Old Route to Meaford
From Orangeville to Meaford following the TG&B Railway and the Old Mail Road
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This trip begins at the town of Orangeville and takes you through the communities of Crombie, Shelburne, Proton Station, Eugenia, Kimberley, and Griersville. You will pass through the counties of Dufferin and Grey, travel along the Toronto and Sydenham Road, see the last remaining section of the Old Mail Road, and look for traces of the old Toronto, Grey, and Bruce Railway. In the early 1800s, if you wanted to travel to Meaford from Orangeville, you had two ways to do it: you could walk or, if you had enough money, you could travel by horse, cart, or carriage. In any case, the road you would use would be the Toronto and Sydenham Road (T&S Road). At Flesherton, you could leave the T&S Road and work your way across country toward the Old Mail Road, which would take you to Meaford. Later on, you could travel to Flesherton by rail using the Toronto, Grey and Bruce (TG&B) Railway, which roughly paralleled the T&S Road. The T&S Road eventually became Highway 10 and the TG&B Railway became part of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). The best time of the year for this trip is in the Fall when the Beaver Valley becomes a riot of Fall colour. As you drive north along County Road 13 toward Kimberley, the hillside across the valley on the left is a picture. However, if you want to see Eugenia Falls at its best, go in April when the water level is high and the leaves have not grown to obscure the view. Update: The winds of progress have blown away the Perfect House. Yet another heritage building has disappeared. It wasn't very pretty and it was only half of what it used to be but now it has gone forever. The same winds have given us a new forest―not of trees but of windmills. The new forest of windmills lies between Shelburne and Dundalk. You can't miss it! Starting the trip—OrangevilleLeave Orangeville going west on County Road 109 (Highway 9). As you drive out of Orangeville, just before you pass Tim Horton's, you cross railway tracks; these replaced the narrow gauge tracks of the old TG&B Railway. The section of tracks going south from here is now part of the Orangeville Brampton Railway and is a last working reminder of the old TG&B Railway. Continue along County Road 109 (Highway 9). On the right, just before the junction with C Road, once stood the Perfect House. This intersection used to be the settlement of Springbrook and had a hotel, the Springbrook Hotel, on the northeast corner of the intersection. It was shaped like an inverted capital T with the cross-stroke lying parallel and, unfortunately, close to Highway 9. This part of the hotel contained the bar, dining room, and some bedrooms, but was demolished in 1929. The rest of the building was still there until recently. In 1874, the hotel was owned by Robert and Elizabeth Perfect and was known as the Perfect House. But now it has gone!
At the second set of traffic lights, turn right onto Dufferin Road 11. This road will take you directly into the centre of Shelburne. Just after you turn onto Dufferin Road 11, you will pass near Fraxa Junction, where the two parts of the TS&B Railway diverged, one to go north to Owen Sound, the other to go west toward Lake Huron. Nothing of the junction is visible today. At the intersection of Dufferin 11 and the 20th Sideroad is the community of Crombie. At one time the TG&B Railway had a flag stop station, known as Crombie's Station, located just west and north of the intersection. If people wanted to stop a train, they waved a green and white flag. You can see the railway station in the Dufferin County Museum & Archives at the junction of Airport Road and Highway 89. The station was built in 1882.
Just north of Crombie, the railway crossed the road again. On the right, watch for the farm that was next to the track of the former railway line: Trackside Farm. Further along, on the left past the 25th Sideroad, there is an old single-room schoolhouse, now a private house. This schoolhouse was SS 6 Amaranth, also known as the Coleridge School, and was opened in 1880. It has two doors: the north door was for girls and the south door for boys. In those days, boys and girls were supposed to be kept separate. SS stands for section school. Section schools were supposed to have at least 15 pupils from within a 2-3 mile radius of the school.
Continue north until you come to the T-junction at Main Street in Shelburne. (Note: do not follow Dufferin 11 when it turns to the right in Shelburne.) Just before you turn left onto Main Street, notice the mural on the wall of the building at the southwest corner of the intersection. It depicts the Shelburne Station of the old TG&B Railway. Across the road on the southeast corner of the intersection is a historic marker describing the founding of Shelburne.
Drive west along Highway 89 for about 6 km then turn right onto Melancthon Road SW 2, also named Veterans Highway. This road runs alongside the old TG&B Railway line. Notice the 3-digit numbering of the sideroads. Soon you will come across a virtual forest of windmills on both sides of the road. The monsters may be the answer to our future energy problems but they certainly dominate the scene. Continue north on Melancthon SW 2. About 6 km north of Dundalk is the old SS 2 Proton schoolhouse, now a private house. This school was also known as the Acheson School and is actually the school's third building. The first school was a log building built on Andrew Rowe's farm and heated by a large box stove. The second school was a frame building about 24 feet square with three windows on each side. This third school building dated 1889 is solid brick and was heated by a furnace, though, now it is a private residence, it probably has modern heating. It cost $1239.45 to build. What it cost the present owners is not known.
At the T-junction with the 200 sideroad, turn left. If you want to see what the old railway line looked like, stop at the place where it crosses the road and look along the line. After crossing the railway line, turn right onto the continuation of West Back Line. Turn right onto the 190 sideroad (Grey Road 34) to Proton Station. Just as you leave the village, look for the old railway line as a bump in the road. The actual station was located on the right side of the road on the far side of the railway line. Turn left onto Highway 10 toward Markdale. Just after you cross the Saugeen River, look for the old house dated 1889 on the left. This is the Stinson House. Shortly after you cross the Saugeen River, you come to the South Grey Inn, a nice place to stop for lunch or a coffee. The restaurant serves diner-style food.
