Terrible Woods of Northern Huron County

Northern Huron County was deemed a “terrible woods” that could never be cleared, according to a letter to the Wingham Times Times on August 20, 1903. The letter-writer, who did not sign his name, related the following tale.

“When Mr Jones, the Commissioner of the Canada Company, and some of the company officials met to define the northern boundary of the company lands, they stood on a little knoll near Manchester (now known as Auburn), and Mr. Jones said he would advise the company not to go north of Hullett, and pointing to the wilderness of Wawanosh and Morris, he said those terrible woods will never be cleared, that country is no use. No settler will ever go into such a dreary, dismal place. Fortunately the Canada Company took his advice. Mr. Jones related the circumstances to me sometimes afterward.”

Despite Mr. Jones’ predictions, Huron County’s northern section, which consisted of Morris, Turnberry, Howick, East and West Wawanosh, Ashfield and Grey Townships, were settled and clearing of the forests began. Saw mills popped up along the Maitland River to transform the felled trees into lumber for the houses and factories being built across Upper Canada and overseas. Lumber wasn’t the only resource being removed.

In 1881, in the “wild woods” of Morris, Bennett Ruttan killed a large wild cat, that weighed over 25 lbs. That winter, Mr. Ruttan killed 19 foxes, 16 raccoons, 2 wild cats, 3 minks and 2 otters. Those woods also housed “millions of passenger pigeons” whose annual migrations shut out the sun and darkened the day. By 1903, they had ceased coming to this area and were believed to be migrating to Peru where they were “in countless millions in the vast and dreadful forests along the slopes of the Andes, where none can follow them.”