Trips are certainly more limited than in the past but can still lead to some interesting discoveries. Who knew that 40 kms from our cottage in Muskoka there had been a German Prisoner of War Camp.
Camp 20 was located in Gravenhurst, ON on the shore of Lake Muskoka. The area had been the site of the Minnewaska Hotel from 1897 to 1908, then a tuberculosis sanitorium until 1935 and would eventually become a vacation camp again, but between 1940 and 1946 it housed almost 500 German POWs brought over from England.
As the former camp site was on prime real estate near the shores of Lake Muskoka, most of it is now occupied by houses. However, there is a small park area with an information board about the history, and some trails along the shore. Along these trails you can still find concrete structures left from the camp, including a fish tank built by the POWs, water pipes and other remnants of this unexpected history.
The area looks across at the town of Gravenhurst and the docks for the steamships Segwun and Wenonah II. The RMS Segwun is the oldest operational steamship in North America, and would have already been in operation when the Minnewaska Hotel opened in 1897. Although we did not see the Segwun while we were exploring the grounds we saw her sister ship the Wenonah II pass right by us as we looked across the lake.
Wandering with Wendy 