All about Arklan Island
Photo–from Heritage Carleton Place
This vintage photo of the Arklan Island Saw Mill and bridge was taken Sunday May 14th, 1939. The island is ownd by the Town of Carleton Place and was donated to the town for future parkland. The building you see in the picture is now in ruins and the old bridge across was removed many years ago. The island is only accessable by boat today but the ruins and stone channel walls can still be seen today. The island is steeped in history going back to the 1820’s. If you look on the historic 1833 district map, the sawmill is noted and it is called Bailey’s Mills. It should also should be noted that Carleton Place’s first hydro electic plant was located near the Aklan Island Bridge. —Heritage Carleton Place
Taking a few of the township’s place names as they come alphabetically, the location of Arklan, including an island with a small formerly utilized water power site near Carleton Place, was called successively Bailey’s Mills, Bredins Mills and Arklan Mills.
The former two names were those of its owners. The present name is derived from that of the county. George Bailey’s mill was established almost as early as Hugh Boulton’s at Carleton Place. Both mills are named on a district map of 1833. George Bailey Sr., an 1820 settler lived there for forty-five years, dying in 1865 at the age of 90.
Photo from the Carleton Place Herald from the files of The Carleton Place and Beckwith Heritage Museum
The Bredin family then bought properties, within a few years turning their use over to others. The Bailey site served as a sawmill, and a times as a shingle mill and a planing mill, for lessees of the departed Bredins. It was bought by A. C. Burgess in 1887 and after improvements, was leased again as a sawmill. The name Arklan was provided by Mr. Burgess, who a little earlier had begun developing his model stock farm on the adjoining farm land. His brother, G. Arthur Burgess, mayor of Carleton Place in 1903 and 1921, and at times a stormy petrel in municipal affairs, installed a small hydro electric plant at Arklan in 1909 and for about a year supplied a part of the town’s power for electric lighting purposes, leasing his installations in 1912 to the town’s other supplier of electric power.
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