The following Ontario Heritage Foundation plaques are placed around the Georgian Bay region and represent the many stories obout those individuals or locations that have moved the Georgian Bay history forward to the 21st century. To see the featured plaque of the week with additonal depth and history please refer back to the Georgian Bay Eco Museum Home page.

The Associated Country Women of the Wold - Collingwood || The Northern Railway Company of Canada - Collingwood
The Founding of Midland - Midland || Penetanguishene Road - Midland || Henry Wosey Bayfield - Penetanguishene
James Keating - Penetanguishene || Penetanguishene - Penetanguishene || St. James-On-The-Line - Penetanguishene
Gateway to Huronia - Township of Tay || Franz Johnston - Township of Tiny || Schooner Town - Wasaga Beach
Beautiful Joe- Meaford || Founding of Meaford - Meaford || Frederick Stanley Haines - Meaford || John Muir - Meaford
Right Honourable Sir Lyman Poore Duff - Meaford || Tom Thomson - Meaford || David Vivian Currie - Owen Sound
The Founding of Owen Sound - Owen Sound || The Newash Indian Village - Owen Sound
Thomas William Holmes, V.C., - Owen Sound || Toronto, Grey and Bruce Railway - Owen Sound
William Avery Bishop VC - Owen Sound || Parry Sound District Court House - Parry Sound || The Sinking of the Waubuno - Parry Sound
Charles Rankin - Blue Mountains || The Craigleith Shale Oil Works - Blue Mountains || Major Charles Stuart - Blue Mountains
The Old Mail Road - Blue Mountains || The Sinking of the "Mary Ward" - Blue Mountains

The Associated Country Women of the World

Location: On the SE corner of St. Paul Street and Huron Street (Highway 26), Collingwood Ontario

Text from the Plaque
A non-political international women's organization, the Associated Country Women of the World was formed largely through the efforts of Margaret Watt, a Collingwood native. Mrs. Watt was a member of the Women's Institute, a Canadian association dedicated to the concerns of rural women, and she introduced that organization to Great Britain during World War 1 to help and work to counteract food shortages. With the expansion of the Women's Institute movement to Commonwealth and European countries after the war, Mrs. Watt began to advocate the establishment of an international alliance. Finally in 1933, in Stockholm, Sweden, rural women's organizations including the Women's Institute, united to form the Associated Country Women of the World. Mrs. Watt, by then a Member of the British Empire, was elected the body's first president.

Photographer: Alan L Brown Web Site Click Here

The Northern Railway Company of Canada

Location: On the SE corner of St. Paul Street and Huron Street (Highway 26) Collingwood, Ontario

Summary from the Ontario Heritage Foundation's website
Early in 1855, this pioneer railway company had completed a portage line from Toronto to Collingwood linking ports on the Atlantic and Lake Ontario with the upper Great Lakes. Later in the century, the Northern was absorbed by the Grand Trunk Railway Company.

Photographer: Alan L Brown Web Site Click Here

The Founding of Midland

Location: In front of the library, on the west side of King Street just north of Elizabeth Street Midland, Ontairo

Text from the Plaque:
In 1871 a group of the principal shareholders of the Midland Railway, headed by Adolph Hugel, selected this location as the northern terminus of their line which then ran from Port Hope to Beaverton. Known at the time as Mundy's Bay, the region was sparsely inhabited, but the interest aroused by their action resulted in the survey of a town site in 1872-73. Most of the lots were owned by the Midland Land Company which was controlled by the railway. The line, which soon attracted settlers to the area, was completed in 1879. The new community, named Midland, achieved its early growth through shipping and the lumber and grain trade.

Photographer: Stephanie Spencer Web Site Click Here

Penetanguishene Road 1814

Location: On the north side of Highway 12 just east of Highway 93 Midland, Ontario

Text from the Plaque:
The course of this road from Kempenfeldt Bay to the site of Penetanguishene was first surveyed by Samuel Wilmot in 1811. Dr. William (Tiger) Dunlop supervised its construction in the fall of 1814 and, although frequently impassible for heavy loads, it served for many years as a supply route to the garrison at Penetanguishene. Under a system of free grants, most of the land immediately adjacent to the road was settled 1819-1830.

