Cottages For Sale on Drag Lake

Owning a cottage on Drag Lake

Drag Lake has been a working reservoir for more than a century, and that history shapes everything from the dock to the drive. Since 1906 it has stored water for the Trent-Severn Waterway, and Parks Canada staff still set the level with wooden stop logs at the dams on Outlet Bay. Together with Spruce Lake and Outlet Bay, it forms the headwaters of the Burnt River system, and its outflow, the Drag River, runs west into Head Lake and the Kashagawigamog chain.

It is a deep lake, about 55 m at its deepest, which keeps a cold-water layer for lake trout under the summer swimming water. Cottaging started early, around 1880 in Outlet Bay, and over the years the lake hosted seven children's camps and several lodges. Some lots still have no road and are reached only by boat, a reminder that Drag was cottage country well before the roads caught up.

For a buyer, the appeal is a big, deep lake east of Haliburton village with two public sand beaches. The trade-off is a predictable summer drop of a metre or more, which matters a lot in the shallower bays. Ask any long-time owner about the old sandspit at Sand Point, which people once walked across before the dam raised the water, and you get a sense of how much the level shapes this lake.

• Deep water
• Lake trout and bass
• Close to Haliburton village

History of Drag Lake

Early exploration maps recorded Indigenous names along the lines of Kasquashibook and Kashquashibioh, translated as where the lakes meet. In the early 1800s it was Porcupine Lake, and maps used Drag Lake by the late 1850s. The name likely comes from dragging canoes and boats over a shallow stretch, or from hauling logs, though the name appears about a decade before logging began. Before the dam raised the water, people could walk a sandspit across the lake from Sand Point, and some did as late as the 1930s.

The Canadian Land and Emigration Company bought the whole lake in 1865. Mossom Boyd logged it first in 1869 and 1870, and the last log drive ran in 1926. The first wooden dam stood by 1868, the lake became a legal reservoir in 1906, and the present concrete dam was built between 1920 and 1925, with a generating station added in 1928. Drag Lake Lodge operated from 1925 to 1977, and Haliburton Lodge opened in 1927. Cottagers first organized in 1936 to complain about low water stranding water-access lots, and today's Drag and Spruce Lake Property Owners' Association took its current name in 2006.

Living with a reservoir lake

The lake fills each spring from snowmelt and rain, is drawn down through summer to keep the Trent-Severn canal navigable, and is set to a winter level in fall that leaves room to catch the spring flood. The dams can drop the lake by up to 1.74 m, though usually only about half of that is used. On average it starts full in May and sits about 1.1 m lower by October. The extremes on record run from 2.5 ft above full in May 1914 to 7 ft below full in March 1945.

A privately owned hydro station at the dam uses the released water when Parks Canada's flow needs allow. The lake holds roughly 20 billion litres of usable storage, which is why its level matters to people far downstream.

Big lake trout and a long fishing history

Lake trout live in the deep, cold water, with smallmouth bass, rock bass, pumpkinseed and white sucker along the shore. The municipality also lists cisco and brown trout. Drag was stocked from 1922 to 1984 and closed to winter fishing from 1987 to 2001 to let the trout recover. It once produced giants: lake trout of 38 lb 8 oz in 1978 and 38 lb 4 oz in 1980 are part of local lore.

Beaches and launches at Sand Point and Sandy Cove

Drag has two public beaches, Sand Point at 1043 Edmonton Trail and Sandy Cove at 1201 Dardanelles Road. The Sandy Cove site also has a cement and sand boat launch, excellent parking and a privy. A second cement launch at 2111 Fred Jones Road has good parking and a reputation as one of the better launch sites in the area. Expect these spots to be busy on summer weekends.

Spruce Lake, Outlet Bay and the water-access lots

Spruce Lake and Outlet Bay are tied to Drag's water levels and share its property owners' association. Outlet Bay was where cottaging began around 1880, and the first hydro hookups on the lake came in 1946 near Drag Lake Lodge and the bay. Some cottages on Drag are still water access only, and low water has affected those owners for nearly a century. If you are looking at a boat-in lot, the landing and parking on the mainland matter as much as the cottage.