Dear Editor,
I would like to submit a clarification/correction on two details of the article titled “Peninsula Bruce Trail Club from the Archives: The Cairn at Tobermory” which appeared in Issue #10.
The article was sourced from archived Rattler Newsletter stories written by Ross McLean about the Tobermory Cairn in 2005 and 2013. Unfortunately, there may have been some confusion about when the Cairn was actually completed due to a sentence in the article.
I would like to clarify that the cairn was indeed completed for the June 10, 1967 ceremony celebrating the opening of the Bruce Trail, but the cairn was not officially unveiled until August 8, 1967 by Lord John Hunt. This was at an event to mark the beginning of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Gold Medal Award winners’ hike along the Bruce Trail from Tobermory to Owen Sound.
The captions on the two photos in the same article, reprinted with permission, from the archives at Bruce County Museum & Cultural Center, contained the caption, “Bruce Trail Cairn- Ceremony unveiling names of youth of British Empire hiking Bruce Trail”. The following full description from the Krug Family Fonds, Negative File Inventory, more accurately describes these photos:
“A crowd of people gathered around the Bruce Trail cairn, along Bay Street, Tobermory, on August 8, 1967, watching speakers at the ceremony commemorating the hike of 27 Duke of Edinburgh Award gold medal winners, representing 14 Commonwealth countries, from Tobermory to Owen Sound. The hikers’ names were officially unveiled by Lord John Hunt.”
Brenda Stewart, Archivist,
Peninsula Bruce Trail Club