Continue on Highway 10 to Flesherton. The T&S Road crossed the old Durham Road at a place then called Artemesia Corners. The village had a flour mill, a blacksmith's shop, two churches, two taverns, and one physician when W. K. Flesher, after whom the village was later named, arrived in 1853 to build a grist and sawmill on the Boyne River. Aaran Munshaw had participated with Samuel Lount and William Lyon Mackenzie in the Upper Canada Rebellion in 1837. Lount was hanged and Mackenzie was lucky to escape. Munshaw had a hard time for a while and eventually moved from the Toronto area to Flesherton. He built the Munshaw House in 1864 at a strategic corner of the T&S Road and the Durham Road, and it remained in the family until 1964. Munshaw House is still there; it is the old building on the southeast corner of Highway 10 and Grey Road 4. It is now called the Munshaw House Village Inn, and is both a restaurant and a bed-and-breakfast inn. If you want to have lunch or dinner there, you must go Thursday through Sunday, because the restaurant is closed Monday through Wednesday.
In the centre of Flesherton, turn right onto Grey Road 4. You are now driving along the old pioneer Durham Road. About 3 km from Flesherton, turn left onto Grey Road 13, signposted Eugenia Falls Provincial Park. Eugenia started with a gold rush in 1853. A deer hunter, Mr. Brownlee, reported finding gold at the Falls; the gold turned out to be "fool's gold" but some would-be miners stayed on as farmers. One of a party of surveyors sent to survey the area was French and it was at his suggestion that the village be named after the French Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III. A spelling error resulted in the village's present name. In Eugenia, turn right onto Canrobert Street, signposted Eugenia Lake. Notice the old Orange Lodge building on your left just after you turn onto Canrobert Street. The Orange Lodge building has a sign LOL No 1118 (Loyal Orange Lodge Number 1118). The Orange Lodge was a militant Protestant organization that was very powerful in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Many small communities had Orange Lodges, which were used as village halls, providing social, religious, and political functions for the people in the community. At the end of Canrobert Street is Eugenia Lake. There is a parking area where you may want to stop and picnic while you look at the lake. The lake is a man-made reservoir created in the early 1900s to feed a hydroelectric generator, but today it provides an opportunity for fishing, water sports, and other recreational activities.
Drive back down Canrobert Street and turn right onto Grey Road 13. If you want to visit Eugenia Falls Provincial Park, turn left onto Pelliser Road. The park provides an opportunity for a pit stop if you need one.
Keep going along Grey Road 13, with its views on the left over the Beaver Valley and the ski runs. There is a view and a picnic area at the Beaver Valley Lookout on the left but conveniences are only open in the summer. In the Fall, this is a spectacular place to see the Fall colours. Continue along Grey Road 13 to Kimberley. The first settlers in the Kimberley area arrived by canoe, paddling up the Beaver River from Thornbury. They were the Wickens, Hurds, and McGees and they arrived in the 1850s. Mrs McGee was the first woman in the Cuckoo Valley, the area of the Beaver Valley below Eugenia Falls. Now Kimberley is the centre of a large four-season tourist industry. On the right as you drive through the village is a mill, now a wine store. This mill is the Plewes Mill and dates from 1877. The wine store has a deed of indenture for the sale from John C Gilray to William Plewes. William Plewes was the uncle of Simon Plewes, who ran a mill in Terra Cotta in 1859, and the brother of John Plewes. John, a Yorkshireman, ran the mill in Acton before his death in 1851, and his wife built the Plewes House that still stands in Terra Cotta. There was a mill on the Kimberley site in 1865 but it burned down, which may have led to its sale in 1877. The man who sold the mill to William Plewes, John Gilray, was born in Benvie, Angus, Scotland in 1838 and moved to this area before 1864. After selling the mill site in Kimberley, he and his family moved again, this time all the way to Colorado.
Opposite the mill is an interesting building. The Old Store on the right dates from 1877.
Just after Kimberley, turn left onto Grey Road 7. After you turn, you will cross the Beaver River and, just after you do, you will see the signpost for the Talisman Resort, a well-known four-season resort. Continue along Grey Road 7 until you come to the little community of Epping. Epping was a small crossroads community founded by Scottish settlers in the 1850s. At one time it had a post office, a blacksmith, and two churches. The post office closed in 1921 and the last church, the Mount Hope Methodist Church, also closed and was boarded up years ago.
Just after Epping, turn right at the Epping Lookout to see the historical marker for John Muir. Muir was a Scotsman who emigrated to Wisconsin in 1849 aged 11. In 1864, he set out to walk around Canada West (as Ontario was then called), following what is now the Bruce Trail. He stopped here to visit his brother Daniel who was living near Meaford. In 1866, Muir returned to the US, where he became a leading figure in the conservation movement. From the marker, you have a spectacular view out over the Beaver Valley. Continue north along Grey Road 7. At Griersville, going off to the right, you can see the last remaining section of the Old Mail Road that went from Meaford, through Griersville, Heathcote, Ravenna, to Singhampton and beyond. Only the section from Griersville to Heathcote remains. Continue north on Grey Road 7. As you get closer to Meaford, you can see views of the headland of the Meaford Tank Range to the left, Georgian Bay ahead, and the coast toward Collingwood to the right. As you enter Meaford, keep straight on at the intersection with Highway 26 and drive to the harbour. At the harbour, take some time to walk along the harbour wall to see the lake.
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Crombie's
Station
