The demand for ice was constant, for modem refrigeration was non-existent until comparatively recently.  The ice was taken out of the lake in winter at many different locations with the aid of teams of horses.  Much of it was then stored in the Boothby icehouse for future demand from cottagers and the resort itself.  

The icehouse was later fitted with a large double-door walk-in refrigerator to store meats, eggs, and poultry, etc. for the busy resort.  Ice was delivered to cottagers on the west side of the lake as far as Clovelly and Whitehouse right into the 50s.  Usually, this service was in conjunction with a mail service (Point Ideal was a summer Post Office), and groceries (Don Boothby and brother Dalton operated a delivery and grocery service to the cottages for many years before many of the roads were built).

Until recently, just getting to Point Ideal for a vacation was somewhat of an adventure.  Most people would take the train from Toronto to Huntsville, connect with the Algonquin steamer and ferry to North Portage, whereupon they would take the Portage Flyer to South Portage, and finally ride the Iroquois to Point Ideal.  If connections were not made in Huntsville, a guest might not arrive until after dark giving a serious meaning to the expression "full day excursion".  

Another possibility for guests of Point Ideal would have been to motor to Glenmount and be picked up by Egbert Boothby in a launch, either the Merry Widow or the Dorothy, and ferried over to the resort.  Before this, Mr.  Boothby had his own steam launch for purpose. 

By the late 30s, many had their own automobiles and wished to arrive in the luxury provided by their own means of transport.  A road was built for this purpose around 1939 but was significantly different from the one we know as Muskoka Rd.23 (Port Cunnington Rd.) which was greatly modified in the 60s through widening and straightening.  

One regular guest claimed that she used to have nightmares for years about travelling those few final miles over blind hills and narrow switchback curves to Point Ideal from Cleveland, Ohio.  As Helen (Boothby) Crosson humorously points out, "You could always tell when there were lots of tourists around because you could hear them tooting their horns around every comer!"

From the beginning, guests were treated to food about as fresh and direct as could be.  All the produce was from the Boothby’s' garden at Point Ideal, and milk and eggs were from their farm.

Ross Boothby recounts how the garden was plowed up every year by swimming oxen across from Dreamhaven (Bona Vista) to supply much of the needed muscle.

The Point Ideal barn was finally I taken down in 1959 but fresh Point Ideal eggs were provided by the remaining chickens until the last of the chicken coops disappeared in the 60s.  All kinds of homemade pickles and preserves, homemade breads and rolls glazed with Boothby maple syrup, cookies and pies, and fresh com on the cob in season were provided on every table throughout the decades, and their quality developed eventually a somewhat mythical status.

Elsie Boothby, wife of Egbert Jr. (Bert), prepared most of the food cooked up on a huge Gurney wood range and daughter-in-law Lillian took over for the most part in later years.  Lil's sticky chelsea buns have attained a wide notoriety and there are still many people around who regard them as the very best in existence.

When it came to cuisine and socializing, the high point every week was Sunday dinner at noon when all the guests would dress up in their "Sunday best" for a couple of hours. They would be treated to roast turkey with all the trimmings, and for dessert, a rich, dark chocolate cake with white frosting and homemade ice cream that was made the old fashioned way by hand out in the back using fresh cream.  Many a youngster learned what hard work was all about by helping Don Boothby make the ice cream ("fifty to one hundred good cranks would be a great help, thank you!”)

Guests were not the only lucky ones who sampled the famous Point Ideal Sunday dinner.  Many cottagers from Bona Vista across the lake would come over on a regular basis, and on several occasions, Professor Needler (from Needler's Point south of Bona Vista), who was close to being a centenarian in the early 60s, would row over in an old rowboat with his daughter and several guests (about a 3 mile round trip).  

Some well-known Canadian celebrities must have known and appreciated the culinary delights of the Point Ideal Sunday because at various times throughout its history, Point Ideal fed and lodged such luminaries as Kelso Roberts, Roy McMurtry, CBC host Adrienne Clarkson, and Fenwick Lansdowne, the famous Canadian wildlife painter.

Later, before everyone replaced their Sunday finery with bathing suits, an after dinner nap was usually in order while the waters of Lake of Bays lapped at the rocks and the hum of large inboards coming and going between Bigwin and Britannia would drone on through the early afternoon hours.

Up until 1949 when the steamship Iroquois was laid to rest at Portage, the daylight hours could be determined by the steamer's schedule, As Ross Boothby explains, "the Iroquois would come by around 11:00 a.m. from Dwight on her way to Dorset where she usually berthed at night.

