Sainte-Marie Among the Hurons in Midland is Officially Off My Bucket List.’
While many people write New Year’s resolutions that they rarely keep, we take a different approach. Instead, we kick off the year with a curated bucket list of scheduled day-tripping adventures. ‘Which, by the way, we do keep.
So, with the rising cost of gasoline and repairs to the old work beater that seem to escalate with the times. Travel plans to venture abroad have been altered a tad. Sadly, visiting the docked USS The Sullivans in Buffalo, NY, is out of the question, and even another trip back to the Netherlands might be on my next year’s bucket list.
But for now, we plan to travel locally, and daytripping adventures are in the works. So, as I’m stroking off the many interesting places we have visited in our area, the sub-title says it all for our next stop.
This fascinating day-tripping adventure at “Sainte-Marie Among the Hurons” on Georgian Bay will do just fine.
**** Did you know this historical site started around 1639 to 1649, when the French Jesuit Priests settled in the area now called (Sainte-Marie among the Hurons)? It was built, and housed Wendat, fur traders, general workers and farmers who came to the new world, looking for a new life.
For you, that’s not familiar with the word Wendat: Historically — The French often referred the First Nations, Indigenous people as the –“Wendat or Hurons.”
The moment you stepped out of your car, you knew this place had history written all over. You are instantly greeted with the outside décor that takes you back in time to when fur traders ventured these parts and the famous Hudson Bay Company.
The grounds have a unique long house replica that you would remember seeing in the movie (Black Robe), a chapel and sleeping arrangements for the Jesuit Priests surrounded by a high timbered fortress fence. Inside one of the log houses lay the quarters of the workers with beds nicely laid out. And tour guides dressed as French Jesuit Priests in their long black robes roaming the grounds was a Kodak moment for photographers.
As mentioned, if you readers had a chance to watch the movie “YouTube trailer Black Robe,” it would give you the same sense of living amongst the Huron people. The long houses, the chapel with a dirt floor, the sense of being back in time six hundred years.
Did you know that the original Black Robe movie received excellent reviews and was filmed in beautiful Quebec, Canada. And by the looks of the movie and Sainte-Marie Among the Hurons in Midland, “they could have been one of the same place.
After a day spent at Sainte-Marie Among the Hurons, we decided to visit another historical site called Penetanguishene. “Penetang for short,” There we took in the sights of “Discovery Harbour.“
Here is another point of interest: while in this beautiful area of Canada that legitimately boasts crystal-clear water, catering to recreational and sailboats of all sizes coming and going, this is also a must-see.
Discovery Harbour Penetanguishene, Ontario
- As a land-lover, I must confess, I love the mystique of tall ships — the open sea with that sense of adventure and excitement. The Discovery Harbour website sums it up this way: >>> The roots of the Discovery Harbour area date back to 1793, when Sir John Graves Simcoe scouted Penetanguishene Bay as a strategic site for a naval base. The steep-sided, deep-water bay would be an ideal spot to protect and maintain tall ships at the time. The bay could also serve as a vital transport link from York (Toronto) to the northwest.
The War of 1812 between Britain and the United States sparked the construction of an active naval dockyard at Penetanguishene. By 1817, the British Navy, anxious to patrol and protect the Upper Great Lakes against a future attack, began building the Naval Establishment.
And then there was this interesting caption:
As you leisurely walk the grounds of historic Discovery Harbour with an ah, you’ll notice an interesting but small military cemetery. There you will find 2 headstones with weather-worn, unreadable inscriptions of three “unknown” individuals from the 19th century.
Through further investigation into what is being said about these poor souls, I found this.
These stones honour two brothers who were soldiers and a young girl. One shared a dual marker, dedicated to these brothers, John and Samuel McGarraty, who were Privates in the 79th Regiment. They died of exposure to the elements and exhaustion in June 1831 while marching to the Penetanguishene outpost.
Roseanna McCabe: The second stone marks the grave of a young girl. Historical records do not explain her background or how she died.
However, these markers serve as a stark reminder of the harsh realities of life and travel in the Canadian wilderness during the early years of the 1800s. procrastinators in Kitchener? Hell yes. The area is filled with Canadian proud history, and bonus, this area goes back a long way.
Both of these fascinating day-tripping adventures are in Ontario, and 20 minutes apart from each other.
- Disclaimer: Even though this may come across as an advertisement, it’s not. We just had another fun daytrippen adventure in Ontario to write about.
Today, I can cross off two fascinating places we visited on my bucket list.
*** At the end of the day, “Would I recommend this daytrippen adventure to you couch potatoes in Toronto, or procrastinators in Kitchener?” Hell yes. The area is filled with proud Canadian history, and bonus — this daytripping adventure is one of the oldest in the area. ***
Last comment — On returning home from the museum, I received a text message asking if I would leave a comment on our experience.
“” This is what I wrote back. “”
We have been to Sainte-Marie among the Hurons many times in the past. So, today, we decided to do another daytrippen adventure back to Midland, Ontario. With the hustle and bustle of city life, it was pure joy to spend a few tranquil hours away from all the madness. Would I recommend this place to anyone with all this unique Canadian history? “Hell yes I said.” That summed up our day-tripping adventure.
