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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 alongContinue reading “The First Settler in Shaleville in Alta Township, known today as Craigleith – Town of Blue Mountains, Ontario.”

Every corduroy road leads somewhere: This past Tuesday, I walked an early settlement corduroy road that my late dear friend Clive drew a map of from his memory and sent to me. His grandpa told him that at one time it was the only road between Duncan and Flesherton, and that it was an oxContinue reading “Rob Roy McGregor and the Corduroy Road”

Petun Conservation Area This Viking and Ojibwe friend hiked the Land of the Anishinaabeg people on the Niagara Escarpment. This place is now referred to as the Petun Conservation Area in the Town of Blue Mountains. We stood together on the ancient rock where his ancestors once stood and looked out across the Land andContinue reading “The Viking and the Ojibwe Chief”

NATURE AND NURTURE “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn” Benjamin Franklin There is something very special about the relationship between children and nature. If given the freedom to connect, they do so in a very gentle and unspoken way which is very natural to them. ItContinue reading “Kids and Nature”

Have you ever thought of walking through the land of Merlin where magic comes alive with every step you take? A place where, as you walk through the forests, the stories of the people who once lived there come alive through ruins, old farm machinery, and cars left behind long ago, and the only limitationContinue reading “Walk in the Land of Merlin”

The woody valleys of the Blue Mountains, from Craigleith to Creemore ON, were occupied historically by the several Iroquoian nations that were collectively nicknamed “Petun” by the French, meaning Tobacco, because they were known for their usage of tobacco, or petún, more so than their cultivation of it.  The people called themselves the Betan (Bay-ton), and theyContinue reading “Betan (Petun, Tionontati)”

Before the invention of modern concrete, travellers were able to cross muddy, swampy grounds by building “corduroy roads”—paths that were constructed of logs laid perpendicular to the direction of the route. Canada’s first travel routes were the rivers and lakes used by Indigenous people, travelling by canoe in summer and following the frozen waterways inContinue reading “Corduroy Roads”

Britton Bath Osler (1839 – 1901) In the mid 1800’s, an enchanting love story between Britton Bath Osler and his wife Caroline began, and that brought them to County road 19 in Grey County, at Castle Glen Estates. Britton was a famous Canadian criminal lawyer, and also the crown attorney at the trial of LouisContinue reading “Castle Glen in Blue Mountain, Louis Riel and Britton Bath Osler”