Tobermory

Naval surveyor Henry Bayfield charted the harbour in the early 19th century and named it Collins Harbour; it was later renamed after Tobermory on the Isle of Mull in Scotland, whose harbour it resembled. Officials who visited in the 1850s and 1870s judged the rocky, burnt-over land at the tip of the peninsula unfit for farming, but in the 1870s and 1880s the government sold it to settlers as farmland anyway. Some cleared fields; many gave up and left.

Timber was the real draw. Hemlock bark was shipped to tanneries in southern Ontario, the first sawmill opened in Tobermory in 1881, and within twenty years most of the valuable timber was gone; fires followed, and by the 1920s the region was nearly bare of forest. Settlers turned to fishing, setting nets in Big Tub and Little Tub in the late 1800s, until overfishing and the arrival of the sea lamprey brought decline in the 1920s. The Big Tub Lighthouse was built in 1885 to guide ships into a harbour that sheltered vessels from Georgian Bay's storms, and the wrecks of those that failed still lie offshore.

The peninsula's population fell steadily until the 1970s, when cottagers began buying land. The Chi-Cheemaun ferry began sailing in 1974, and in 1987 Bruce Peninsula National Park and Fathom Five National Marine Park were created, with Flowerpot Island moving from Georgian Bay Islands National Park into Fathom Five. Tobermory became part of the municipality of Northern Bruce Peninsula in 1999, and tourism grew by more than 200 per cent between 2003 and 2008.

Tobermory calls itself the freshwater scuba diving capital of the world, and its identity rests on the water. Divers come for the wrecks of Fathom Five, many in cold, clear water that preserves timber hulls; others see them from glass-bottom boats. The wreck of the schooner Sweepstakes in Big Tub Harbour, intact and visible from above the water, is among the village's best-known sights.

The village is also the end of the Bruce Trail, Canada's oldest and longest marked footpath, and hikers who complete the route from Niagara finish at the cairn on Little Tub Harbour. The landscape of cliffs, cedars and turquoise coves is the cultural backdrop: the area has around 43 species of wild orchids, celebrated in a June festival, and the national park's dark skies draw stargazers. The ferry's Ojibwe name, Chi-Cheemaun, "big canoe", recalls the Anishinaabe presence on the peninsula, where the Neyaashiinigmiing community runs its own radio station.

Life has a strong seasonal shape. Summer is crowded, informal and outdoors, with families from Toronto, cottagers and international visitors filling the harbour; the village has inspired a poem by James Reaney and a science fiction novel set in a future "Tober Cove". In winter the year-round residents have the place largely to themselves, and snowmobiling takes over.

Fewer than 1,000 people live in Tobermory year-round, yet hundreds of thousands visit its two national parks each year, and many more pass through on the ferry to Manitoulin Island. The village is part of the municipality of Northern Bruce Peninsula, a holiday area of cottages, water sports and snowmobile trails, and Owen Sound, 100 km south, is the nearest city for larger shops and services.

The economy is almost entirely tourism and its supporting trades: boat tours, dive operators, the ferry, restaurants, lodgings and shops, the parks, and the building and care of cottages. Many businesses open in May and close after the Thanksgiving long weekend in October, staying shut for the other seven months, so many jobs are seasonal. Lumber and commercial fishing, which settled the area, no longer play a major part.

Summer days revolve around the harbour: early boats to Flowerpot Island, divers suiting up on the docks, queues for the ferry and for fish and chips. Highway 6 carries heavy traffic up the peninsula on summer weekends. In the off-season the village is very quiet, with a small community, a local newspaper, the Tobermory Press, and long winter months.

Tobermory's food is simple and seasonal, built for hungry hikers, divers and day trippers. The local classic is fish and chips, and harbourside restaurants serve it made with fish from the lake, often eaten on a patio or on the dock while the boats come and go. A restaurant with its own microbrewery, ice-cream counters and cafés make up most of the rest of the harbour's offer.

Fishing shaped the village from the late 1800s, when nets were set in Big Tub and Little Tub; the commercial fishery declined in the 1920s, but Great Lakes fish such as whitefish remain the obvious thing to order. Elsewhere on the menu are the province's simple classics — burgers, butter tarts filled with butter, sugar and eggs, and in spring maple syrup from sugar bushes in Ontario.

Much eating here is self-catered. Campers in the national park cook on their sites, cottagers stock up in town, and visitors heading out to Flowerpot Island or the Grotto pack a picnic, since there is little to buy once on the trail. Most restaurants close from mid-October to May along with the rest of the village.