As promised, and I never said it would be soon, the Journey begins again of our tour of S.B.P. . This time we head past the old bookstore in Clavering(Can someone tell me where the train station was years ago in Clavering? Was this it??) along the straight and narrow Highway 6, past the cut off to Zion, and you will enter one of the prettiest towns you can imagine, Wiarton.

The name Wiarton is said to have been taken from the birthplace of the Governor General at the time, Sir Edmund Walker Head. The area’s lots were not put up for sale until 1868, putting it behind the earlier settlements on Colpoys and Oxenden, with the earliest settler being James Lennox,living in his little log shanty.
Wiarton evolved from a rural market point, to a community of mills, and businesses in a very short while. There was even three times a week stage coach runs to Owen Sound, in 1876, now THAT was progress!
A large influx of people to the area started, when rumours of a railway soon to come to the town started. The inevitable building of schools and churches resulted.A special act of parliament was needed to allow Wiarton to officially incorporate as a town, because the town itself was split between 2 counties, Bruce and Grey. Wiarton actually came into existance with a NET DEBT of 13,000 dollars, quite a bit of money in those days.
Plenty of well known(at that time) businesses flourished, Dominion Fish, Wiarton Wool, Vulcan Foundry and a story unto itself, Wiarton Beet Sugar .
In 1901 construction began on this sugar beet factory, with an amount equal to 500,000 ( most in letters of patent held by farmers) It had a wharf and a railway connection, and started up with high prospects.The beets were procured and all was well, or so everyone thought. Unfortunately on the advice of consultants of the day, the Colonial Construction company from the U.S., that had won the bid to actually build the factory, was also engaged to run it for the first year. It turned out the machines were installed incorrectly, and the managers had no knowledge of how to operate the equipment as they had said they did. As a result, over half the beet juices were dumped into the bay, some of the crop was left to rot, and now a loss of 63,000 dollars. The town had already given 25,000 to the enterprise, and now a further 110,000 dollars in bonds were issued by private individuals. A new manager took over, but the next season was as disastrous as the previous , the bonds and credits were called in.One report of the day stated :” It is questionable if any town of its size has ever received such a financial blow” .
Wiarton has a terrific first nations legend in the form of Spirit Rock. It is between Wiarton and Whichers point, and when looked upon from the bay, it looks somewhat like a face. It is here where the story of an Indian maiden ends.The story runs along the lines of a local Native woman being kidnapped and carried off by an eastern tribe, where she fell in love and married one of the chieftains.This angered the warriors of that tribe and they killed her new husband, but she had escaped and returned to her tribe where they would have nothing to do with her, as she was a disgrace by willingly marrying into another tribe. Forsaken she flung herself off the cliff, giving rise to this old ditty(maybe Gary can put this to mountain dulcimer music!):
“For hours she stood upon that rocky height
Till nights dark curtain had shut out the light
And hid the cruel rocks from sight
Then , with a cry like lost in woe
She sprang to her death , and her grave below
While moaning winds murmur a funeral strain
And sighing waves echoed a sad refrain”

History and events are numerous in this area, too numerous for this post, but perhaps we can read something about the Jane Millar and other incidents like the mystery of White Cloud Island in 1868, with 3 missing people, one live dog and one dead man named Kennedy, and a handgun nearby. Was it murder??

You must drop by the waterfront park, whenever you are here, enjoy Wiarton, and all it has to offer. If it is winter, take time to see Willie and his predictions, and enjoy the festival.