Village Squire, 1978-07, Page 23DAYTRIPPING
This month's daytrip gives you a chance
to see both the old and the new in Bruce
county. The trip is a long one. well over 100
miles so best pack a picnic lunch and figure
on giving it most of a day, particularly if
you want to take time and enjoy yourself.
We begin the trip at Wingham where we
head east on Highway 86. At Bluevale
continue straight through on Highway 87
rather than following Highway 86.
Continue on to Wroxeter, a pretty little
village nestled along the river which you
may want to take some time to explore. Our
trip, however, takes a turn north (left) at
the edge of the village on Huron County
Road 12.
The road leads on through rolling
farmland to the village of Belmore, well
known for its annual maple syrup festival.
It's a tiny place but serves a wide
community as can easily be seen by the
huge community centre completed just last
year which includes an arena, curling rink,
auditorium and library.
We continue on through the village
which straddles the Huron. Bruce county
boundary and we're now on Bruce County
road 12. Although Bruce is generally
thought of as being settled by Scots, the
area you're travelling as you go northward
is heavily German in origin. Formosa,
which you soon arrive in is probably the
most effected by the German heritage. The
village is dominated by the Roman Catholic
church on the hillside to the north. It was
once a beer capital of the province because
of its little. locally owned brewery but it's
long since been bought out by a large
conglomerate and moved elsewhere.
North from Formosa we continue along
County road 12, past the CKNX television
and FM radio tower until we reach
Highway 4-9 where we turn right and
proceed toward Walkerton for a short jog of
about a mile before we turn left and
northward again on County Road 3 towards
Paisley.
We seem to be climbing ever higher as
we go northward and now and then are
rewarded with beautiful scenes of valleys
below. Along the road further we pass
through two small communities little more
than names nowadays. The first is
Dunkeld. best denoted by the Dunkeld
Hotel which sits almost by itself on the
west side of the highway but seems to be
prospering despite its out-of-the-way
location. Later we pass through Douglas
f he old tui n hall in Paisley is a sy mbol of the spruced up historical look the village has taken Hill. a place even harder to pinpoint as an
on. exact geographic village.
After the long climb we suddenly come
over the crest of the hill to find Paisley. the
Heritage Village tumbling down the
hillside below us, toward the river.
Population of the village is 950 and it
seems prosperous despite the fact one
often thinks of towns off the main
provincial highways as poor cousins. There
seems to be an obvious pride in history of
the community, not the kind of pride for
show that is put on for tourists in so many
communities these days, because there are
VILLAGE SQUIRE/JULY 1978. PG. 21.
North to Bruce