Qualla: Bigwin Island

Bigwin Island: Introduction

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit P199, CC BY-SA 3.0. During the Second World War, the constitution of the Netherlands was stored inside a rotunda on a forested island in central Ontario. The Dutch royal family, exiled from their homeland, summered here from 1941 to 1945 while the Nazis occupied the Low Countries. Young Princess Beatrix -- who would one day become queen -- played among the same buildings where Toronto socialites danced to big-band orchestras on warm Muskoka evenings. The island was Bigwin, the largest on Lake of Bays, and its story spans centuries of history layered one upon another: Indigenous burial grounds beneath resort fairways, a 350-room inn built by horses hauling materials across winter ice, and a 3,000-foot airstrip once used by wealthy cottagers flying in from the south.

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Image: P199 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Bigwin Island: The Name on the Graves

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Awbrennan, CC BY-SA 4.0. Long before any resort existed, Bigwin Island held sacred ground. Multiple Indigenous burial sites dot the island and the shallows immediately offshore -- some submerged by flooding caused by industrial damming of the lake. The island takes its name from Chief John Bigwin, and wh...

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Image: Awbrennan | CC BY-SA 4.0

Bigwin Island: An Inn Built on Ice

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Paste Let’s have a chat., CC BY-SA 3.0. Charles Orlando Shaw, a Huntsville businessman, founded the Bigwin Inn Company Ltd. in 1915 and hired architect John Wilson of Collingwood to design an exclusive summer resort. Wilson's vision was eclectic and bold: classical columns met Mediterranean arches, Tudor half-timbering...

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Image: Paste Let’s have a chat. | CC BY-SA 3.0

Bigwin Island: Music, Monarchs, and the Dance Pavilion

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit User:NordNordWest, CC BY-SA 3.0. The 1930s were paradoxically Bigwin Inn's golden age. While the Depression crushed resorts elsewhere, the dance pavilion drew renowned musicians who kept the island alive with jazz and swing through the summer nights. The marine dining room and the Tea House were added, along wit...

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Image: User:NordNordWest | CC BY-SA 3.0

Bigwin Island: Closing Time

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Persimmon1David A. Smith, CC BY 3.0. C. O. Shaw died of a heart attack in 1942, and with him went the animating force behind the resort. Ownership changed hands repeatedly. Frank Leslie purchased the property in 1949 and operated it on a non-profit basis, successfully booking entertainers who kept Bigwin popular, bu...

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Image: Persimmon1David A. Smith | CC BY 3.0

Bigwin Island: A Second Life on the Fairway

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Persimmon1David A. Smith, CC BY 3.0. Real estate developer Alan Peters purchased the island in 1986 with partner Jack Wadsworth and set about building something new from the old bones. Golf course architect Doug Carrick designed what became the Bigwin Island Golf Club, a par-72 championship course measuring 7,166 ya...

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Image: Persimmon1David A. Smith | CC BY 3.0