bala in Wales with which it is officially twinned. Located on the Canadian Shield, it proved unsuitable for farming, and its fortunes declined as logging became less economically viable. Railway connections helped to re-establish the village as a popular location for summer resorts.
In 1914, the town incorporated with Burgess’s son as the first mayor, making it the smallest incorporated town in Canada.
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