Ontario Highway 93

Highway 93 passed through the community of Dalston until 1997, when the section between Highway 11 and Highway 400 was downloaded to Simcoe County

For several years the Holland River and Lake Simcoe provided the only means of transportation between York (now Toronto) and the upper Great Lakes; Holland Landing was the northern terminus of Yonge Street. The military route to Georgian Bay prior to, and during the War of 1812, crossed Lake Simcoe to the head of Kempenfelt Bay, then by the Nine Mile Portage to Willow Creek and the Nottawasaga River. The Penetanguishene Military Post was started before the war, however, lacking a suitable overland transport route, passage from York to Lake Huron continued via the Nottawasaga. The Penetanguishene Road replaced this route when the Naval Establishment was opened in 1818.[7]

The route for the road was surveyed in 1808 by Samuel Wilmot. After the British captured Fort Michilimackinac in the War of 1812, the requirement to supply the captured fort created a need for ships to be built on Lake Huron, which in turn meant that an effective supply route needed to be cut. The decision was made to cut the road in November 1814 by General Gordon Drummond. It was completed by the following spring. Following the war, the surrounding land was purchased in the Lake Simcoe–Lake Huron Purchase from the Chippeway First Nation and the road opened for settlement. It was treated specially by the crown land office in that the strategic value of the route to the naval base led to the road being preferred for military settlers. Large numbers of soldiers who had served in Canada or elsewhere throughout the British Empire were settled along the road and in the vicinity of Penetanguishene, as well as pensioners from Chelsea Hospital. Many of the commuted pensioners were reduced to a state of extreme poverty.[7][8]

In 1824, construction began on a new road connecting Yonge Street at Holland Landing with the Penetanguishene Road. Completed in 1827 to Kempenfelt Bay, it was also called Penetanguishene Road, but was later renamed Yonge Street. This portion of the Penetanguishene Road became a part of Highway 11 in 1920.[7]

Highway 93 was first assumed by the DHO on April 13, 1938, serving as an alternate route for Highway 27.[2] The 28.2-kilometre (17.5 mi) gravel-surfaced highway began at Highway 11 at Crown Hill and ended at Highway 27 in Waverley; Highway 27 continued north along the Penetanguishene Road.[9] It was paved between Craighurst and Waverley in 1956,[10][11] and between Crown Hill and Craighurst in 1960.[12][13]

Meanwhile, Highway 400 was opened as a two lane freeway with an at-grade intersection at Highway 93 between Craighurst and Hillsdale on December 24, 1959.[14] The freeway was twinned to four lanes and an interchange built at Highway 93 in the early 1980s, opening in 1982. The now-renamed Ministry of Transportation and Communications also renumbered several highways in Simcoe County to coincide with this, including redesignating Highway 27 between Waverley and Midland as part of Highway 93.[15] This brought the highway to its peak length of 46.5 kilometres (28.9 mi).[16]

As part of a series of budget cuts initiated by premier Mike Harris under his Common Sense Revolution platform in 1995, numerous highways deemed to no longer be of significance to the provincial network were decommissioned and responsibility for the routes transferred to a lower level of government, a process referred to as downloading. The 15.3-kilometre (9.5 mi) section of Highway 93 parallel to Highway 400 was determined to be redundant and was consequently downloaded to Simcoe County on April 1, 1997. The 7.3-kilometre (4.5 mi) section north of Highway 12 into Penetanguishene primarily served local traffic and was downloaded on the same day.[17] Both downloaded sections are now known as Simcoe County Road 93.[4]

The province dedicated the entire length of Highway 93 as the Sarah Burke Memorial Highway on March 26, 2014. Burke was born in Barrie and grew up in Midland; the freestyle skier died in a training accident in January 2012.[3]