The Otonabee was one of the last and, arguably, most luxurious of Lake Simcoe’s steamers.
For her inaugural cruise, someone had the unusual idea of sending her up the Holland River to Bradford, even though no steamer had made the trip in several decades — and for good reason. The Holland River is shallow, and steamers of any size inevitably found themselves mired in the mud of the river bottom. Nevertheless, the cruise went ahead as planned.
The anticipated arrival of the vessel caused a wave of excitement. Throngs of eager spectators, some from as far away as Newmarket and Holland Landing, lined the Bradford shores of the Holland River that day, anxiously awaiting the arrival of the vessel. For many, it would have been the first time they had seen a steamboat up close.
Things began well enough, with the Otonabee proving to be a smooth-sailing vessel as she majestically cut through the water of Lake Simcoe. But things rapidly turned into a farce as she began her voyage up the river. The vessel was simply too deep. Water churned and turned brown with mud, while pike and muskellunge were catapulted through the air in all directions by the struggling wheels. The Otonabee plowed forward, her hull dragging against the river bottom.
Almost miraculously, the steamship made it to Bradford.
But things hardly improved. The town’s rotting wharf made disembarking difficult, and silt in the river made turning the vessel around again a challenge. Passengers had to walk into town along railway tracks and, once there, found precious little to see. Bradford, after all, was a farming community, not a tourist destination.
By all standards of measurement, the voyage had been a humiliating failure. And yet, both the passengers and onlookers enjoyed the spectacle immensely. Everyone agreed it was great fun.
The Otonabee returned several more times before she burned to the water line and sank at Big Bay Point in 1916. None of the subsequent visits, however, were as memorable as the inaugural one.