Photographer: Alan L Brown Web Site Click Here

Henry Wolsey Bayfield

Location: In the paid admission area of Discovery Harbour, on the left side of the pathway at Bayfield's Point of View exhibit. Penetanguishene, Ontario

Summary from the Ontario Heritage Foundation's website
A naval officer and self-taught nautical surveyor, Bayfield was stationed in Upper Canada in 1816. By the time he retired 40 years later, he had completed surveys of Lakes Erie, Huron, and Superior. Using Penetanguishene as his headquarters, he also charted the coasts of Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia, and the shore of the lower St. Lawrence.

Photographer: Alan L Brown Web Site Click Here

James Keating

Location: In the paid admission area of Discovery Harbour, on the left side at the far end of the pathway behind a split rail fence. Penetanguishene, Ontario

Summary from the Ontario Heritage Foundation's website
A native of Ireland, Keating (c.1786-1849) joined the Royal Artillery at a young age and came to Canada in 1812. He saw action at many points and as the first adjutant of the military establishment at Penetanguishene figured prominently in that community's early years.

Photographer: Alan L Brown Web Site Click Here

Penetanguishene

Location:On the west side of Main Street, across from Beck Blvd Penetanguishene, Ontario

Text from the Plaque:
The Attignawantan ("Bear Nation") of the Huron confederacy occupied the Penetanguishene peninsula prior to their dispersal in 1649 by the Iroquois. In 1793 Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe chose Penetanguishene as the terminus of a military route from Toronto. Construction of a naval base began in 1814. British troops were transferred here in 1828 when Drummond Island was returned to the United States. With them came families of French Canadian voyageurs and Metis. George Gordon, Dedin Revol and Dr. David Mitchell were among the first settlers to build homes at Penetanguishene. The military and naval establishments stimulated the community's early economic growth; later, fishing and lumbering became important industries. In 1882 Penetanguishene was incorporated as a town.

Photographer: Alan L Brown Web Site Click Here

St. James-On-The-Line

Location:In front of the church on the NE corner of Church Street and Cambridge Street . Penetanguishene, Ontario

Summary from the Ontario Heritage Foundation's website
Built largely through the efforts of Captain John Moberly, the church was originally intended to serve the naval and military personnel in residence at the Penetanguishene establishments. Until the 1870s, it was the only Protestant church in the vicinity and was attended by the civilian population as well.

Photographer: Alan L Brown Web Site Click Here

Gateway To Huronia

Location:Beside a wooden lookout at the top of a hill at the Martyrs' Shrine on the north side of Highway 12 just east of the Wye River bridge Township of Tay

Summary from the Ontario Heritage Foundation's website
During the 17th century, the shore of Matchedash Bay marked the terminus of the historic canoe route connecting New France with Huronia. Missionaries, soldiers, explorers, and fur traders ascended the Ottawa and Mattawa Rivers, crossed Lake Nipissing, descended the French River, and entered Huronia via Matchedash Bay.

Photographer: Alan L Brown Web Site Click Here

Franz Johnston

Location:In Wyebridge, on the east side of Highway 93 between the bridge and Mill Street
Township of Tiny

Summary from the Ontario Heritage Foundation's website
After working as a commercial artist for some years, Johnston served as an official war artist with the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War. In 1920, he participated in the first exhibition of paintings by the Group of Seven.

