Rural walking
Riding from Wyman to Shawville, you cross a region with rich agricultural land
which has preserved a surprising bio-diversity. Here wild nature and agriculture
coexist in harmony for the great pleasure of the naturalist who will make many interesting
observations. At the end of this tour, you will discover Shawville, its red bricks houses
and its charm of olden days.
From Pembroke : Follow Highway 148 until Shawville or Wyman towards Hull.
From Portage du Fort : Follow Highway 303 towards Shawville.
From Hull : Follow Highway 148 until Wyman or Shawville.
This tour is 17.3 km long. The complete circle there and back is 34.6 km. The trail is
made with a new surface. It is flat for the whole distance and is a good excursion for the
family. For those who desire a shorter trip, we propose two other tours :
Wyman-Maryland ( 13.2 km there and back) and Shawville-Mc Kee (12.8 km there and back).
Click on the map to enlarge it.
Parking space is available at the Tourist Information Office found in the log house
located near Highway 148 and Wyman Road. Follow Wyman Road until Gold mine Road. You are
at the beginning of the Cyclopark PPJ, at km 0. A tour of 17.3 km leads you to Shawville.
You will cross an agricultural region made up of breeding fields for animals, woods and
some cultivated areas. During the season, you will be able to find plentiful multicoloured
flowers, observe the little wild fruits and taste them as the wild strawberries,
blackberries, raspberries, wild cherries, and wild apples ripen. You will also observe
many wild animals. In May of this year, during some unforgettable excursions, we saw
racoons, a porcupine, skunks, marmots, a bald eagle, a golden eagle, white-tailed deer, a
courting display show of birds and many butterflies...
Wyman : km 0. You will find a picnic area, a Tourist Information
Office, a parking area and the beginning of the Cyclopark. You can leave your car near the
Tourist Information Office and go to the Cyclopark which is located along Wyman Road at
the Gold Mine Road intersection a few hundred metres from there. The surface is new and
the trail flat, with no difficulties.
From departure, the forest makes a vault above the trail. It is really beautiful and
you will have this all along the trail. Notice the many raspberry canes, blackberries
(Pk1) and wild apples. White-tailed deer are fond of these little apples in Fall. About Pk
2, there is a mixed forest with maple trees and prairies where you will see extensive
breeding until Pk 4. Then, there is waste land, leaf and larch trees. Fern and horsetail
covers are located in certain wet undergrowths.
At Pk 6.6, the picnic and
rest area of Maryland welcomes you for a break and relaxation. You can admire a beautiful
rural landscape with the first spurs of the Laurentian Foothills. The Ottawa
River and here, there are two flat banks. We are on the second bank, at its junction with
the first rocky mound which announces a succession of undulating and uneven plains towards
the north.
At Pk 7, you can see the damage caused by the terrible freezing rain which
paralyzed a
part of Quebec this year in January for many weeks. Impressive numbers of trees were
broken under the weight of this ice, totally changing certain forest areas. At Pk 8, you
can see a beautiful undulating landscape where colorful agricultural fields surround
typical farms. At Pk 9, pine forests take the place of cultivated fields and some wild
cherries are located along the trail. Near Line 5 Road which crosses the trail, at Pk 10.4
there are many undergrowth flowers, May flowers, which colour the ground in Spring time.
Mc Kee Road at Pk 10.9 announces a
resting place, picnic tables and a campground where you can pitch your tent.
You cross a little swamp at Pk 12 then you see on your left an old wooden pine timber
farm.
Just after Towline Road at Pk 13,
interpretation panels about the agriculture in the Pontiac region await you as well as
some picnic tables.
You will cross Drapaer Road at Pk 14.4. Some hundred metres further, you can admire the
work of an untiring builder, the beaver. A creek is transformed in into a lake thanks to a
dam of tree boughs which allows many animals to find shelter. Two kilometres and a half
further and you will arrive in the first town of the Cyclopark, Shawville.
Shawville
At Pk 16.8 when you cross Clarendon Street, you enter the town of Shawville.
You will pass between the hospital and the exhibition park and arrive in a service area
at the junction of Centre Road and the Cyclopark, at Pk 17.3. There is a parking lot for
your car and also picnic tables. When you take Centre Street, you arrive in the business
heart of the town. Stores, hotels and restaurants, a museum and a discovery trail of the
town awaits you.
The first settlers of the region were Irish Protestants coming from Tipperary county,
that had emigrated to Canada after the Napoleon wars which ended in 1815.
In 1821, a natives of Carleton, Thomas Hodgins, John Dale and his wife Elizabeth
searched new lands to colonise. They took the Ottawa River with a canoe and landed in a
little bay. The men went to the north searching for a favourable spot for their settling.
They faced thick brushwood, insects and swamps during two days, then they arrived in a
clearing where they built their farms. Many other families of Clarendon joined them. Shops
were created to serve the agricultural community which grew around the site. This site was
called Clarendon Centre. In 1840, Clarendon Centre was a village, small, but prosperous.
On the 12th of January, 1873, a new municipality was born. This new town was
called Shawville, to honour one of the most influential and most prosperous families, the
Shaw Family.
The walking excursion in the touristic history of Shawville began in 1995. This
excursion allows you to discover the historical sites of the village marked by panels with
brochure which is available at the information office.
The excursion begins at Shawville’s train station. The railway line is today a
bicycle trail, but was one of the most visited places in the town, at the turn of the
century. The arrival of the Pontiac Pacific Junction railroad, during the winter in 1886,
was the cause of the biggest celebration in the history of the village. On Victoria
Avenue, we find two of the old hospitals of Shawville. At the corner of Lang Street, we
can see the old house of Dr Powels who opened a hospital in the 1920’s. The big house
at the north of the Street was also a hospital between 1938 and 1946. The visits at home
hospitals stopped when Pontiac’s community Hospital opened. East, we find the exhibit
park, where the most important annual event of Pontiac region happens. The Shawville Fair
Farmers met in 1856 to found Pontiac’s Agricultural Society. The fair continues to
increase with more than 30,000 visitors during the end of the week of Labour Day. A short
step south brings us to Mill Dam Park where in 1858, James Hodgins built a grain mill and
a saw mill. During forty years, this mill served the town until a Fall evening in 1896
when a fire burnt it down. We can see ruins of the dam near the playground and the picnic
tables. It was during the first ten busy years after the arrival of the railroad that the
town centre of Shawville acquired its present style. Because of the prosperity of this
era, new buildings were constructed, such as the G.F. Hodgins Store, now the Stedman
building. If you look towards the second floor, you will certainly see the name Hodgins.
The W.A. Hodgins Store on Main Street has been the property of the same family for 150
years. Two imposing Victorian hotels, the Pontiac House and the Russel House, were in
competition on Main Street. Unfortunately, the two hotels burnt. However, the commercial
centre of the town is still the same as it was a hundred years ago.
The first meeting of the Clarendon Council took place at the Robin McDowell tavern, at
the western limit of the village. Because of McDowell’s alcohol drinks, the
councilors were often in an uncomfortable situation. The district decided that the
situation would be better if they built a town hall one mile east of the tavern. The town
hall was located where you now find the Memorial Park and it was a good place for many
decades. The current town hall was built in 1927 as a post office and a federal building.
The building was given to the village to celebrate its centenary in 1973.
The Pontiac museum located in the old PPJ’s rail station invites you to discover
the past of the region. You will find a turn of the century school room, a general
store, agricultural engines, household appliances and several old objects and clothes.