She would generally come back up the lake at 3:00 p.m. on her return voyage.  The steamer would blow two whistles if it was not coming in and someone, most likely Don (Boothby), would have to go out to meet it to get the mail.  If there were passengers to go on board, we would raise the flag on the point where the flagpole was and the Iroquois would come in.  Ross also points out that to this day, there is a large hole in the sand under water out from the dock, the result of countless times the mighty propeller of the steamer shifted into reverse when leaving!

There were always boats of every sort and description at Point Ideal from the simplest canoe right up to Don Boothby's ever-changing collection of launches, "sea fleas", and even an inboard hydroplane in the mid 50s.  

As the resort became larger, people started bringing their own watercraft from the city, but for the most part, guests who wished to cruise, paddle, or row, rented from the resort.

After Bert's launches, the sons became owners of an expanding livery beginning with Don Boothby's locally famous Miss X, a sleek inboard that Don built from a hull by the Hunter Boat Co. of Oriliia and equipped with a 150-h.p. Graymarine engine.  This launch could be rented for tours up the Oxtongue River or to take guests in style to dances at Bigwin.  

On many occasions, Don would have to make several trips to Bigwin and back in one evening to accommodate all who wanted to dance to the music of Louis Armstrong or Duke Ellington.  Even into the 60s, very few (if any) outboards that were as fast as the Miss X when it was at full throttle.

After Bert and Elsie bought the resort from Bert's dad in 1921, canoes and rowboats were gradually added to accommodate guests on a rental basis.  Motorboats came in the 40s and sailboats followed in the 50s when Sailfishes and Sunfishes were all the rage.  Gas was always for sale but had to be transported via wheelbarrow from the garage up by the hotel.  In the mid 60s, as motors became bigger and more plentiful, and demand increased around the lake, the transition to a fully-fledged marina was well underway. 

Not all this interest and activity in watersports was exclusive to the guests at Point Ideal.  Since at least the 40s, a strong relationship between guests and cottagers had been developing, especially across the lake with Bona Vista residents.  The Bona Vista regattas had involved Point Idealers since the early 50s and by 1956, Ross Boothby and some of his friends decided to hold the first Point Ideal Regatta.

The friendly, competitive rivalry between the Point and Bona Vista also found other ways of expressing itself.  In the mid 50s, several young lads from Point Ideal swam across the lake to the Bona Vista dock.  The Bona Vista youth (about a dozen volunteers) decided to respond to the challenge, swam across to Point Ideal during mid-day, and appeared all dripping wet in the dining room to astonished luncheon guests.  The next day, a lone swimmer from Point Ideal swam across to Bona Vista; they were out in force to greet him, but he only said hello, swam under the dock, and returned to Point Ideal.  And that was that!

In the late 70s, the Boothbys decided to change the operation somewhat and introduced the modified American Plan in which, of that famous Point Ideal food, only the evening supper was offered.  By 1982, full housekeeping cottages were in operation and people had to fend for themselves.  Full kitchens had been installed in the lodge and cottages, and the hotel was not being used much.  

The resort, however, proved to be just as popular as always in its newly renovated form.  The marina, begun in the mid 60s, was thriving, and the old style regattas from years before had now been replaced by sailing regattas encouraging novices and experienced sailors from all over.  "I'd rather be sailing on Lake Of Bays" was the expression of the day; you could even buy a sweatshirt with it on the front.

By the mid 80s, the Boothby family decided to put the resort up for sale.  Time was catching up, and the next generation of Boothbys had dispersed far and wide to seek careers of its own.

In 1987, the resort and marina were sold to Dr. Doughty, a dentist and entrepreneur from Huntsville, who re-zoned the point as residential and divided it up into cottage lots.

The marina continued on for another year at which point Ross Boothby sold off much of the inventory, especially the sailboats.  

The central area - main house, hotel, docks and boathouses was left intact and was eventually purchased by Mark McLean (currently on the Board of The Lake of Bays Heritage Foundation) who has done extensive renovations to the hotel and has kept everything much the same as it has always been.  That famous Boothby maple syrup is still being produced, thanks to the efforts of Don and Ross who still work the sugar bush up the road.  Ross still rents many of the Point Ideal boats during the summers, and you can still see watercraft plying the surface of Lake of Bays with Point Ideal Marina decals on the sides.

The water still laps on the rocks by Peanut Island, the ping-pong and the tinkling piano in the pines are gone, but the memories will always remain.

By Michael Woodside