Rush with us down to the harbour in the middle of a dark and tragic night in 1905. Terrible circumstance works against personal heroism and the town’s collective determination to cause one of the saddest stories of Collingwood’s waterfront history. When all is said and done and the City of Collingwood has burned down to the water, what is left but to learn from what happened and prepare for the next time danger rears its terrible head?

Following the story we focus on Museum Month (this May) with a number of announcements about upcoming exhibits and our next episode of the podcast, which will feature a special story of what our museum might have been if history had been just a little different. If you haven’t been in the museum in a while now would be a great time to visit!

As always we would love to hear from you. Send us an email to [email protected] or leave us a voice message on our podcast homepage http://anchor.fm/cwoodstories

Episode Picture:

The Steamer, City of Collingwood [Collingwood Museum Collection X974.306.1]

Research:

Barbara Arp, ed., Reflections An Historical Anthology of Collingwood (Collingwood: The Corporation of the Town of Collingwood, 1983), 104.

Skelding, Douglas. Ordeal By Fire: A History of the Collingwood Fire Department 1852-2005(Barrie: Northern Printworx Inc., 2005), 43-44.

“Disastrous Fire” Enterprise Bulletin, June 22, 1905.