Huntsville and Lake of Bays Transportation Company

The Huntsville and Lake of Bays Transportation Company was a company chartered in 1895 to operate steamboats on the Lake of Bays, and a series of lakes connecting to Huntsville in the northern section of the Muskoka Lakes District of Ontario, Canada.

In the latter half of the 19th century, the land north of Barrie was being opened up for colonization. As roads were in poor condition or non-existent, the only reliable form of transportation was by steamboat. By 1875 a pair of locks and a canal had been built to bypass a series of rapids in the Muskoka River, allowing navigable access between Mary Lake and Huntsville. In 1886 another canal was built to connect from Fairy Lake to Peninsula Lake to the east. However, the short distance between Peninsula Lake and Lake of Bays was too steep to justify building a canal. Within a distance of 1800 metres the elevation change was more than 30 metres. A ridge down the middle added an additional 20 metres.