Photographer: Alan L Brown Web Site Click Here

Schooner Town

Location:In the park at the SW corner of River Road West and Oxbow Park Drive Wasaga Beach, Ontario

Text from the Schooner Town Plaque
The Nottawasaga River formed part of a transportation link between Lake Ontario and the Upper Great Lakes which became a vitally important supply route to British Western posts during the war of 1812. The base of operations for the Royal Navy's vessels on Lake Huron was located here at the foot of navigation on the River from 1815 to 1817. Buildings to house the base were erected in October 1815 by the ship's company of H.M. Schooner "Confiance". Within two years orders were issued transferring the naval establishment to Penetanguishene, where superior anchorage was available and in late 1817 the naval base at "Schooner Town" was abandoned. In 1976 management of the site became the responsibility of Wasaga Beach Provincial Park.

Photographer: Alan L Brown Web Site Click Here

Beautiful Joe

Location:To the left of the parking lot in Beautiful Joe Park off Victoria Crescent. Meaford, Ontario

Text from the Beautiful Joe Plaque
Born in Milton, Nova Scotia, Margaret Marshall Saunders, (1861-1947) taught school briefly before starting her career as a novelist. Her second book, 'Beautiful Joe', received international recognition. Inspired during a visit to Meaford about 1892, it is based on the story on a dog rescued from a brutal master by a local miller, William Moore. This novel, first published in 1894, appeared in several editions and enjoyed phenomenal success. It was printed in at least ten languages, and seven million copies had been sold by 1939. Miss Saunders, who settled in Toronto in 1914, was awarded the C.B.E. in 1934, in recognition of her contribution toward securing humane treatment for animals.

Photographer: Alan L Brown Web Site Click Here

Founding of Meaford

Location: On the SE corner of Sykes Street and Collingwood Street Meaford, Ontario

Text from the Founding of Meaford Plaque
In 1837 inhabitants of St. Vincent Township petitioned the government requesting that land at the mouth of the Bighead River be reserved as a landing place. The land was set aside, a town plot of "Meaford" laid out in 1845, and lots subsequently offered for sale. As early as 1841 a sawmill and a grist-mill had been built on adjoining land, several roads constructed to the landing and a post office called "St. Vincent" established. In 1865 this post office was re-named "Meaford", which by that time had become a flourishing community, connected by steamer and road with the railhead at Collingwood. Meaford was incorporated as a town in 1874.

Photographer: Alan L Brown Web Site Click Here

Frederick Stanley Haines

Location: On the grounds of a school at the SE corner of St. Vincent Street and Eliza Street Meaford, Ontario

Text from the Frederick Stanley Haines Plaque
One of Ontario's outstanding artists and teachers, Haines was born in Meaford and educated at this school. In 1896 he moved to Toronto where he attended the Central Ontario School of Art. He later studied at the Académic Royale des Beaux Arts in Antwerp, Belgium. Working in the realistic style as painter, etcher and printmaker, he tended to specialize in idealized Ontario pastoral landscapes. In 1928 he was appointed a curator at the Art Gallery of Toronto (Art Gallery of Ontario). As principal of the Ontario College of Art 1933-53, he introduced a separate workshop for advanced students and an open studio where students could watch Haines resolve his own problems in painting. Among his best-known works are "Last Gleam" and "Pasture".

Photographer: Alan L Brown Web Site Click Here

John Muir

Location: At Epping Lookout on County Road 7, south of County Road 40 Meaford, Ontario

Summary from the Ontario Heritage Foundation's website
On one of his many walking trips John Muir travelled much of the present-day Bruce Trail and for a few years lived in the Meaford area. The dedicated American naturalist played a significant role in the development of the United States National Parks Service.

Photographer: Alan L Brown Web Site Click Here

Right Honourable Sir Lyman Poore Duff

Location: On the SW corner of Bayfield Street and Parker Street
Meaford, Ontario

Text from the Right Honourable Sir Lyman Poore Duff Plaque
One of the Commonwealth's most eminent jurists, L.P. Duff ws born in Meaford and educated at the University of Toronto and Osgoode Hall. Called to the bar of Ontario in 1893, he practiced law in that province and in Victoria, B.C., until he became a judge of the Supreme Court of British Columbia in 1904. Appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada in 1906, he was an expert in the field of constitutional law, particularly as applied to provincial and federal rights. In 1931 he headed a royal commission investigating the country's railways. Appointed to the Imperial Privy Council in 1918, he served as Canada's Chief Justice, 1933-44, and was knighted in 1934.

