Minden Hills Museum & Heritage Village Tour

Where Road and River Meet

Welcome to Minden Hills Museum & Heritage Village, part of Minden Hills Cultural Centre. Minden Hills is centred around Bobcaygeon Road and the Gull River. Two major forces of change, these transportation links brought immigration and industry to the area. Bobcaygeon Road was a ‘colonization’ road the government built in 1856-1859 to attract farmers and open this area up to European settlement. The Gull River was a major waterway lumberjacks used to transport millions of logs from forests to factories.

Farmers and loggers did not always see eye to eye, with plenty of conflicts over logging rights and road maintenance. But together they built tight-knit communities with fiery determination. A visitor to the area in the 1880s, author Pelham Mulvaney, described a dance at Daniel Buck’s hotel in Minden “which commenced on New Year's Eve, 1864, and lasted, with slight intermissions, for four days and five nights.” Buck’s hotel, now called the Dominion, still stands on Minden’s main street and continues to be a centre for community events today.

In 2001, Minden, Snowdon, Hindon, Lutterworth and Anson came together to form the present Township of Minden Hills. These communities share a history of surviving floods, fires and crop failures with gritty perseverance. Discover some of the history of this area by exploring Minden Hills Museum & Heritage Village at Minden Hills Cultural Centre. For more information and to find out what’s happening at the Cultural Centre, visit www.mindenhillsculturalcentre.blog