The Rural Voice, 1994-08, Page 39population of nomadic hunters and
fishermen increased. Between 1000
B.C. to 1 A.D. the society evolved
with larger groups in the summer and
smaller family units in the winter.
Between about 1,000 A.D. and the
arrival of the first French explorers in
1615 the natives developed more
settled farming systems. They grew
corn, beans and squash and lived in
long houses in walled villages.
Research shows that there was a
village of about 500 people at what is
today Port Elgin, with 12 long houses
and two rows of palisades.
Other galleries at the museum take
you on into the period when Europe-
ans began to settle the region. There's
a gallery that lets you look into shop
windows of typical main street
businesses of an earlier period. Other
exhibits honour the role of agriculture
and the furniture industry in the
formation of today's Bruce County.
Upstairs in the old school house
building is the new Bruce Coast
Marine Gallery, celebrating another
part of the county, its marine history.
Again the efforts of the natives far
predate European settlement. A well-
preserved dugout canoe is one of the
first exhibits to catch your eye in the
brightly -lit gallery.
The fishing industry gets its due
here with a large fishing net
dominating the centre of the room.
There are displays on various
shipwrecks in the history of the
county and the people who were lost.
Outside the museum you get a
chance to step directly into history in
the log school house. Many of us are
familiar with the one -room school
houses of the pre -1960s but they are
nothing like this. Benches and work
tables are arranged around the outside
of the building, taking advantage of
what light can come through the win-
dows. The empty centre of the build-
ing is dominated by a huge stove.
It's fine to talk about the marine
history of Bruce as recorded in the
Bruce Coast gallery but a visit to
Southampton shouldn't ignore the
present on the coast. We travelled
down High St. (there's plenty of
opportunity to shop here) to Lake
Huron, past the boulevard decorated
with flags from all the provinces of
Canada, to the lakefront. There a huge
Canadian flag leaves no doubt what
country you live in. We went back up
High St. and turned left on Huron
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AUGUST 1994 35