Deep in the township of Seguin, off Highway 141 near Rosseau, lies the ghost town of Swords, once known as Maple Lake Station. It began as a whistlestop on the Ottawa, Arnprior and Parry Sound Railway, the Booth railway, where a small flag stop and siding were built to serve the lumber trade. When the railway arrived, the Ludgate Lumber Company bought up large tracts of land in 1894 and started cutting. The company built a general store and three workers homes south of the tracks, and in 1904 a schoolhouse went up for the children.
In 1925 the town was renamed Swords, after the Sword family who ran many of the local businesses, to avoid confusion with another Maple Lake Station. The most colourful chapter belongs to the Maple Lake Hotel, owned by John and Annie Sword. Annie was famous for inspecting the boots of arriving lumbermen. If their boots had hobnails that might scuff her floors, she would place a shingle over each hobnail to make them safe. The hotel stood until the late 1960s. Each year a group of American tourists called the American Flyers arrived by train to stay there.
What remains today is evocative. The old general store and former post office still stands beside the railbed, now the J.R. Booth multi-use recreational trail. The 1904 schoolhouse survives as a community centre. A stroll east along the old rail line leads to towering stone abutments where the railway once spanned a ravine. The store is privately owned and being restored, and several buildings are used seasonally, so visitors should admire from the road and not trespass. Swords is a haunting and fascinating stop for anyone drawn to the lost towns of cottage country.