A beloved and popular destination for many generations of cottagers and tourists, Muskoka is known as a place of beautiful lakes and endless opportunities for carefree enjoyment. Da Silva and Hind explore the secret mysteries and tales of this region:

• Vikings? In Muskoka? Legend tells of blood-soaked booty buried along the shores of Lake of Bays by those fearsome raiders of the sea, whose travels took them far into the wilderness of the New World
• In 1922, beloved Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery vacationed in Muskoka and found the inspiration for one of her best-crafted novels, The Blue Castle
• The Bala Bay Inn, formerly the Swastika Hotel, had to change its name at the outbreak of World War II and may have been the site of a secret last-ditch effort to stave off another world war a generation earlier
• Dangerous Dan, a two-fisted brawler, fought his way into legend though countless lumber camps and drunken taverns
• During World War II, Muskoka Airport was a training ground for hundreds of pilots and was dubbed “Little Norway” when it became home to the exiled Royal Norwegian Air Force
• The haunting ruins of the ghost town of Lewisham whisper of a time when hardy families struggled to tame the remote, rugged forests
• Johnston’s Cranberry Marsh is the oldest cranberry farm in Ontario, home to the only cranberry winery and the centrepiece of the Bala Cranberry Festival
• The Waome, sister ship to the famed RMS Segwun, is best known for being Muskoka’s worst maritime disaster; during a fierce late-season storm, it rolled over and sank in mere seconds