Highland Inn

The Highland Inn (1908–1957) was a year-round resort hotel built and operated by the Grand Trunk Railway (GTR), in Ontario’s Algonquin Provincial Park.

Wishing to return the park lands to a more natural state, the Inn was purchased by the Ontario Government in 1956 and removed.

Today all that remains are traces of the concrete stairs and platform that met the CNR line, which was lifted after departure of the last train in 1959.

By 1908, the GTR had become well established in Muskoka, southwest of Algonquin Park, as a resort area which the railway promoted as the "Highlands of Ontario."

In 1913, the Highland Inn was enlarged and a west wing was built, along with a three-story central tower and an addition to the east side, extending from the rear of the original structure.

In the same year, Nominigan Camp, consisting of a main lodge with six cabins of log construction, was established on Smoke Lake.

Dr. Sharman was a repeat client at the lodge on Burnt Island Lake, having held his annual religious seminars there since 1923.

Through train service between Parry Sound and Ottawa was curtailed in 1933 when a flash flood weakened the footings of a steel trestle on the railway, about 3 km east of the Inn.

Construction of a highway through Algonquin Park was started, partly as a relief project for unemployed single men during the Depression.

Advertisements for the Highland Inn began to appear in the Canadian Automobile Association’s Ontario Motor League Road Book.

A small interpretive centre consisting of a short section of OA&PS rails and several plaques has been built along the former railway platform.