A View of the Bay: Collingwood and Beyond

A book that is sure to be treasured by residents and visitors alike.

This is the first full-color pictorial on one of Ontario's fastest growing tourism and retirement areas. In A View of the Bay, the acclaimed writer-photographer team responsible for best-selling books on Muskoka turns their attention to the Collingwood region -- its history, its attractive four-season lifestyle and the many reasons for its remarkable population growth in recent years.

This naturally beautiful landscape is bordered on the west by breathtaking Georgian Bay and on the east by the rugged Niagara Escarpment. The area encompasses not just Collingwood and surroundings, but also Creemore and the Purple Hills, Thornbury, Wasaga Beach, Beaver Valley and the Blue Mountains.

A View of the Bay features more than 150 color photographs by one of Canada's finest photographers, while 16 vignettes look at life past and present along southern Georgian Bay, including:

• Last launch at "The Yard"
• Collingwood's shipbuilding legacy
• Summer on the water
• Creemore Springs Brewery
• The granddaddy of fall fairs
• Jozo's Blue Mountain
• Tornaveen
• A log home for the holidays.

John de Visser's photographs have been collected in more than 60 books. His outstanding lake country pictorials include Muskoka, Boathouses, The Thousand Islands, Shelter at the Shore and Georgian Bay. He lives in Cobourg, Ontario.

Judy Ross is the award-winning author of eight books, and her articles have appeared in such magazines as House and Home, Cottage Life, Canadian Gardening, Leisureways, Town and Country and Travel and Leisure. She lives in Collingwood, Ontario.