The Seguin Recreational Trail is 77 km in length stretching from Hwy 400 (Parry Sound) in the west to Elmsdale in the east. The Seguin Recreational Trail runs along the abandoned rail bed of the old Ottawa, Arnprior and Parry Sound Railway, constructed by J.R. Booth, a lumber baron, as a means of transporting lumber from the Ottawa River to Georgian Bay.
The Seguin Recreational Trail is part of the Park to Park Trail. This 230 kilometre trail extends from Killbear Provincial Park along Georgian Bay in the east to Algonquin Provincial Park in the west.
Along the trail there is a sign that reads:
In 1897, J.R. Booth extended the Ottawa, Arnprior & Parry Sound Railway through Depot Harbour on Georgian Bay providing the shortest link to the Upper Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean. He reaped the riches of the timber rights in Algonquin Park and captured the grain trade across the province for more than 30 years. This line eventually became part of the Canadian National Railway. The railway just by-passed the little settlement at Sequin Falls and so a new village sprang up near the tracks.
The Village prospered until a trestle was washed out in Algonquin Park in 1933, causing an end to rail traffic through Seguin Falls. The timber being all but depleted by this time, the tracks were abandoned and the rails eventually torn up in the mid 1950's. The old rail bed became the new Seguin Trail.
This plaque is sponsored by Seguin Township
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