When Lindsay Lyall was new to Collingwood, it was the local trails that led him down the path to discovering the history of his new hometown.
Lyall moved here in the early 2000s. He built a home beside one of Collingwood’s recreational trails and since then has been a volunteer helping with the upkeep and care of the Collingwood trail network through the work of the Trails Advisory Committee.
While he served on the committee, Lyall was part of the group that introduced interpretive signs along the trail network highlighting Collingwood’s history.
It was his work researching and gathering historic photographs for these signs that helped Lyall learn all about Collingwood’s past.
One of the first signs Lyall worked on was erected at the old Collingwood Train Station - now the Collingwood Museum - and it includes a photo and brief history of the railway freight yard that used to be on the site. The sign is located on the Train Trail.
This interpretive plaque was one of six unveiled in a ceremony at the Collingwood Museum in May, 2011. Lyall helped put together the research for all of them.
“What really drove it was finding a photo,” said Lyall. “The photo makes the interpretive sign … It’s amazing how many businesses and buildings changed and were torn down and nobody took any photos of it.”
Lyall worked with the Collingwood Museum to find the old photos and anecdotes from Collingwood’s industrial era.
Technically, the first interpretive sign was installed in 2009, but it’s not like the others, which are mounted on boards between two black posts.
The 'first' sign is etched in a large stone and tells the story of 13-year-old Glory Whalen, who was murdered in 1903. The stone is the centrepiece of the Glory Whalen Parkette, an initiative led by Dr. Maury O’Neil, a member of the Trails Advisory Committee at the time.
Whalen’s murder remains the longest unsolved homicide in Ontario’s history.
Lyall said one of the most difficult research projects he took on was to find information for an interpretive sign about Crone Bros. Brickworks, a former brickmaking yard located off Poplar Sideroad and Hurontario Street on the Hamilton Drain Trail.
He said it was challenging to find information on the former business until he managed to track down a woman whose father worked there while it was operating. The Simcoe County Archives also contained yearly reports from the Crone Bros. Brickworks that included details like how many bricks were made and sold annually.
“It’s important to learn the history of the town,” said Lyall. “A lot of people like to know what the town used to look like.”
He said he learned, over the years and with each new sign, to make sure his narrative was concise. He also worked with experts on accessibility to make sure the signs were readable for those with impaired vision.
Lyall continued to work on research for the interpretive signs for several years, passing the torch recently to someone new.
“It’s been a very successful program, and it’s been satisfying to see them get in place,” said Lyall.
“The goal was to get people out to explore the trails … the signs were scattered around to encourage people to go for a bike ride or a walk and read about Collingwood’s history," he expalined. "I smile as I go by and see people stopped and reading them.”
But Lyall’s contribution didn’t stop at history - he’s also an experienced number cruncher, and took on the job of running the town’s six trail counters.
He installs them on a local trail, downloads the data quarterly and organizes it into a useful format for use by the trails committee and town council in decision making. The counters keep track of how many people are using the trail and what the peak usage times are.
“We knew some [trails] were more popular than others, but it’s still useful to see the data,” said Lyall.
He compiled the data into charts comparing usage times with weather patterns, and mean daily temperatures.
“In a lot of cases [the information] has just been viewed with interest,” said Lyall. “But it does justify expenditure on trails.”
He said he used a trail counter placed on the Hamilton Drain Trail to compile information to send to the town’s engineering department in planning a new crosswalk for the area.
He takes pride in hiding the trail counters so well even those who know what trails they’re on can’t spot them.
In fact, Lyall takes pride in Collingwood’s trails completely.
In addition to his duties running the trail counters, he and his wife are the trail captains for the north end of River Trail and the eastern extension of Siding Trail. Trail captains are volunteers who regularly “check on” their section of trail to make sure it’s free of debris and accessible. They work directly with town parks staff to maintain the trails.
In Lyall’s mind, the best attribute of Collingwood’s trail system is quantity.
“It’s the fact that there are so many of them,” he said. “I’ve never lived or visited anywhere that has more trails per capita.”
And he knows, because he’s plotted the numbers on a graph before.
Collingwood has more than 60 kilometres of trails winding from east to west and north to south.
One day, Lyall hopes to have a proper gazebo on the Collingwood Museum property, which he said is a major intersection for the town’s trails.
“It’s a focal point of the town trails because that’s where they all meet,” he said.
There’s an existing small gazebo that’s seen better days. Lyall said it was donated, and when they moved it, they had to remove the floor to make it accessible. He’d like to see it replaced.
He also wants to see some of Collingwood’s trails become more accessible to those with limited or impaired mobility and/or vision.
The Collingwood Trails Advisory Committee recently published a new trails map, which is available at many trailheads, municipal buildings, and local businesses.
If you’re interested in volunteering for the trails committee, call 705-444-2500, ext. 3290.
Click here to learn more about Collingwood’s trail network.
