The region's colonial history began with an influx of settlers after Belmont and Methuen Township was surveyed in 1823. The community of Havelock was incorporated as an independent village in 1892. Later, in the nineteenth century and continuing to the present,
mining became an important economic activity. Early businesses in Havelock included a
post office,
bakery, and a
blacksmith were located south of the current village on high ground at the intersection of County Road 30 and Old Norwood Road. In 1881, the
Canadian Pacific Railway surveyed a right-of-way through the area north of Havelock and a year later laid rails and surveyed and filled the swampy land to make room for a larger village. Havelock was an important freight depot from the 1880s to the 1960s. The railway is now run by Canadian Pacific as
Kawartha Lakes Railway and its activity today consists of transporting
nepheline syenite and crushed
basalt rock from two mines north of Havelock operated by
Unimin. ==Communities==