Coboconk has come a long way in the last 150 years but its appearance might have been quite different today had an inferno not decimated the community close to 150 years ago.

In the mid 1870s, Coboconk was a focal point of the region’s economy. Once the Toronto and Nipissing Railway was completed — its actual terminus was Coboconk, but an ambitious name might help attract investment — it was the furthest north that the railway reached on the Trent/Gull River watersheds. It was also the northern terminus of the portion of Trent Valley Canal that was complete and on the route of the road north from Fenelon Falls.

During the latter half of the 19th century and into the first half of the 20th, the railway was a key mode of transportation for goods — and people — headed for Coboconk. But it was an 1877 “spark” that ignited one of the greatest changes in the community’s business landscape.

At the time, logging was the largest source of off-farm employment and many of the district’s lumber camps were tributary to Coboconk. The industry was at its peak as many firms competed to export the region’s old growth pines.

Given the state of roads in that era, accommodations........

© Peterborough Examiner