Cottages For Sale on Kennisis Lake

Owning a cottage on Kennisis Lake

Kennisis is big, deep and cold. Together with Little Kennisis it forms the second-largest lake in the Haliburton Highlands, at over 16 square kilometres, and the main lake drops to about 95 m at its deepest. It sits at the top of the county, with Haliburton Forest to the north and east, Algonquin Park beyond, and about 24,000 hectares of Crown land in the Frost Centre area to the west. That wild backdrop is a big part of why people buy here.

The shoreline itself is almost entirely private and mostly developed, with the newest cottages on the western side. Development only began in the late 1950s, so many cottages date from the 1960s onward rather than the lodge era seen on lakes farther south. Better roads and snow clearing since the 2000s mean a growing share of owners now live here year round.

The one thing every Kennisis owner learns quickly is the summer drawdown. The lake is a reservoir for the Trent-Severn Waterway, and the dam at the south end lets water out through the summer to keep the canal navigable. Depending on the year, the lake can be four to six feet lower by late summer than in spring, which shapes dock design, boat lifts and swimming spots.

• Deep clear water
• Lake trout
• Haliburton Forest
• Large lake boating

History of Kennisis Lake

The lake is named after Joe Kennisis, a First Nations man whose family lived by hunting and fishing here and whose name early settlers wrote down. The Canadian Land and Emigration Company tried to call it Lake Alexandra, after the Princess of Wales, but the name never stuck. By the 1880s a four-foot dam stood where the Kennisis River leaves the lake, holding water a few weeks longer so logs could be floated to the mills.

Road access came slowly. A road from West Guilford in the 1940s made the area a vacation spot, and in 1955 Hayward and Jones of Peterborough took an option on the shoreline of Big and Little Kennisis. Lots were developed starting in 1957 and 1962, and the land passed to Kennisis Lake Development Ltd. in 1963. In 2007 Norah's Island was donated to the Haliburton Highlands Land Trust, one of several protected parcels on the lake.

The summer drawdown and the Kennisis Dam

Parks Canada runs the Kennisis Dam and adds or pulls logs through the year. The current dam was built in 2015 and 2016, the latest in a line of dams at the site going back to logging days. The Trent-Severn aims to have the lake about 98 per cent full in spring, then draws it down over the navigation season from mid-May to mid-September.

The cottage association reports drops of about five feet in 2012 and six feet in 2007, and has pushed for a range closer to four feet. Even so, the lower limit of that proposed range is often passed by September, or by August in a dry year. If a cottage has a shallow bay in front, ask to see it in late summer.

Lake trout, bass and a changing fishery

Kennisis has been stocked with lake trout since 1925 and stays well oxygenated at all depths year round, and natural reproduction is evident. The cottage association says the trout today tend to be small and thin, feeding on plankton, insects and the invasive spiny water flea. Smallmouth bass and rock bass, introduced in the 1970s and 1980s, nearly wiped out the baitfish. The association runs an annual rock bass derby, and brook trout were stocked by the province as recently as 2022, though catches are rare. The lake is in Fisheries Management Zone 15.

Clear water and septic pressure

Phosphorus averages around 7 micrograms per litre, which is low, and every sample in the association's 2022 report stayed under the 10 microgram guideline. Clarity can dip after heavy rain or when wetlands feed tea-coloured organic carbon into the lake, but that is a minor issue. The same report flagged Little Kennisis and Paddy Bay for higher phosphorus and low oxygen at depth, and pointed to the number of septic systems around the lake as a reason to keep watching.

Launches, fuel and the river route

There are three public launches. The one at the dam, at 6721 Kennisis Lake Road, has a sand ramp and a roller system that lets canoes and small boats pass into the Kennisis River and on toward the Algonquin Highlands water trails. The others are at 6354 Kennisis Lake Road and 1120 Wilkinson Road. Little Kennisis has its own gravel launch at 5336 Kennisis Lake Road. Dockside Fuel offers fuel, a convenience store and ice cream, and Kennisis Lake Marina and Storage is on Wilkinson Road.

Wild country on three sides

Few lakes this developed back onto so much undeveloped land. Haliburton Forest wraps the north and east, Algonquin Park lies beyond, and the Frost Centre Crown land stretches west. The cottage association also owns or protects several pieces of the lake itself, including Two Loon Island, Norah's Island, the Bullfrog Bay lands and the Soap Pond lands. Cross-country ski trails run south from the lake toward Red Pine Lake in winter.