Port Carling

Port Carling is an unincorporated community in the Township of Muskoka Lakes in the Canadian province of Ontario.

Besides the town, which maintains much of its older architecture, there are several tourist and cultural sites: Port Carling is located on the Indian River and owes its importance to its key position on the water routes of the area.

John Carling, the Ontario Minister of Public Works, was a booster of the locks between the lakes which were completed in 1871.

This led to an economic boom fuelled by tourism and logging, resulting in the building of four resorts, two sawmills and three Protestant churches of the 1870s.

The Port Carling Boat Works Ltd. traces its origins to an enterprise started in 1868 by William J. Johnston.