Port Carling

Hub of the Lakes

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Posted on August 16, 2023 by wooway

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Port Carling is an unincorporated community in the Township of Muskoka Lakes in the Canadian province of Ontario. The area known today as Port Carling was originally inhabited by Ojibway people who called their village Obogawanung. They lived and farmed the land by Indian River and Silver Lake. The tribe was relocated to Parry Sound Island in Georgian Bay when settlers began arriving. Alexander and Michael Bailey had claim to all the land in the Port Carling area. Alexander Bailey's son George Bailey was Captain of the first boat of the Muskoka Navigation Company and later ran the Sagamo. Benjamin Hardcastle Johnson who settled in the area in 1866 and opened the first post office and became its postmaster is the one who named the village Port Carling after his friend John Carling, the Minister of Public Works and Agriculture.