[2][3][4] The line is best known as having been built by a large group of Icelandic immigrants, who found the Kinmount winters too rough, and so they all moved to Gimli, Manitoba.

The railway initially met significant opposition from the town of Peterborough while Lindsay and the unincorporated village of Fenelon Falls, supported the project enthusiastically.

With funds allocated the railway construction in Lindsay on August 5, 1874, by the decree of the Honourable Christopher Finlay Fraser, then Ontario Commissioner of Public Works.

[5] Construction began with the segment between Lindsay and Kinmount, where derooting large pine stumps posed significant difficulty to the labourers.

The railway was largely constructed by an immigrant community of 300 Icelandic men, women, and children who settled Kinmount in 1874.

The 56 miles of rail from Lindsay to Haliburton village finally opened to traffic on November 26, 1878.