Gilmour Tramway
A Lumber Baron’s Desperate Scheme
2nd edition

In the 1890s, lumber baron David Gilmour astounded his competitors with a daring plan: he would float millions of pine logs 445 kilometres down three river systems in succession from Algonquin Park to his sawmill at Trenton on Lake Ontario. The only problem was that, deep in the Canadian Shield bush in a remote corner of Muskoka, the critical part of the route was uphill.

It was near Dorset in the Lake of Bays district that Gilmour's plan required lifting logs over a high range of hills between river systems. His engineering solution, known as "the Gilmour tramway," was one by which he hoped to prove to his critics that he could in fact “float logs uphill.” The tramway was an ingenious system of giant endless chains and flumes, but it was also expensive and, ultimately, ill-fated.

In another book, entitled When Giants Fall: The Gilmour Quest for Algonquin Pine, coauthors Gary Long and Randy Whiteman recount the full and dramatic saga of the Gilmour lumber company's exploits in Canada, in which the tramway was but one chapter.

Now in Gilmour Tramway: A Lumber Baron’s Desperate Scheme, Long examines fully the tramway in detail, from engineering concept, construction, and operation. Engaging historical photos, a number never before published, illustrate the operating system in its brief heydays, while contemporary pictures depict the surprising remnants. Meticulous maps and diagrams prepared by he author further enhance understanding of this late-nineteenth century engineering marvel.

Gary Long, who has explored every inch of the tramway route, combines his extensive field notes with information from archival records and other sources to put the tramway back in working order, at least in words. This second edition features updated maps, improved descriptions, and new information.

AUTHOR

Gary Long grew up in Muskoka and learned of the Tramway from his father who had been a forest ranger stationed at Dorset. After obtaining a degree in geography from the University of Waterloo, Long spent many years researching the history and geography of the Muskoka-Algonquin area, with particular emphasis on waterways.

In addition to numerous articles for newspapers and magazines, he is author of This River the Muskoka and co-author of When Giants Fall: The Gilmour Quest for Algonquin Pine. He wrote the introduction and notes for A Nineteenth-Century Algonquin Adventure, a new edition of surveyor James Dickson’s 1886 book about the Algonquin highlands.

The author and his wife, now living in Sault Ste. Marie, operate the Fox Meadow book design and production firm which has produced a great many Muskoka titles.

DETAILS

Publisher: Fox Meadow Creations, 2008
Category: Lumbering and resource industries
ISBN: 978-0-9734434-3-1
Price: $19.95 CDN/USA paperback
Format: 94 pages 8 x 8 in
Features: 57 photos, maps and diagrams / index