The first cottage in the Thurstonia area was built by Henry Thurston in 1900. The Thurston family would gather at the park for family picnics, and so the area became known as "Thurstonia".

In 1914, Percy Skitch took over Thurstonia Park from his uncle, Henry Thurston. At that time Skitch had been working in Toronto, but he moved his family back to Dunsford to take over the cottage business, which included four cottages and 17 acres of land. A year later, Skitch went to his father and said he was going to have to expand the business or quit. His father agreed to back Skitch's bank loan. Skitch immediately went to work building a lodge. In 1922, a store with second floor accommodation was added to the lodge, making for a total capacity of 75 people. By 1940, Skitch had 22 cottages available for rent.

In 1946, Skitch sold the business, which at that time included a thriving boat and ice house business, to a company called Thurston Resorts Limited, formed by his three sons, Oscar, Norman, and Larry. They in turn sold the business in 1953.

From 1925 to 1930, actor Gene Lockhart had a cottage at Thurstonia.

--Information adapted from "The Thurstonia Hotel That Skitch Built" in the Lindsay Post, n.d.

"Accommodation was inadequate to house the many guests who came the first year and we found it imperative to build a larger lodge. Through the kindness and generosity of my father, I arranged for a builder, Mr. Jim Thurston, to make plans and estimate the required lumber. I put my bicycle in one of our row boats and rowed across the lake to Sandy Point and on to Fenelon Falls to the big lumber mill who inside of a week had the lumber delivered by scow. Within 6 weeks, we had the building well under way. This structure, consisting of 27 rooms, a large dining room, kitchen, a store and post office and a verandah 56 feet in length, was completed in the spring of 1916. My aunt, who was the cook, named the lodge Swastika which was an Indian name for "Good Luck". The name was later changed to Thurstonia Lodge."

- Percy Skitch, from Pioneer Gleanings from Verulam 1867-1967 by T.H. Martin