In the Town of Blue Mountains, ON there is a small hamlet called Craigleith. Originally, it was called Shaleville and was in the Township of Alta. In ca. 1836, its first settler arrived – John Brazier and his wife Elizabeth along with their five children. They arrived from West Gwillimbury after the road going along the shore of Georgian Bay was cleared from Wasaga Beach to the Bighead River. This road now is called Hwy #26. The St. Vincent Trail, over which the mail was carried from Duntroon to Vail’s Point (which was originally known as Point William )(Meaford), joined the shore road at Brazier’s farm. These roads were once native trails traveled by resident Betan Nation, (anglicized Petuns), the Jesuit missionaries and early traders like Samuel de Champlain in the late 1500s – mid 1600s. The Anishinabek Nation have occupied this Land since time immemorial.
The farm had a beautiful view of Georgian Bay. Brazier built his log cabin in a sheltered valley of Mill Creek, about a third of a mile inland, on a path that curved upward from the shore along the creek, later known as “Brazier’s Road”. These two squared logs are all that remain of the first log cabin, and soon, they will deteriorate and our first settler’s home will be but a distant memory. Adjacent to the Brazier site are the two Petun Village sites that existed there in the 1600s. No trees grow on the land, just vegetation. I wonder if the Braziers knew their former neighbors were the Petuns and if they found many artifacts as they plowed their land. No doubt they did!
NIAGARA ESCARPMENT HISTORY & HIKING 