Bala, Ontario

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Bala is a community located in Muskoka Lakes Township where Lake Muskoka drains into the Moon River.

It is considered one of the hubs of cottage country located north of Toronto, Ontario. Thus, its year-round population of several hundred is swamped by thousands of seasonal residents and day-trippers.

[edit] History

It was settled by Thomas Burgess starting in 1868. It is named after and now officially twinned with the Welsh town of Bala in the United Kingdom. Located on the Canadian Shield, it proved unsuitable for farming and its fortunes declined as logging became less economically viable.

In 1914, the town incorporated with Burgess’ son as the first mayor. Three years later, a small hydroelectric dam was set up on the river. Muskoka Road (formerly Highway) 169 still traverses the top of the dam. The town was large enough to be served by the Ontario Provincial Police (home to the OPP's first police station) and the Liquor Control Board of Ontario. In 1971, the town was amalgamated with other townships and municipalities to form the Township of Muskoka Lakes.

[edit] Culture and entertainment

Lucy Maud Montgomery, author of the Anne of Green Gables books, visited Bala in 1922. Based on a tenuous connection to a beloved Canadian author, Bala's Museum, a community museum featuring L.M. Montgomery, was opened in the 1990s. The more established, larger and more wide-ranging community museum remains at the Muskoka Lakes Museum in nearby Port Carling, Ontario.

Bala maintains a link with its agrarian past by hosting the Bala Cranberry Festival each fall on the weekend after Canadian Thanksgiving. Other notable sources of food are Don’s Bakery, which has sold delicious bread, pastries and cookies for decades. Don's is famous for scones and people drive through Bala specifically to purchase them. The also put in larger orders to take home to their freezer for a reminder of summer in the winter months when the bakery is closed.

Since 1942, under various management and names, the community and the surrounding area was offered live musical entertainment. In the 1940s and ‘50s, Big Bands like Mart Kenney, Duke Ellington, Woody Herman and Louis Armstrong played at Gerry Dunn’s Dancing Pavilion. Since the 1960s, rock musicians like Kim Mitchell, The Ramones, April Wine, Burton Cummings and Jeff Healey played at The Kee to Bala, as it had become then. In the 1980s, Bala and Port Carling were also featured in a hilarious skit by The Frantics on Boot to the Head. In the skit, a man on his way to Bala bores his companion to distraction in part by endlessly enumerating the communities' features.

In the summer months, students at a nearby ski school perform aquatic stunts on a weekly basis for local residents. The students form pyramids, jump obstacles, ski barefoot, and, on occasion, ski while wearing alpine skis. The ski show is free. People bring lawn chairs and blankets to sit on. It is suitable for all ages and is a tradition in bala and surrounding areas.