This summer, take a journey into the past!
Starting on the July 1 weekend, four local organizations are teaming up to provide guided walking tours of some of the County’s most historic destinations. The project partners include Macaulay Heritage Park, Base31, Glenwood Cemetery, and History Lives Here Inc.
“The County is a crossroads of history,” says Jessica Chase, Curator at Macaulay Heritage Park, one of our five County museums. “These tours tell the stories of incredible people and events, which have shaped local and Canadian history. And we’ve brought together some of the County’s foremost storytellers to tell these stories. We’re excited to work together to present these engaging tours to residents and visitors alike.”
On Friday nights from 7-8:30 pm, the Gallows and Graveyards walking tour will explore the cemetery of the former church of St. Mary Magdalene, introducing participants to a few of Picton’s early residents, before visiting the site of the infamous 1884 Lazier Murder Trial at the nearby courthouse. Tours start from Macaulay Church, 23 Church Street, Picton.
Saturday mornings from 10-11:30 am, the heady days when tall ships, rowdy taverns, rum runners, and military regiments shaped the history of a bustling port will come alive during a walk of Picton’s Heritage Conservation District. Tours begin at the Picton Branch of the Prince Edward County Public Library (208 Picton Main Street).
Saturday afternoons from 2-3:30 pm, walk the grounds of Base31, the former Camp Picton, which opened in 1940 as a Commonwealth Air Training base to ready pilots for the Second World War. Tours begin at the Visitor Centre at the main gate of the facility (343 County Road 22, Picton).
Sunday mornings from 10-11:30 am, experience the picturesque setting of the Glenwood Cemetery, one of the County’s greatest heritage treasures, and the final resting place of Letitia Youmans, temperance pioneer, Wellington Boulter, the father of the canning industry of Canada, and George Louder, a young man unjustly hanged in 1884. Tours begin at the cemetery’s stone chapel (47 Ferguson Street, Picton).
Tours start on Canada Day and run until September 4.
Tickets are $25 for adults, $15 for youth under 16, and $60 for a family including up to two adults and three youth under 16.
To book tickets for these tours, visit www.base31.ca/visit.
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For media inquiries, please contact Mark Kerr, Communications and Consultations Supervisor, at 613.476.2148 ext. 1009 or by email at mkerr@pecounty.on.ca.