There is a ledge on a rock cliff along the mainland shore east of the mouth of the Musquash River in southeastern Georgian Bay. In the early 1920s when summer populations were much less than now, a tiny shack appeared on that ledge. It was the fulfilment of a dream of several girls from cottages a kilometer or two away.
During happy summer explorations in canoes or rowboats along the waterway behind Bone Island, the girls discovered a shallow bay at the end of a narrow channel into the mainland behind the cliffs of that shore. They landed and explored to the cliff-top to admire the view. That’s when they found the ledge and began fantasizing about having their own little hideaway there.
The idea grew to the point that the girls asked the landowners, the MacCarthy family, for permission to build a tiny hut there. Their wish was granted.
The girls scrounged planks, posts, saw, hammer and nails, and set to work. When it was finished, high on that rock ledge overlooking Bone Island and the Musquash Channel in the distance, they decided to name it The Lost World.
The retreat and its builders — Betty Winlow, Bea Maltby and perhaps one or two others — are now long gone. The shoreline has been divided into cottage lots and swarms with summer boat traffic. But maybe to a few remaining oldtimers who know the story, that cliff is still The Lost World, a remote spot where several young people sought and found the essence of Georgian Bay.
SWEETWATERS 
Oh my, the Lost World! I am one of the “few oldtimers” who will recognize this title. I first heard about it from your aunt Helen and cousin Betsy in the early nineteen fifties. Betsy and I, as young teenagers, explored there, cautiously entering the narrow inlet in our little outboard, through the even narrower entrance between the high rocks and emerging into a wondrous, secluded bay surrounded by tall marsh plants, water lilies, and old half-submerged logs. It was indeed a superb hideaway!
— Marion McLeod
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The comment above is the lead paragraph of Marion’s fascinating account of exploring inland from the Lost World to find and record nesting birds in the area. — see Hidden Birdland above.
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