Photographer: Alan L Brown Web Site Click Here

Tom Thomson

Location: In Leith, at Leith Church on the north side of Tom Thomson Lane (Street Number 41914) west of County Road 15 Meaford, Ontario

Text from the Tom Thomson Plaque
One of Canada's most distinquished painters. Thomson was born at Claremont, Ontario County, but two months later moved with his parents to Leith where he lived until the age of twenty-one. After working in Toronto as a commercial artist until 1913, he supplemented his limited income from painting, and fulfilled his love for the Canadian wilderness by serving as a guide and fire ranger in Algonguin Park. An exponent of a distinctive style of Canadian landscape painting, Thomson influenced the work of the "Group of Seven". Among his better known paintings are "West Wind", "Jack Pine", "Spring Ice" and "Northern River". His brief career ended tragically in July 1917 when he was drowned in Canoe Lake, Algonguin Park.

Photographer: Alan L Brown Web Site Click Here

David Vivian Currie

Location: In a park on the NE corner of 1st Avenue West and 8th Street East Owen Sound, Ontario

Text from Plaque
A much-honoured World War II army officer, Currie, who is buried in Owen Sound, was born and raised in Saskatchewan. He enlisted in 1940 and was sent overseas with the 29th Canadian Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment (the South Alberta Regiment) three years later. On August 18, 1944, Currie, leading a small force in Normandy, was ordered to help seal the Chambois-Trun escape route to the German forces cut off in the Falaise pocket. He met fierce resistance in the village of St. Lambert-sur-Dives. There, by skilful command and heroic example, Currie sustained his men for three days as they repeatedly thwarted breakout attempts by masses of Germans. For his actions, he was awarded the Victoria Cross, the British Commonwealth's highest decoration for valour.

Photographer: Alan L Brown Web Site Click Here

The Founding of Owen Sound

Location: On the north side of 8th Street East just west of 2nd Avenue East beside the farmers' market. Owen Sound, Ontario

Text from Plaque
In November, 1840, a townplot in Sydenham Township was surveyed as the terminus of the Garafraxa-Owen's Sound Road. John Telfer, government agent, completed his house by November 21 and a shelter for settlers by the following spring. Four private buildings were finished by July 1842. "Sydenham" by 1846 contained a sawmill and grist-mill and about 150 people. A post office opened in 1847 was named "Owen's Sound" after the settlement along the Garafraxa Road from Arthur north. "Sydenham" grew as land and water communication improved and in 1852 became the seat of Grey County. The community of "Sydenham" was incorporated as the Town of Owen Sound in 1857 with a population of almost 2000.

Photographer: Alan L Brown Web Site Click Here

The Newash Indian Village

Location: On the SW corner of 4th Avenue West and 21st Street West. Owen Sound, Ontario

Text from Plaque
Following the Indian treaty of 1836, a Reserve along the western shore of Owen Sound was set aside for the Band headed by Chief Newash. In 1842, the Indian village of Newash, established here previous to the founding of the adjacent community of Sydenham (now Owen Sound), was rebuilt by the government. It contained fourteen log houses, a school and a barn. Wesleyan Methodist missionaries ministered to the Indians, and in 1845 a frame chapel, the predecssor of the present church, was completed. In 1857 the Reserve, containing some 11,000 acres, was ceded to the government and most of the Indians moved to Cape Croker.

Photographer: Alan L Brown Web Site Click Here

Thomas William Holmes, V.C.

