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Midwestern

Meaford To Make Trout Hollow Trail Access Easier

Meaford council plans to help promote an internationally famous conservationist by making it easier for hikers to get to a walking trail set up in his memory.

Council voted on Monday to support a motion by Councillor Mike Poetker. That resolution called for municipal staff to prepare a report on various ways to make it easier for hikers to gain easier access to the Trout Hollow Trail.

Trout Hollow was once the site of a rake handle factory owned by William Trout of Meaford. Near the factory was a log cabin, the home of naturalist John Muir who worked at the factory between 1864 and 1866. When Muir invented a device that increased production at the factory, Trout gave him more free time to explore the southern Georgian Bay area. Unfortunately, a fire destroyed the rake factory in 1866. Unable to find full-time work locally, Muir returned to the United States.

After being temporarily blinded in an industrial accident. Muir vowed to “give up the works of man” if he recovered his eyesight. Then, when he regained his eyesight, Muir set off to hike across America and carry out his studies of the natural world. Muir later helped US president Teddy Roosevelt set aside huge tracts of land and turn them into America’s first national parks.

Since the late 1990s, The Canadian Friends of John Muir set up many projects to encourage conservation and keep Muir’s conservation legacy alive. One of their projects was creating the Trout Hollow Trail and setting up interpretive plaques at strategic points along its course.

As a result, Poetker says, “visits to the trail have increased and are expected to increase further.”

Municipal staff were also directed to have their report completed before work begins on Meaford’s 2017 budget.

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