Lake Scugog Historical Society is working to compile history of Scugog's small communities

DAN CEARNS The Standard SCUGOG: The Lake Scugog Historical Society is working to highlight the history of local communities in Scugog, starting with Scugog Island.

“Our historical society is, over the next few years, focusing on some of our smaller hamlets and villages. What we’re trying to do is, put together their history to the depth we’ve done of Port Perry’s area history. This year, we’re looking at Scugog Island, and then in the [Autumn], we’re doing something similar for the Greenbank area,” Historical Society President, Marilyn Pearce, told The Standard.

Next year, efforts will turn to the history of Prince Albert and Blackstock.

“Each year, we are going to try to improve the amount of information we have about some of these smaller villages and areas of Scugog Township,” Ms. Pearce said.

As part of this project, the historical society recently launched a Scugog Island driving tour pamphlet, with a number of historical sites inside, such as the Jimmy Frise Historical Plaque, Scugog Island Hall and Seven Mile Island.

“We had a meeting, and we were talking about other ways of promoting history at the executive level of our board. I had saidwe had just completed a tour of Southwestern Ontario, and although it’s nice to have everything online and digitized to help people find history that way, sometimes people just want to look at a pamphlet when they come to an area about what the area is about. Then we started to think about, ‘what if we had, not a walking tour or a tour of a cemetery, which we already do, but rather a heritage brochure which highlights ten or eleven places. People, even if they don’t want to go on the trip to see it, would have a pamphlet explaining to them why these places are considered part of our cultural heritage,” Ms. Pearce explained.

The pamphlets are expected to be available at the Scugog Chamber of Commerce office, Scugog Memorial Public Library, the Scugog Township Municipal Office and the Scugog Shores Museum. Work is currently underway on the Greenbank pamphlet.

“We’re looking to improve our archival collection. Maybe this will get people to think about a blurb about Seven Mile Island, for example. What else do we know about it? Who’s got pictures of it? Just last week, we had a longstanding family, from the Island, donate four binders of photos of early groups and associations on the Island. We did not have those photos or any of that information [beforehand],” Ms. Pearce added.

The historical society welcomes donations of family photos, early advertisements of what was formerly known as Goreski’s Marina, and historical letters. Those looking for more information on how to help with this project can go online, to lakescugoghistoricalsociety.com or contact the society through their Facebook page.