Early History of Our Club and the Trail

In this, the 60^th Anniversary year of the Beaver Valley Bruce Trail Club, we are inspired by the following account of the early history of both the Trail and the Club, as written by Ruth Calvert ten years ago, on our 50^th Anniversary.

“… [A]t a 1959 meeting of the Hamilton chapter of the Federation of Ontario Naturalists, Ray Lowes shared with Robert Bateman his vision of a public footpath along the Niagara Escarpment.  To study the feasibility of this trail, the FON set up a “Bruce Trail Committee.”  These enthusiastic supporters organized a series of local clubs along the length of the proposed trail.  Each club was responsible for the planning, construction, and maintenance of the trail in their section.

Keith Solomon, an avid hiker, was the driving force in establishing the “Hiker’s Dream” in the Beaver Valley, and soon landowner permissions and the physical work of establishing the trail began.  This work included choosing the best route, and organizing volunteers to establish a trail from Blantyre to the Blue Mountains above Craigleith.  In these early stages of construction, a handful of dedicated workers gave generously of their time, energy and often financial contributions.

… In 1963, the Bruce Trail Association was formally incorporated … By July of 1963, the Beaver Valley Club volunteers had completed the construction of 42 miles of trail, 32 miles of it surveyed and 12 miles of it on private landowner property, but none of it blazed …  It was time to make the public aware of the exact work that was finished in the BV section, and what more had to be done for its completion.  Friday, September 13, 1963, was the first meeting and official naming of the Beaver Valley Bruce Trail Club, [with four elected officers, led by Keith Solomon, and 17 additional members] attending …

In October 1964, the first organized public hike was held in the Beaver Valley section.  It was a huge success.  Eighty-five people from all corners of Ontario walked all or part of the section of the trail from the Sligo Sideroad to Talisman Lodge in Kimberley.”

Ruth Calvert

The full Bruce Trail officially opened in 1967, with a mission to bring public awareness to the gem that is the Niagara Escarpment by the creation of a trail through it.  

a Trail Becomes a Conservancy

In the ensuing years, the Bruce Trail Association’s mission and strategies have continued to evolve.  Perhaps most importantly, the Bruce Trail became a conservancy in 2007, directly acquiring and stewarding land parcels on the Escarpment, to secure what would eventually become known in our Mission Statement as the “ribbon of wilderness for everyone, forever.”

Our volunteers work to preserve the unsurpassed beauty and history of the Beaver Valley’s Escarpment lands.  The Bruce Trail, in acquiring lands through which the Trail passes, places top priority on preserving significant and delicate natural environments, while keeping farmland in production wherever possible and paying fair market prices for all lands.

wait, there’s more…

Today…

Today, the Beaver Valley Bruce Trail Club’s volunteers maintain 120 km of main trail and 35 km of side trail, and we steward 2662 acres of land (made up of 940 acres owned by the Conservancy, 148 acres covered by easements, and 1574 acres of other lands we steward on behalf of the Ontario Heritage Trust in the Beaver Valley).  The lands we steward are kept free from dumping, littering, and incursions which threaten them, and annual invasive species control efforts continue on these and other local lands.  We also participate in rare and threatened species documentation on these lands.