1900 to 2000

Construction of the Swift Rapids dam and power station was started in 1915 and it went into operation in 1917. It was built by the Orillia Water Light and Power Commission to replace their original power station 2.5 km upstream at Hydro Glen. The original structure contained the foundation for a lock, which was never completed. From 1919, until the present lock was constructed in 1965, boat traffic was ferried over the dam via marine railroad.

The first superintendent at "The Swift" was George Page. He moved to The Swift with his wife and five children from Hydro Glen where he had worked on the construction of that facility in 1899 and had been the chief operator there. George retired in 1947, but remained at The Swift until 1950. Two of his daughters and one of his granddaughters married power station operators and they and their families continued to live at The Swift into the 1980's.

Supplies and mail came to Hydro Glen by boat from Sparrow Lake or overland from Orillia in the Winter until the railroad opened in 1906. After 1906 supplies and mail came by rail. In 1912 Hydro Glen was designated a Post Office with George Page as the first Post Master. From the mid 1920's to the mid 1960's Kelly’s general store and post office operated at Hydro Glen with Rose Kelly as Post Mistress. In the mid 1960's train service to Hydro Glen stopped and mail delivery began directly to The Swift by bush plane. From then until delivery was discontinued in 1985 the Post Office was run by a daughter and then a Granddaughter of George Page

Initially the power station was continuously manned by a minimum of two men, requiring considerable personnel and resulting in a community of eight single family dwellings including two families of marine railroad operators. In addition there was a boarding house for unmarried operators, a barn, a covered skating rink, several boat houses and storage buildings and a school. George was instrumental in establishing elementary schools at Hydro Glen and The Swift to serve the children of the operating personnel. The gradual introduction of automation eventually converted the power station to remote control reducing onsite personnel to just one person, and Parks Canada lock personnel also no longer lived permanently onsite. The reduction in personnel resulted in the school being closed in 1960. The few remaining children were then transported to Severn Falls by boat or by snowmobile in the winter.

Only six houses of the original community remain; all other buildings have been demolished. Two houses are now used as summer cottages. Of the other four, two sit empty, one is used by the remaining power station operator and one is used only in summer by a lock operator, a great granddaughter of George Page.

Swift Rapids, once a small but thriving working community, entered the new millennium as a summer cottage recreational community.