Haliburton Highlands Museum

The museum is the best place to learn about the area you have chosen to visit, familiarize yourself with your new surroundings if you are moving here, provide you with the information you are looking for, or to simply while away an afternoon.

The coming of the railway in 1878 was supposed to be a boon to the area facilitating commerce with larger centres further to the south. It was not to be. With the opening of the West many settlers left for greener fields. Later yet, many were relocated to the Clay Belt of northern Ontario.

The lumber industry continued to prosper and a tourism industry was actively promoted. With our many lakes the area has become a haven for cottagers. Four season activities are readily available for anyone with an inclination to enjoy our great outdoors.

  The museum is situated in Glebe Park on the north shore of Head Lake overlooking Haliburton Village. It was started by a local committee as a Canadian Centennial project to commemorate the early pioneers of the area. Originally housed in the Reid House, a historic village home, the collection soon outgrew the confines of this little house. A much larger facility was constructed in Glebe Park in order to meet the museum's growing requirements.

Reid House was picked up and moved to its new location and was refurbished as a typical village home reflecting life at the turn of the century. In subsequent years a log barn, house and small building housing our forge were added to the museum grounds in order to depict life in a more rustic & rural setting.

The main gallery facility houses numerous thematic exhibits relating to the first inhabitants of the region, the native peoples, who were followed by the first influx of lumbermen and settlers. It seems difficult to believe today the area was promoted for its agricultural possibilities by the Canadian Land and Immigration Company who purchased ten townships in the surrounding area. Unable to wrest a living from the poor soils the settlers turned to logging and trapping to supplement their meagre lot.