In the 1850’s, the Province of Ontario began to set up a colonization roads programme to encourage settlement in the pre-Cambrian shield area. The area involved was north of the Severn River and south of the French River between the Ottawa River and Georgian Bay. The roads were surveyed and built through the wilderness at great effort in order to open access to this territory.
Colonization roads are public highways and they still surface to this day in legal arguments about whether a particular tract of land is open for public use, such as by ATV associations or snowmobile associations because of a colonization road. Colonization roads were noted in the long dispute over access along Buckslide Rapids in the Township of Algonquin Highlands. Here is an excerpt from the decision in that case: “Prior to the incorporation of the Township in 1866, colonization roads gave access to the Township of Stanhope. At the south end of the Township was the east/west Peterson Road (now Highway 118) and approximately two miles to the west was the north/south Bobcaygeon Road.”
Purchasers of land in this area should be cautious because unbeknownst to them an old colonization road may cross the land they are intending to purchase and they may end up entertaining ATV associations or snowmobile associations on their lands. The reason this ghost still lingers in the County of Haliburton is that Crown patents usually contain a provision that colonization roads are specifically excluded from the grant. The Crown patent usually contains the following reservation: “Saving, excepting and reserving the surface rights in and over public or colonization roads or any highways crossing the said Land at the date of these Letters Patent.”