Dorset’s story is steeped in its waterways where the legendary Royal Mail Ship steamboats of the early 1900s plied their trade to places like the Bigwin Inn and some 21 other grand hotels of the era.

 

At its height, the town boasted five hotels, three stores, three churches, two sawmills, and one jail. The area’s culture was based on a tough and self-sufficient syle of people: farmers, loggers, fishers, carpenters, guides and mid-wives.

 

Today its culture is embodied by the Dorset Lookout Tower, the rebirth of the Bigwin Steamship and a connection to Group of Seven painter Franz Johnston, murals of whose work have been commissioned by the Dorset Museum.