The Pioneers’ Story traces the lives of the Howell and Hickling families as they made their way from Wales and England, immigrating to Canada, to a land of opportunity. Free Land Grants drew them to the “Near North”. Huntsville, in Muskoka District, and Sprucedale, in Parry Sound District, became their contact points with the outside world. Homesteading in bush country led them to lumbering enterprises while at the same time raising families, building churches and schools, carving out a sense of community with others from many different parts of the world. Interaction with native Canadians, the Anishinaabe First Nations and the Mohawk of Prince Edward County, supported and assisted them. The story leads up to the present day, with the back drop of war, the invention of cars, airplanes, building rail lines and roads and at the same time reveals the follies of human nature, not limited to any generation.