The Ghost Town of Ragged Rapids

By Guy Scott

Our area is filled with ghost towns. When we think of ghost towns, we think of totally abandoned settlements with no inhabitants left at all and likely no buildings left. Most ghost towns in our area usually have a few inhabitants left and some buildings. But Ragged Rapids, a ghost town in Dalton Township north of Uphill (Monck Road, Highway #503, or County Road #45 call it what you wish) is a true ghost town with zero buildings left. It is almost impossible to find! This story will help you trace the story of this very small hamlet dispersed along the Black River in the Queen Elizabeth Wilderness Park.

Ragged Rapids was settled in the late 1800s when farm settlement in the north end of old Victoria County was coming to an end. The frontier had reached the boundary where the Great Lakes Lowlands (good farming land) and the Canadian Shield (aka rock). The rock covered the northern parts of Lutterworth, Digby, Dalton and Morrison Townships. A few brave settlers pushed beyond this boundary of the Shield, but only isolated patches were suitable and even these patches have been abandoned. One of these patches was in the area of the Black River in the southern end of Dalton Township. A trickle of farmers penetrated the Black River Valley, setting up in concessions 5-11, Lots 1-12, south of the Black River between Ragged Rapids and Victoria Falls. Today both are part of Queen Elizabeth Park.

Despite the remoteness of this settlement called Ragged Rapids, there were several “roads” into the area. One trail led west from Uphill into the area via the Victoria Colonization Road. A second trail came from Cooper’s Falls and Sadowa east. It met a trail from Lewisham in Muskoka and carried on to Ragged Rapids where it crossed the Black River. By the way, the Black River starts at Dorset and ran into Lake Couchiching. It was not a major river but carried a lot of logs during spring run-off. Most of the settlers at Ragged Rapids worked in the lumber industry. The industry was running out of timber. And in the early 1900s forest fires ravaged the area. In fact, this area was called “The Burnt Lands”.

Being so isolated had its issues. When the lumber industry crashed, so did the puny farm industry. All around the area of the Canadian Shield, farms were abandoned and settlers moved away. The story of Ragged Rapids was the same. A few settlers hung around, but most moved on. As time moved on, governments began to make parks of the unused lands. The Dalton-Digby Wildlands Preserve was created in this area. Later unused chunks of Lutterworth Township west of Gull Lake were added as well as pieces of Muskoka west of the Black River. The name was changed in 2002 to Queen Elizabeth II Wildlands Park. The park is an “unmanned” park with no staff present. It has several access points in Little Gull Lake near Moore’s Falls in Lutterworth, Head Lake near Norland, Uphill and the old Black River Road from the west. The latter runs to Victoria Falls and beyond. This road is the most popular as the falls is the favourite site in the park. Camping is allowed and it is said on long weekends 300-400 can be found at Victoria Falls! There are several hiking trails, and the only way to get to Ragged Rapids is by these trails—if you can find the settlement at all. But the hamlet did exist a hundred years ago and had a school and a post office: two things needed to make it on the map! A few shattered buildings are all that is left of Ragged Rapids today: except for some nature trails and sites.