Milford
Milford village and its beautiful millpond are situated near the upper end of the Black River. In the 1800 and 1900s Milford had flourishing sawmills, grist and carding mills, and craftsmen built schooners that were floated down the river to Lake Ontario.

Mount Tabor Playhouse
In 1967 the Township of South Marysburgh purchased Mount Tabor United Church from the United Church of Canada. The building was used annually during the fair. In the mid 1980’s the Marysburgh Mummers began using the playhouse for productions. As the productions and participation increased, the theatre was improved. Mount Tabor was rented for various concerts and live theatre productions due to the intimate theatre setting with excellent acoustics. In 1997 the Township of South Marysburgh, the South Marysburgh Recreation Committee, the Milford Fair Board and the Mummers started a major renovation of the back room of the theatre. Bredin Hall was built to replace the old leaky back room. On January 1, 1998, the County of Prince Edward became the owner of Mount Tabor Playhouse through amalgamation. Over the course of time, Mount Tabor has become the focal point of community theatre in the County and popular for Live Theatre, Concerts, Jamborees, CD Launches, Parties and Weddings.

Located in South Marysburgh ward overlooking South Bay is the
Mariners' Park Museum and the Mariners' Lighthouse.
Its mandate is the preservation and interpretation of the significant
maritime history of Prince Edward County and the Province of Ontario,
and to help visitors rediscover their rich maritime heritage and that
wonderful pioneering spirit which enabled commerce in this developing new country to be conducted in a human and meaningful way. It does this by the preservation of tangible evidence of the lives of those who sailed the lakes, or seas, or, as fishermen, sought to wrest a living from the nearby waters.
The museum portrays how local families and their work were affected by the waters around the county.

Many hundreds of nautical artefacts of early vessels of the Great Lakes, both steam and sail, from papers, photographs, vessel models, early motors, various types of engines, deck houses, to early birch bark canoes (1700s), even a Lighthouse, are displayed for "hands on" inspection and enjoyment.

False Duck Island Lighthouse
On March 25, 1828 the Province passed an act granting
1000 British pounds for the erection of a "good and sufficient
lighthouse on False Duck Island."

Three commissioners were appointed to supervise the construction to be situated on theeast point of False Duck Island three miles off Point Traverse, at the South Eastern corner of the County of Prince Edward.
The lantern, manufactured in England, housed a fresnal lens of French manufacture. Its tower was 62 feet above highwater. The fixed white light beacon could be seen for 13 miles. The last lighthouse keeper was James McConnell, who extinguished the light in the lighthouse on November 3, 1965. Following its closure the iron superstructure, lantern and light were donated to the Prince Edward Historical Society to become a memorial to the County's many sailors. It was erected at what are now adjoining Mariners' Park Museum, Lighthouse Park, and South Bay.

Little Bluff C.A.
Steeped in history and rich in natural features, this conservation area,
located atop a 20 meter high limestone bluff, commands a panoramic
view of Prince Edward Bay and the rugged shoreline of the southern
reach of the county.
This quiet shoreline is actually a barrier beach,
effectively protecting a small wetland from the windswept waters of
Prince Edward Bay. Here, Canada geese, mallards, great blue herons,
bitterns and Virginia rails find the protected habitat they require. Here there are remains of grain storage and docking facility where schooners once loaded barley destined for Oswego.

The County’s Cheese Production

To truly understand the history of cheese making in the County, you must first know something of its rich marine and agricultural history. It is hard to separate the County’s history from the history of the numerous cheese factories that once were here. The County was settled by the United Empire Loyalists (UELs) in 1784, most of them having left the United States at gunpoint.

After the war of Independence, they were viewed as traitors, and
nicknamed Tories. The UELs cleared their land, built log cabins and
developed communities. It took many years for a dairy industry to
develop. The industry developed most rapidly following a 50-year
period (1850-1900) of tremendous prosperity that history has named
the "Barley Days", when malting barley was grown and shipped in
locally made schooners to breweries across Lake Ontario and sold at
a premium price as it was highly regarded by the American brewers.

This all ended in 1900 when the Americans created a free trade barrier called the McKinley Tariff. Farmers were looking for another source of income and an existing dairy industry expanded very quickly when new markets for cheddar cheese were found in Great Britain.
Because of our proximity to the shipping ports in Lake Ontario, the 90 pound round cheeses of that period could be loaded locally and shipped to Montreal for overseas export. The local cheese auction was centralized in Belleville in the 1940's and a Dutch clock method was used to sell the cheese.

Since no form of refrigeration existed the perishable milk was delivered 7 days a week, and kept cool in wells in the summer. Most farms were within a 3-mile radius of the factories because of poor roads and the perish ability of the milk. It was an early morning job to get the cows to the barn, milk them by hand, and have the milk in the milk cans by 7 am to be picked up by the milk man.

The factories were seasonally operated, usually opening in April when pasture for the cows became available, through till the end of October, usually the end of the outdoor pasture season. The factory would remain closed over the winter until the following year.

Attractively situated on the Milford Mill Pond, one of the features of this
area is the historic Scott's Mill. Once open to the public, the mill is closed
now, but a volunteer group is currently in the process of maintaining the site.

The property also contains the Milford Dam.

Scott's Mill

Beaver Meadow C.A.
This area features a large wetland that harbours beavers, wood ducks, osprey and herons. Deciduous woods and a large plantation of wildlife shrubs on the property are excellent for songbirds. There are two short hiking trails each ending at a scenic observation platform overlooking the wetland.
Wild ginger, trilliums, baneberry, jack-in-the-pulpit and Indian-pipe are some of the wildflowers that may be found here, along with a mix of deciduous trees including white birch, American beech, black walnut, butternut, shagbark hickory and 6 species of maples.
When the property was set aside as a conservation area in the 1970s, a number of wildlife shrubs were planted in the fields beside the access road such as caragana, nannyberry, highbush cranberry, multiflora rose, dogwoods, sumacs and both Russian and autumn olives.
For a short, but intense period in the early 1900s Beaver Meadow existed as an experimental farm complex. G.W. McMullen was involved in growing celery and mushrooms, harvesting sugar turnips, producing maple syrup, raising chickens and manufacturing explosives. Quinte Conservation acquired the property in 1970 to be managed for wildlife.

