Local author Dennis Rizzo tells the fascinating and diverse history of Orillia, Ontario. First populated by the Huron, Iroquois and Chippewa Nations, Orillia is now a well-loved, year-round recreation destination. Its history is deeply tied to its water. Situated in the narrows where Lake Simcoe flows into Lake Couchiching, Orillia was a gathering place for centuries before Europeans used it to bring furs to market. Sir John Simcoe, first governor of Upper Canada, fostered permanent settlement of the area. A gateway to the Muskoka region, it has been home to lumber, manufacturing, and artistic endeavours. Today, summer cottagers and winter athletes alike enjoy the Sunshine City and its more than twenty annual festivals. Local author Dennis Rizzo tells the fascinating and diverse history of Orillia, Ontario.

2017 Orillia Museum of Art & History Award, Historical Publications and/or Research — Winner The history of Orillia, told through the stories of its people, bringing to life the community’s heritage and significance. The Orillia Spirit: Muddling through Canada’s first, and hilarious, experiment with daylight savings time, Mayor “Daylight Bill” Frost had it. Creating his own money and dreaming a drainage ditch would become a tourist attraction, Mayor Ben Johnson had it. Taking his town’s electric company by force, Mayor J.B. Tudhope had it. Inventing early forms of medicare and the first RVs, dreaming of universities and folk festivals, battling for decades over liquor and rinks, ordinary people had it. Something about the place immortalized in Stephen Leacock’s classic Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town has always inspired its people to reach for their dreams. Turn-of-the-twentieth-century leaders coined the phrase “the Orillia Spirit” to describe their drive to make the town a social, moral, and economic leader of Canada. The results have been comic, tragic, and heroic, as shown in this colourful history of Orillia.

A novel about the causes of happiness and the secrets of enlightenment and Zen, set in the Zen Forest.

After almost 40 years of marriage and boating together, Captain George and Pat Hospodar completed a yearlong Great Loop odyssey aboard their boat, “Reflection”. This trip resulted in their first book, Reflection on America’s Great Loop, a personal, light-hearted, real-life account of the couple’s travels while circumnavigating the waters of the United States and Canada. Their newest book, The Great Loop Experience – from Concept to Completion, is a comprehensive guide written to help others plan, prepare, and successfully execute their own Great Loop adventures. It also addresses the questions that these authors/lecturers are most frequently asked by future “Loopers”. Some of the many topics covered include: selecting and equipping your boat, choosing your route, financial considerations and trip costs, managing your onboard life, vessel security, Customs and border crossings, boating protocol, locking procedures, safely negotiating the waterways, open-water crossings, and great stops along the way. This how-to guide not only informs and educates you, but also hopes to inspire those who want to one day make this wonderful journey! The Great Loop Experience has the information you need so that you can confidently and knowledge- ably cast off your lines for your own exhilarating Great Loop adventure!

Set in the fictional landscape of Mariposa on the shores of Lake Wissanotti in Missinaba County, Leacock’s Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town is an affectionate satire of small town life. This series of humourous connected sketches about graft, high finance, religion, love and romance is, on one level, an intimate, comic portrait of town life and local politics. On another level, the narrative is a powerful commentary on the workings of community values and on Canada’s place within the British Empire. The Broadview edition includes a critical introduction, thorough annotation, a list of textual variants, and a range of contextual materials, including Leacock’s stage adaptation of Sunshine Sketches.

Experience the magic of Leacock’s Mariposa via a walking tour of Orillia. In 1912 Stephen Leacock began the serialized publication of Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town. Within the pages of the stories he immortalized Orillia, Ontario, and its citizens. One hundred years later Orillia, "The Sunshine City," still answers to the name Mariposa. The impact and legacy of Leacock’s work continues to inspire and define the Orillia of today. Visitors come to Orillia from far and wide, not only to see Leacock’s summer home, now a National Historic Site, but also to seek a Leacockian experience, for it is here that Leacock called "home", including himself among the characters of Sunshine Sketches. This walking tour guide of Stephen Leacock’s Mariposa invites you to explore the history, people, and places through the eyes of Leacock and experience the magic that is Mariposa.