Postcard Memories is a weekly series of historic postcard views and photos submitted by Marcel Rousseau.
Some were previously published by the Orillia Museum of Art and History and in the book Postcard Memories Orillia.
These two postcards, featuring a young man paddling a canoe among the rushes, with a young boy and his dog, was a favourite scene published several times in the early 1900s.
Cedar Island was originally called Punkin Island, named after a small fish similar to the sunfish we know today.
Surrounded by swamp, the island was purchased in 1880 by Andrew Tait who named the island “Cedar Island” and the bay “Pumpkin Bay.”
Tait owned a sawmill at the foot of Colborne Street and eventually filled in the area around the island with sawdust and slabs. By 1905, a corduroy road was built from Elgin Street to the island.
The canal was cribbed with logs and a small wooden bridge was built to join the mainland to Cedar Island.
It wasn’t until 1912 when the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) came to Orillia that access to the Island improved considerably.
The CPR built a freight shed and sidings at the foot of Elgin Street and covered the area with earth and stone to provide a solid base. For the first time Cedar Island had a proper road and this changed the development of the island considerably.
