Our time along the southern tip of Georgian Bay was quickly drawing to an end but we still had one more destination along the shoreline towards the northwest.
But first I took my final early morning stroll through Collingwood before the family woke up. I retraced some of the more memorable routes from earlier in the week and I spent an inordinate amount of time on the quiet streets of the town’s historic district. This included a signature shopping and dining area along Hurontario Street (map).
That’s an unusual name so of course I researched it. As it turned out, someone smooshed Huron and Ontario together to form a single word because the road originally connected the two lakes. So It’s a portmanteau! I always love a good portmanteau. However, don’t give the unusual name a second though. Downtown Collingwood is a nice place and it seems to be thriving. I missed it after I left.
Owen Sound Marine and Rail Museum
Next we drove about an hour away to Owen Sound in nearby Grey County. Our first stop was the Marine and Rail Museum (also called the Community Waterfront Heritage Centre) on the west side of Owen Sound Harbour (map).
The museum occupies a former Canadian National Railway Station, with the front half focused on railroad history and the back half on maritime history. It’s cute but small, and it doesn’t take long to browse the entire collection including the outdoor exhibits. Even so it’s worth visiting especially when combined with other activities nearby. We figured that out beforehand and we timed our visit to dovetail with lunch.
Brewery #9: Mudtown Station Brewing
And lunch was directly across the harbor at Mudtown Station Brewery. The two were maybe 500 metres apart as-the-crow-flies on opposites sides of the inlet. However, getting there was much more involved than I expected. We had to return to a main road and suffer through two left turns with backed-up traffic and multiple light cycles. It was a rather unusual choke point for an otherwise sleepy town. We got there eventually.
Mudtown, according to the brewery website, referenced an old nickname for the surrounding community. Apparently, mud used to run down from a nearby hill and cover the streets during heavy rains, particularly during springtime.
The brewery building was formerly a Canadian Pacific railroad station. During its heyday, this station and the one across the harbour served two completely different railroads. They did not connect at all in Owen Sound despite their proximity. Imagine the unfortunate passengers who needed to complete their journey on the opposite line!
A huge freighter was moored in the harbour during our visit, the MV Oakglen based out of Montréal. I checked online when I returned home and found more information. CSL (Canadian Steamship Line) operates this “Great Lakes gearless bulk carrier” where gearless means the ship doesn’t have any way to offload cargo. Rather, onshore equipment handles those functions. She was built in 1980 as an oceangoing vessel and later transitioned to the Great Lakes, so she went from a “saltie” to a “freshie”. That’s some new nautical slang I learned.
According to news reports from late 2024, she remained in Owen Sound over the winter. But why was she still there in June 2025? Unfortunately I never solved that mystery but we had a nice lunch anyway and we moved on.
Grey Roots Museum
For our next stop we headed towards the Grey Roots Museum, a collection and archive owned by Grey County (map). I enjoyed the play on words, combining the name of the county, a genealogical term, and geriatric hair in need of a dye job. It seemed appropriate.
There was a lot to see here, in a spacious facility much larger than the marine and rail museum we saw earlier in the day. I remembered that Grey County was apple country so I took this photo of old shipping boxes that once held fruit.
Moreston Heritage Village
Then we headed outdoors to the adjacent Moreston Heritage Village which is part of the same operation (map). Curators moved a bunch of heritage buildings from around Ontario to Owen Sound to recreate a 19th Century village. It becomes a living history museum during the summer but we were just a little early in the season. Plus we got some of that in Penetanguishene a few days before. Even so, we still enjoyed a self-guided tour around the exterior of each structure. It reminded me of the Florida’s Panhandle Pioneer Settlement that we visited a couple of years earlier.
Inglis Falls
Well, we still weren’t done. We had just enough time to visit a lovely waterfall practically next door. Numerous streams cascade from the Niagara Escarpment in all sorts of places although Inglis Falls near Owen Sound (map) is amongst the best. This is part of a conservation area that requires a small parking fee that helps maintain the place. So it’s for a good cause. Plus, after the the falls, visitors can hike through a wide network of wonderfully shaded forest trails.
Articles in the Ontario Series
- Choices
- Downtime
- Lake and Mountain
- Penetanguishene and Beyond
- Lake and Caves
- Owen Sound
- Toronto Orientation
- Toronto Tourist
- Bonus Days
See Also: The Complete Photo Album on Flickr.
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