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FROM BELMONT TO STIRLING FALLS AND ON TO SUNDRIDGE by Dr. Howard Anderson - 1880 In an endeavour to give my future readers some idea of the methods and difficulties of transportation around Sundridge in 1880, I will recount our trip from Belmont to Sundridge. We went by train to Gravenhurst - the northern terminus of the Northern Railway, by steamer from Gravenhurst to Bracebridge, by stage coach from Bracebridge to Port Sydney on the lower end of Mary Lake and then we took the steamer from Port Sydney up Mary Lake, through the locks into Fairy Lake and to Huntsville. Then we took the stage coach to Burks Falls, which was the northern terminus of the stage line at that time. Transportation by oxen team, had been arranged to take us from Burks Falls to Sterling Falls, a distance of five or six miles. But, something went wrong and no transportation arrived, so we had to walk it. We had considerable luggage which had to be carried by hand. The roads in those days were mostly strips cut through the bush, from which stumps had been cleared, and were wide enough for a wagon. The road builders tried to follow the highest ground to avoid mud holes. But after a rain, or in the early spring or fall, the road frequently became almost impassable as the sun and wind could not get through to dry them and there were no ditches for drainage. When the mud holes became too deep to cross, they cut another road around them. I would be six on the 27th of the following month, August, and as father, mother, and the other grown-ups had