Home Regions of Ontario Kawarthas & Northumberland Region
Buckhorn, Ontario
Buckhorn, Ontario is a small community along the Trent-Severn Waterway in the Kawartha region of central Ontario.
The area's first settler was an Irish immigrant named John Hall. In 1828 Hall purchased property on both sides of the rapids at Buckhorn Lake. Hall built a dam and mill and the tiny settlement became known as Hall's Rapids.
When the first post office arrived the name was changed to Hall's Bridge and John Hall became the first postmaster. Mr. Hall proudly displayed an assortment of deer antlers on the outside walls of his mills and the tiny settlement was nicknamed Buckhorn. The name stuck and in 1936 Hall's Bridge officially became known as Buckhorn.
Buckhorn was primarily a logging community. With the completion of a section of the Trent-Severn Waterway in 1887 an additional 129 kms (80 miles) of navigational waterway was created with locks at Buckhorn, Burleigh Falls and Fenelon Falls. By the 1970's the locks had been upgraded to facilitate recreational boating along the Trent-Severn Waterway and Buckhorn became a popular tourist destination for boaters and cottagers alike.
