Sinking of the Steamer Asia
Only 2 teenaged Survivors, the female survivor is from Sydenham Township, the ship left Owen Sound and Presque Isle before it sank, the tragedy inquest led to more safety consciousness for Great Lakes ship travel
Transportation
How Captain William Henry Smith Forever Changed Owen Sound
Until 1860, the only dock in Owen Sound was Boyd’s Wharf, owned by the government and located just outside the mouth of the Sydenham River. The Owen Sound Harbour, as it is located today, was inaccessible, due to a sandbar that ran across the mouth of the river.
Owen Sound Street Numbers and Standardized Address Numbering, Introduced 1909
Numbered streets and avenues have been in place in Owen Sound for well over 100 years, even before Owen Sound became a City. At the same time as street names were changed to numbers, the standardizing of street addresses also took place.
John Frost and the Frost Family Story
This is the story of an extraordinary Canadian family, the John Frost Family, who in the early 1840s, discarded their comfortable, upper-middle class life in Bytown – now Ottawa – for the insecurity and uncertainty of life in the wilderness on western Georgian Bay.
1854 Railroad Petition: The Start of a Long and Arduous Journey
On June 27, 2015 an exhibit entitled Arrivals and Departures: The CPR in Grey County opens at Grey Roots Museum & Archives.
1910 Canadian Pacific Railway Diorama now at Grey Roots
In the spring of 2011, Grey Roots was approached by Clive Morgan on behalf of the Bluewater Modellers, with a proposal to build a diorama (a three-dimensional miniature scene) representing the east side of the Owen Sound Harbour circa 1875.
A Steamship Purser’s Kerosene Lantern
Grey Roots acquired a very interesting lantern for the artefact collection earlier this year, and I wish that it could talk, and tell us some stories. It is a brass kerosene lantern, very similar to a railway conductor’s lantern, but its glass chimney (globe) was custom-etched to have a ship’s n
Weather Events of our History
Like most Grey County residents I took the snowstorm of early January in stride, after all, this region of Ontario is hit by so many winter storms that it is practically a regular occurrence, but when the words “blizzard” and “polar vortex” were being bandied about it reminded me of the much love
Out of the Archives…the Tall Ships are coming!
The Tall Ships – 1812 Tour is coming to Owen Sound this week! With this exciting event on the horizon, it is a great time to look back at the anticipation for other big events in the area’s history which took place on the scenic waterfront.
