Presqu'ile Provincial Park, Brighton, Ontario
We said good-bye to Quebec and rolled into the province of Ontario today. Our big adventure was visiting another heritage park, this one named "Upper Canada". It took me awhile to understand that Upper referred to the Province of Ontario, which was higher up the St. Lawrence River and the Quebec Province was "Lower Canada" or farther down the St. Lawrence River. (On a map it looks completely counter-intuitive as if North was lower).
This park was an 1860's working village mainly settled by "Loyalists". Most of the Loyalists came in the late 1700's after the Revolutionary War (or as they call it here the First Civil War). Interestingly enough, many of these Loyalists were fighting the Americans 30's years later during the War of 1812. This village is established on a famous battlefield during that war. There is a lot of local pride here that the Americans got their butts kicked in this battle and also lost the war, i.e. they weren't able to take any land.
Even though this village was completely reconstructed from original buildings that had been relocated from nearby locations, what makes it so fascinating was that it really is a functioning, working and thriving village. It was the best representation of how things were done during the 1860's. All of the machinery running the sawmill, flour mill and woolen factory was original from the 1700's!! Imagine. It was water driven equipment, with lots of pulleys and wide leather belts. Today the flour mill had just finished producing 900 lbs. of flour! They provide about 300 lbs. a day to the local bakery in the village and the rest is sold in the "outside" world. The saw mill makes all the lumber for the village farms, fences and buildings. I was most fascinated by seeing the carding and spinning equipment in the woolen mill. The machines were several stories high, the pulleys and belts being run by the water wheel on the first floor and the carding and spinning machines were on the upper floor. I've read a lot of literature books describing this in full operation, but it was incredible to see it first hand.
We spent several more hours watching a real tin smith, who was repairing a bucket for the dairy farmer, watching the cabinet maker, shoe maker and blacksmith. I also enjoyed seeing a quilt being created, all hand-stitched. However, the real hoot was talking with the bakers. They produce 30,000 loaves of bread just in the summer alone! There were 90 loaves in the oven when we arrived. Eric and Keis (who was Dutch) were so much fun. We spent quite a lot of time talking with them and comparing notes about making chocolate from bean to bar and making bread the way it was done hundreds of years ago. There were about 900 school children visiting the village today and the bakers wanted us to taste their bread, but not in front of the kids. So they had us meet them at the backdoor and tear off a big hunk from one of their loaves. It was still warm too. Delish!
The prairie grass was getting mowed with a horse drawn mechanical scythe (if you look at the background in the picture, that's the U.S. in the background. Hello, my fellow-countrymen!) There was also a tow-scow, which is a horse drawing a boat in a canal. I think the most enjoyable and impressive part of visiting this heritage park was due to the re-enactor participants. Everyone of them are skilled and knowledgeable in their trade and clearly take a lot of pride in their craftsmanship. Eric, the baker, has been working there 34 years! Queen Elizabeth visited here as well for the dedication of one of the buildings. If any of you are every traveling this way, we highly recommend you take a half day and visit "Upper Canada Village."
After this fun outing we kept tootling toward Toronto. We decided to pull off at Presqu'ile Provincial Park which is located on a peninsula on Lake Ontario. And just in time too! Despite a glorious, warm and bright sunshine day a storm is now brewing. The waves are slapping up against the campground, the rain is pelting Winnie and thunder and lightening are nearby. Instead of a bike ride looks like we're in for a cozy dramatic night.
This park was an 1860's working village mainly settled by "Loyalists". Most of the Loyalists came in the late 1700's after the Revolutionary War (or as they call it here the First Civil War). Interestingly enough, many of these Loyalists were fighting the Americans 30's years later during the War of 1812. This village is established on a famous battlefield during that war. There is a lot of local pride here that the Americans got their butts kicked in this battle and also lost the war, i.e. they weren't able to take any land.
Even though this village was completely reconstructed from original buildings that had been relocated from nearby locations, what makes it so fascinating was that it really is a functioning, working and thriving village. It was the best representation of how things were done during the 1860's. All of the machinery running the sawmill, flour mill and woolen factory was original from the 1700's!! Imagine. It was water driven equipment, with lots of pulleys and wide leather belts. Today the flour mill had just finished producing 900 lbs. of flour! They provide about 300 lbs. a day to the local bakery in the village and the rest is sold in the "outside" world. The saw mill makes all the lumber for the village farms, fences and buildings. I was most fascinated by seeing the carding and spinning equipment in the woolen mill. The machines were several stories high, the pulleys and belts being run by the water wheel on the first floor and the carding and spinning machines were on the upper floor. I've read a lot of literature books describing this in full operation, but it was incredible to see it first hand.
We spent several more hours watching a real tin smith, who was repairing a bucket for the dairy farmer, watching the cabinet maker, shoe maker and blacksmith. I also enjoyed seeing a quilt being created, all hand-stitched. However, the real hoot was talking with the bakers. They produce 30,000 loaves of bread just in the summer alone! There were 90 loaves in the oven when we arrived. Eric and Keis (who was Dutch) were so much fun. We spent quite a lot of time talking with them and comparing notes about making chocolate from bean to bar and making bread the way it was done hundreds of years ago. There were about 900 school children visiting the village today and the bakers wanted us to taste their bread, but not in front of the kids. So they had us meet them at the backdoor and tear off a big hunk from one of their loaves. It was still warm too. Delish!
The prairie grass was getting mowed with a horse drawn mechanical scythe (if you look at the background in the picture, that's the U.S. in the background. Hello, my fellow-countrymen!) There was also a tow-scow, which is a horse drawing a boat in a canal. I think the most enjoyable and impressive part of visiting this heritage park was due to the re-enactor participants. Everyone of them are skilled and knowledgeable in their trade and clearly take a lot of pride in their craftsmanship. Eric, the baker, has been working there 34 years! Queen Elizabeth visited here as well for the dedication of one of the buildings. If any of you are every traveling this way, we highly recommend you take a half day and visit "Upper Canada Village."
After this fun outing we kept tootling toward Toronto. We decided to pull off at Presqu'ile Provincial Park which is located on a peninsula on Lake Ontario. And just in time too! Despite a glorious, warm and bright sunshine day a storm is now brewing. The waves are slapping up against the campground, the rain is pelting Winnie and thunder and lightening are nearby. Instead of a bike ride looks like we're in for a cozy dramatic night.