Following the American Revolution of 1776 the Township of Marysburgh was one of many established for the settlement of United Empire Loyalists. Named in honour of Princess Mary, a daughter of King George III, it became home to a small group of disbanded German mercenaries under former Lieutenant Baron von Reitzenstein. This party, numbering about 40 persons, was one of the earliest German-speaking groups to settle in Ontario.

Waupoos

Waupoos (named for the Indian word for rabbit) has a colourful history shaped by its once remote coastline and distance from the mainstream of commerce in the old days. Settled in 1783, Waupoos fostered shipbuilding, fishing, farming, canning and even rum running during Prohibition. Always agricultural, the beautiful settlement grew and canned its own supplies. The last canning factory is now the Waupoos Marina.

Locals tells how rum runners once hid their booze from the feds by
moving it from Main Duck Island to the Waupoos shoreline where
a human chain transported it to the safety of a farmer’s barn until
the coast was clear.

Lake on the Mountain
Lake on the Mountain is a natural curiosity: it has a constant flow of
clean, fresh water, with no apparent source, 60 metres above
Lake Ontario. Mohawks offered gifts to its spirits, while settlers thought
it was bottomless. It defies all known geographical and geological theory because
Lake on the Mountain has no visible water source. The mystery of the lake has played a prominent role in the cultural history of the land the Mohawks called it Onokenoga, or Lake of the Gods, and believed that spirits dwelled within its deep waters; each spring they offered gifts to the spirits to ensure a successful crop in the coming year. Early settlers believed the lake was bottomless and still others thought Lake on the Mountain led to a subterranean passage and distant water source.

Prinyer’s Cove
Prinyer's Cove is a deep, sheltered anchorage on the tip of Prince Edward County near the Upper Gap. It was first occupied by First Nations people millennia ago. The story of Prinyer’s Cove links back to a small band of defeated and exiled Highlanders. In 1745 Charles Edward Stuart, or Bonnie Prince Charlie as he was known, descendant of the (eventually) headless Charles I and his heirs, decided to invade England by way of Scotland and restore the Stuart family fortunes. Initially, the rising was a startling success. The Jacobite army rapidly broke out of the Highlands, capturing Edinburgh and advancing as far south as Derby in England. However, with no sign of French support, the army retreated back to their stronghold in the Highlands. Finally, at Colloden Moor, near Inverness, on April 16 1746, two thousand Scots were cut down and butchered in the space of thirty minutes. The rebellion was over. In the aftermath of the ’45 uprising the English decided to end the Jacobite military threat once and for all. Jacobites were rounded up, imprisoned or executed. The only way for a Scot to wear a kilt and carry a claymore was to serve in an English highland regiment. In despair, and with their culture and way of life destroyed, many did just that. Archibald Macdonnell was the leader of a handful of Scots families whose men attached themselves to Sir William Johnson's 84th Highlanders in the Mohawk Valley during the American Revolution. When the English cause was lost, they found themselves in a refugee camp opposite Quebec City.
After an arduous journey to the "Cataraqui towns" in the spring of 1784, MacDonnell landed his group of highlanders, German, English and Irish soldiers on the shores of Grog Bay, which soon took the name of Macdonnell's Cove. They camped in tents and brush huts, waiting for John Collins to complete the survey of the township so they could draw lots for their farms.
MacDonnell established his own house on the shores of the cove - built by the ship's carpenters, it was said. As there was at that time no local system of government, he filled the role of chieftain, arbiter of disputes and spokesman for his settlers for many years. Eventually, he was appointed a colonel of militia and justice of the peace. And so Macdonnell and his people at last found refuge and freedom in the woods of Upper Canada. When Macdonnell died without children, his farm passed to his niece. The name of the quiet cove changed one last time the surname of her husband, John Prinyer.

Glenora Ferry
The Glenora Ferry has long been one of the lifelines of Prince Edward
County. Glenora itself became the heart of community and industry, and
Van Alstine's mill was often the first view of the County for early settlers.
Through the years, several people have managed the vital ferry link with
the mainland, until it became a government-operated, year round service
in recent years. When General Frederick Haldimand ordered the surveying of townships into the western wilderness from the old Province of Quebec to facilitate the settlement of United Empire Loyalists, it was only natural that the north shores of the St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario would be chosen for this purpose. The Loyalists would be settled along watercourses in 1784, which would accommodate transportation and communication. The protected shoreline of the Bay of Quinte and the powerful St. Lawrence River system determined this ribbon development into the interior.
Waves of settlers following the early Loyalists maintained this pattern of settlement along riverfront and lake strand as long as this land was to be found. The wilderness land of Upper Canada could only be traversed with great difficulty. The lakes, rivers and bays became pathways for people and goods in canoes, skiffs, scows and bateaux. An important element in the early marine network was the ferry, the link between path and road and the fording of river and bay.
The Bay of Quinte spawned many early ferries along the shore to link roads and settlements, the Glenora ferry being one of the earliest and most important. Currently bridging the Ontario Heritage Highway 33 across the Bay of Quinte, the Glenora Ferry once linked the pioneer lakeshore road from Kingston to York. The ferry is located at a very narrow part of the Adolphus Reach, less than a mile across this part of the Bay of Quinte.