St. Mary's was the site of a planned

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

within early Victoria County, in the

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

province of

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

. The site was laid aside in the

surveying Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the land, terrestrial Plane (mathematics), two-dimensional or Three-dimensional space#In Euclidean geometry, three-dimensional positions of Point (geom ...

of the county in the 1830s, but was later found to be unusable when

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

was discovered two inches below the ground. Today its site marks one end of a man-made canal between Balsam Lake and

Lake Simcoe Lake Simcoe is a lake in southern Ontario, Canada, the fourth-largest lake wholly within the province, after Lake Nipigon, Lac Seul, and Lake Nipissing. At the time of the first European contact in the 17th century, the lake was called ''Ouentir ...

, part of the Trent-Severn Waterway.

History

When the township of

Bexley Bexley is an area of south-eastern Greater London, England and part of the London Borough of Bexley. It is sometimes known as Bexley Village or Old Bexley to differentiate the area from the wider borough. It is located east-southeast of Ch ...

(in the now defunct Victoria County, now the city of

Kawartha Lakes Kawartha Lakes (Canada 2021 Census, 2021 population: 79,247) is a List of municipalities in Ontario , single-tier municipality in Central Ontario, Canada. Though structured as a single-tier municipality, Kawartha Lakes is the size of a typica ...

) was surveyed in the 1830s, St. Mary's was the first town site reserved in the newly surveyed area. It was to be built on the west shore of West Bay on Balsam Lake, at the end of the Portage Road. The Portage Road was an early colonization road following the route of the Indian portage between Lake Simcoe and Balsam Lake. Limestone was discovered lying about two inches deep in the soil of the town-to-be. Since no ditches or cellars could be dug, the site was quickly abandoned. The property of the reserved town site remained in the hands of the government for some time, until eventually being absorbed into the adjoining Laidlaw estate. The Trent Canal reached Balsam lake in 1873. Continuation of the

waterway A waterway is any Navigability, navigable body of water. Broad distinctions are useful to avoid ambiguity, and disambiguation will be of varying importance depending on the nuance of the equivalent word in other ways. A first distinction is ...

to Lake Simcoe required the building of a canal to the Talbot River, which flows into Lake Simcoe. The former St. Mary's site was chosen as the starting point for the canal, which was dug westward through the rock to a swamp along the Grass River. The swamp was flooded, forming Mitchell Lake.

Aros

For several years, a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

existed, named Aros, adjacent to the St. Mary's site. The post office was established in December 1866 by its first postmaster, Charles McInnis, who had the office named after his birthplace in Scotland. Mail was delivered every two weeks to and from

Kirkfield Kirkfield is a village located in the city of Kawartha Lakes, in the Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. The incorporated place, unincorporated village was named in 1864 after the initial name, ''Novar'', was rejected by the government. A list of ...

. The service was discontinued in 1872, when the

Toronto and Nipissing Railway The Toronto and Nipissing Railway (T&N) was the first public narrow-gauge railway in North America. It chartered in 1868 to build from Toronto to Lake Nipissing in Ontario, Canada, via York, Ontario, and Victoria counties. At Nipissing it would me ...

established a station in Victoria Road and a post office was built there. Aros remained open for another 12 years, before shutting its doors on April 1, 1884.

References

{{authority control Communities in Kawartha Lakes