Location:In a park on the NE corner of 1st Avenue West and 8th Street East. Owen Sound, Ontario

Text from Plaque
Born in Montreal, Holmes moved with his family to Owen Sound in 1903. He enlisted in the 147th Infantry Battalion C.E.F. in 1915, but later transferred to the 4th Canadian Mounted Rifles. In October 1917, his unit took part in the violent opening assault on the German position at Passchendaele. During this action Private Holmes, under heavy enemy fire, captured single-handed an important "pill-box" strongpoint which had been holding up the right flank of the Canadian advance. He was awarded the Victoria Cross for his valour in this battle.

Photographer: Alan L Brown Web Site Click Here

Toronto, Grey and Bruce Railway

Location: Visible ahead at the west end of 12th Street East Owen Sound, Ontario

Text from Plaque
This pioneer railway was chartered in 1868 and the first sod was turned at Weston on October 5, 1869, by Prince Arthur, third son of Queen Victoria. Constructed under direction of chief engineer Edmund Wragge, the main line from Toronto to Owen Sound was completed in 1873 and a branch line from a point near Orangeville to Teeswater was finished about a year later. Freight and passenger service was begun on the section from Toronto to Orangeville in September 1871, and from Orangeville to Owen Sound in August, 1873. The original choice of narrow-gauge track proved ill-advised and standard gauge track was laid, 1881-83. The line was leased to the Ontario and Quebec Railway in 1883 and absorbed by the C.P.R. the following year.

Photographer: Alan L Brown Web Site Click Here

William Avery Bishop VC

Location: In a park on the NE corner of 1st Avenue West and 8th Street East Owen Sound, Ontario

Text from Plaque
Born in Owen Sound, "Billy" Bishop was attending the Royal Military College when war was declared in 1914. He first joined a cavalry unit, but in 1915 transferred to the Royal Flying Corps. Courage and marksmanship made him one of the war's greatest fighting pilots, credited officially with the destruction of 72 enemy aircraft. When hostilities ended he was the youngest lieutenant-colonel of the air force and had won the Victoria Cross, the Distinguished Service Order and the Military Cross. During World War II he became a director of recruiting for the R.C.A.F. with the rank of air marshall.

Photographer: Alan L Brown Web Site Click Here

Parry Sound District Court House

Location: In front of the courthouse on the east side of James Street across from McMurray Street Parry Sound, Ontario

Text from Plaque
The court house for the Territorial District of Parry Sound, established in 1870, was the first of a series of early northern court houses built under the direction of Ontario's Department of Public Works and its chief architect, Kivas Tully. Erected in 1871, the modest frame building contained a second-floor courtroom and main-floor jail and registry office. Increased settlement soon imposed greater demands on the court house and in 1889 an addition housing a larger court room was built. This addition and the rear wing built in 1921-22 were constructed of brick and designed more elaborately than the original structure and reflected the provincial government's recognition of the north's growing importance. Subsequently altered, the building continues to serve as the District's judicial centre.

Photographer: Alan L Brown Web Site Click Here

The Sinking of the Waubuno

Location: Beside the parking lot in Waubuno Park at the foot of Prospect Street Parry Sound, Ontario

Text from Plaque
This anchor, recovered in 1959, belonged to the steamer "Waubuno", a wooden sidewheeler of some 200 tons which was built at Port Robinson in 1865. She carried freight and passengers in the shipping trade which flourished on Lake Huron during the nineteenth century. Commanded by Captain J. Burkett, she sailed from Collingwood on November 22, 1879, bound for Parry Sound. The "Waubuno" encountered a violent gale later that day and sank in Georgian Bay some 20 miles south of here. All on board perished, and although some wreckage was later discovered, the bodies of the 24 victims were never found. The specific cause of this disaster has never been determined.

