County Road 8 takes the tourist out of Picton, the historic County seat, past the Old Jail and County Courthouse, currently the Archives, where Sir John A. MacDonald, Canada’s first Prime Minister, practiced law in his early career. From Picton, County Road 8 winds through the heart of North Marysburgh, through century farms, apple orchards bending under their weight of harvest, and along the shore of Smith’s Bay to the hamlet of Waupoos. Many first-time visitors comment on the breathtaking views of Lake Ontario, some of the finest in North America.

Further along, at the crossroad with Bongard’s Crossroad, there is a fine old church, the historic Howes farmhouse which now operates the County Cider Company, and a nascent winery, renowned throughout Canada and world-wide, a blueberry farm, and just down the road the Waupoos Estates Winery, glimpsed through a fulminating verge of hollyhocks, daisies and daylilies to rival the finest California estates.

Just down the road, before the historic Rose House Museum, are the two lots that are offered for sale.

Along this portion of the road, the land slopes toward the Bay, with dry-stone walls defining the properties in the old Marysburgh style. Vigorous young woods of oak, cedar, basswood, maple and hemlock clad the hillside. A Marine Museum honors the bravery of the sailors of prior years, and draws many who dive to explore the various wrecks in remarkable states of preservation that litter the cold depths of the Bay. The Black River Cheese Factory, still an area cooperative, produces cheddar, which has garnered awards from as far away as England. Deer, loons, wild turkeys and a plethora of songbirds haunt the shady depths of the forests, while a pub, roadside produce stands, art and antique galleries, and other attractions draw the tourist trade.

As tourism has evolved in the County, family-oriented vacationers have tended to flock to the Sandbanks Provincial Park, the largest freshwater-dune system in the world. However, the Marysburgh area has drawn its own aficionados, chiefly academics, retired people, artists and entrepreneurs whose adventurous spirits find their counterpart in its founding fathers’ zeitgeist. These latter-day settlers and settlers-to-be (for many tourists succumb to its allure and begin calling realtors after the first week) have established outlets for their art, their artisanal cheeses, heirloom vegetables, and other niche businesses such as ostrich ranches, elk antler-velvet farms, wild boar ranches, maple syrup sugarbushes, cactus farms, and, of course, wineries.

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