June 2022
Looking out on Lake Kashagawigamog, there were once 17 lodges/resorts along this lake in the Haliburton Highlands area of central Ontario. Today, only the Bonnie View Inn remains, just as it has since opening in 1924.
Situated on the southern side of Lake Kashagawigamog, this 28-room, four-season country inn resort has been family owned and operated. Beginning with a small cottage on a stone foundation, a main inn building was built in 1943 over the original foundation, with one shared bathroom for the main inn guests. Fourteen cabins were also built, with two shared bathrooms for their use.
These cabins are now long-gone, replaced by eight modern cabins that, depending on which one you choose, can accommodate anywhere from two guests to eight guests. Additionally, a new building was added, containing eight suits that accommodate up to four guests. The original main building features five rooms which accommodate two or four guests each.
Currently owned by Andrea Hagarty, who bought the Bonnie View Inn in 2005, after having worked at the resort since 1991. She got her start in the resort industry at the age of 13, working nearby at the former Birch Point Lodge, once one of the many lodges that once lined Lake Kashagawigamog, which closed in 2003, after an 81-year run. Its closure was followed in 2011 by the Wingamog Inn on the north-side of the lake, leaving just the Bonnie View Inn.
Dennis Casey, the final owner of Birch Point Lodge and great-grandson of one of the lodge founders, works as a bookkeeper for Hagerty at Bonnie View.
Unlike many of the other family-run inns and lodges that once populated Haliburton, Muskoka and Parry Sound districts, the Bonnie View Inn has been able to survive by dedicating a large portion of their bookings to weddings, a more predictable and lucrative revenue stream.
As happened in the Catskills area of eastern New York State, the families that used to come every summer now travel elsewhere, have their own cottages or time-shares, or have year-round activities that keep closer to home. Those that do vacation in the area don’t spend the entire summer at the area resorts, choosing shorter stays of from just a few days to a week or two at the most.
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- Main entrance. Photo: Bruce Forsyth.
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- Suites building. Photo: Bruce Forsyth.
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- Private cabins. Photo: Bruce Forsyth.
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- Private cabins. Photo: Bruce Forsyth.
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- Private cabins. Photo: Bruce Forsyth.
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- Volleyball area and the waterfront patio. Photo: Bruce Forsyth.
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- Beach chair area. Photo: Bruce Forsyth.
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- Waterfront patio. Photo: Bruce Forsyth.
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- The Bonnie View Inn as seen from across the lake at the Wigamog Inn. Photo: Bruce Forsyth.
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- The abandoned Wigamog Inn across the lake, facing an uncertain future while recalling a proud past and a lost era. Photo: Bruce Forsyth.
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- Property map.
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Sources: Inn of last resort — Haliburton’s summer hotels are a disappearing breed (muskokaregion.com), Resort | Bonnie View Inn | Minden, CL_Aug3_Dummy.indd (ocna.org).
