The ''Backus Heritage Conservation Area'' is located in

Norfolk County, Ontario Norfolk County ( ) is a rural single-tier municipality on the north shore of Lake Erie in Southwestern Ontario, Canada with a 2023 population of 73,015. Despite its name, it is no longer a county by definition, as all municipal services are hand ...

, Canada.

Summary

The area contains the Backhouse Mill (known in French as ''Moulin-à-Farine Backhouse'' and containing the alternate name of ''Backhouse Grist Mill''), a

gristmill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that h ...

that was built in 1798. It was one of the few mills to not be burned during the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 was fought by the United States and its allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom and its allies in North America. It began when the United States United States declaration of war on the Uni ...

. The mill stayed in operation until 1957 and is now a national historic site. The conservation area has facilities for both short-term and seasonal camping. This area is full of local history found in the Backhouse Homestead. In September, the area becomes the site of a reenactment of a battle during the War of 1812.Backus Mill
/ref> The Backus Mill Conservation Education Centre features exhibits about the area's natural history and traditions of

waterfowl hunting Waterfowl hunting is the practice of hunting aquatic birds such as ducks, geese and other waterfowls or shorebirds for sport and meat. Waterfowl are hunted in crop fields where they feed, or in areas with bodies of water such as rivers, lakes ...

. The Heritage Village is an

open-air museum An open-air museum is a museum that exhibits collections of buildings and artifacts outdoors. It is also frequently known as a museum of buildings or a folk museum. Definition Open air is "the unconfined atmosphere ... outside buildings" ...

that includes restored or reconstructed buildings and structures, including the 19th century Backhouse Homestead, Backhouse Mill, church, carriage shop, barn with agriculture equipment, drive shed with buggies and wagons, two log houses, schoolhouse, saw mill and farm and 19th century industrial equipment. The Museum building includes exhibits about the Long Point Area, 19th century period business displays, and an exhibit about the

shipwreck A shipwreck is the wreckage of a ship that is located either beached on land or sunken to the bottom of a body of water. It results from the event of ''shipwrecking'', which may be intentional or unintentional. There were approximately thre ...

s of

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( ) is the fourth-largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and also has the shortest avera ...

at Long Point. It also features a fully lifeguarded pool.

References

External links

Backus Mill Heritage and Conservation Centre
- official site
Backus Heritage Conservation Area
at Ontariotravel.net
Long Point Region Conservation Authority
1798 establishments in Canada Mill museums in Canada Museums in Norfolk County, Ontario National Historic Sites in Ontario Nature centres in Ontario Open-air museums in Canada Protected areas of Norfolk County, Ontario Grinding mills in Canada Industrial buildings in Ontario History of Norfolk County, Ontario Long Point Region Conservation Authority {{Canada-museum-stub