Photographer: Alan L Brown Web Site Click Here

Charles Rankin

Location: In Thornbury, on the north side of Bay Street East between McCauley Street North and Elgin Street North Blue Mountains, Ontario

Text from Plaque
This pioneer surveyor was the pathfinder who opened much of this region to settlement. Born in Enniskillen, Ireland, Rankin came to Upper Canada with his family at an early age. He was appointed a deputy provincial surveyor in 1820 and at first worked in the southwestern section of the province. In 1833 he began surveying the Nottawasaga Bay area and settled on some 200 acres of land west of the present town of Thornbury. His more important surveys included; several townships in the present county of Grey; the Garafraxa Colonization Road; the town plot of Sydenham (Owen Sound); the Toronto-Owen Sound Road; the Muskoka Road; and the town plot of Southampton.

Photographer: Alan L Brown Web Site Click Here

The Craigleith Shale Oil Works

Location: At the east end of Craigleith Provincial Park on the north side of Highway 26 east of Thornbury Blue Mountains, Ontario

Text from Plaque
A growing demand for artificial light led to the establishment, in 1859, of a firm headed by William Darley Pollard of Collingwood. He erected a plant here to obtain oil through the treatment of local bituminous shales. The process, patented by Pollard, involved the destructive distillation of fragmented shale in cast-iron retorts heated by means of wood. The 30 to 35 tons of shale distilled daily yielded 250 gallons of crude oil, which was refined into illuminating and heavy lubricating oils. The enterprize, the only one of its kind in the province's history, failed by 1863. The inefficency of its process made its products uncompetitive after the discoveries of "free" oil at Petrolia and Oil Springs, near Sarnia.

Photographer: Alan L Brown Web Site Click Here

Major Charles Stuart

Location: In Thornbury, on the north side of Bay Street East between McCauley Street North and Elgin Street North Blue Mountains, Ontario

Text from Plaque
Son of a British army officer, Stuart was born in Jamaica. After fourteen years service as a commissioned officer in the service of the East India Company, he came to Upper Canada in 1817. Devoutly religious, Stuart found an outlet for his humanitarian zeal in vigorous anti-slavery activity. Although most of his written works are polemical tracts denouncing slavery, his "The Emmigrants Guide to Upper Canada" is a useful summary of the progress of areas most suited to settlement. In 1851 he moved to this area where he encouraged the establishment of a small settlement at Lora Bay. On his death in 1865 he was buried at Lora Bay but was later removed to the nearby Thornbury-Clarksburg cemetery.

Photographer: Alan L Brown Web Site Click Here

The Old Mail Road

Location: On the south side of Old Mail Road, 1 km west of the village of Heathcote on County Road 13 Blue Mountains, Ontario

Text from Plaque
For some years prior to the by-law which established it as a public road in 1846, this route had been travelled by settlers destined for the newly-opened townships of Osprey, Collingwood, Euphrasia and St. Vincent. From its junction near Duntroon with an extension of the Sunnidale Road, it ran some 21 miles northwesterly to Griersville. Though it was entitled to maintenance by statute labour, the road was chronically in poor repair. Nevertheless, it remained an official road until its usefulness ended when the Ontario, Simcoe and Huron Railway reached Collingwood in 1855. Save for this five-mile section still in use between Griersville and Heathcote, little evidence remains of the pioneer road.

Photographer: Alan L Brown Web Site Click Here

The Sinking of the "Mary Ward"

Location: At the north end of the entrance to Craigleith Provincial Park on the north side of Highway 26 east of Thornbury, Blue Mountains, Ontario

Text from Plaque
On the night of November 24, 1872, the steamer "Mary Ward" ran aground on Milligan's Reef, two kilometers offshore. Recently purchased by five Owen Sound men, the vessel was making the trip from Sarnia to her new home port of Collingwood with twenty-seven aboard, including a Canadian Pacific Railway survey party when the accident occured. The first lifeboat safely reached shore, then a fierce gale sprang up, delaying rescue operations. After a perilous journey the second lifeboat succeeded in landing but the third capsized and all eight aboard drowned. A group of local fishermen, led by Frank Moberly and Captain George Collins, later rescued those remaining on the wreck, and they were subsequently recognized by the Canadian government for their heroic actions.

Photographer: Alan L Brown Web Site Click Here