The Boyd Heritage Museum has been established to preserve and exhibit, aquire/collect, research, document, and interpret to the public, historical articles and artifacts that explain how Bobcaygeon and the Kawarthas were developed and influenced by Mossom Boyd, his family and their enterprises. The museum is housed in the original Boyd Lumber Office, overlooking the site of the first lock constructed on the historic Trent-Severn Waterway. This heritage building also served as the headquarters of their Trent Valley Navigation Company. The collection will include items dating prior to 1920.

    We are very fortunate in this corner of Ontario to have this unique heritage. In 1825 the site of the Boyd Lumber Office was part of a Crown Patent awarded to George Bolton of Cobourg, Ontario. In 1833 this land was sold to Thomas Need with the stipulation that he must build a sawmill and a gristmill to promote the growth of a village. Thomas Need did build these mills on the canal. Mossom Boyd arrived from Ireland in 1834 and started farming on the north shore of Sturgeon Lake. This proved futile and he became involved with Thomas Need's lumber mill in Bobcaygeon. In 1844 Need returned to England and Mossom Boyd took over both businesses on a long-term tenancy basis. The first sawmill on the island, directly across from the Boyd Building, was built by Mossom Boyd. In 1864 plans were underway to build a bigger and better mill at the mouth of the Little Bob Channel.

    Mossom Boyd's lumbering operation was ranked the third largest in Ontario and used the waters of the connecting lakes and rivers that make up the Trent Valley Waterway to move his pine logs. Boyd's timber rights extended as far away as Kennisis and Redstone Lakes north of Haliburton. These logs were floated to the mill at Bobcaygeon. The squared timber, spars and masts making up huge rafts were them driven down the waterway to Lake Ontario and on to Quebec City to be sold and shipped overseas to England.

    After Mossom died in 1883, his sons Mossom Martin and W.T.C. (Willie) Boyd and a nephew John Mac Donald formed the M.M. Boyd Lumber Company and in 1889 constructed their office building on Canal Street. It is unique in that the walls are stacked lumber, off-cuts from the mill, and the interior still has the original pine shelving, drawers, doors and mouldings. This second Boyd generation expanded the original business to include timber limits in Quebec, the North West Territories and on Vancouver Island where they also built a sawmill. Mossom Martin also worked to develop the Polled Hereford breed of cattle and cross-bred buffalo with cattle to develop a hybrid known as "cattalo".

    The Trent Valley Navigation Company was established in 1893 and the Boyds were licensed to operate a fleet of passenger and freight steamers. Their operational territory was mainly the western section of the Kawartha Lakes. Good roads were almost non-existent and there was no railway until 1904. These steamers provided twice daily passenger and freight service to Lindsay, as well as a Peterborough service.