Editor's Note: This story has been edited and a reference to quarries in the area has been removed.
Scout Valley, on the western edge of Orillia, is 228 acres running south from Old Barrie Road to Forest Home. The interlobular moraine and river valley were formed by the melting of the Wisconsin glacier that once covered all of Ontario to southern Ohio over 120,000 years ago. It started to melt 22,000 years ago which formed Glacial Lake Algonquin in this area 12,400 years ago.
Several aquifer springs and seeps can be observed rising up from deep under the glacial till and flowing into Mill Creek which flows into Lake Simcoe. These cold, fresh waters are so important to the cold-water fisheries and general health of Lake Simcoe.
The Boy Scout movement came to Orillia in 1917 and scouts would form a group and hike to an area carrying everything with them that they would need for a camping weekend. The first Orillia, second Orillia and third Orillia Scouts all used the area for camping in the 1930s and 1940s; it became known as Scout’s Valley.
I have seen photos of the third Orillia camping in Scout’s Valley as late as 1955. A 1954 map shows the Orillia Highway 11 bypass running through Scout Valley; after the bypass was constructed, the scouts moved their camping trips to more remote locations. By the time the fourth Orillia were camping, they used an area along Swift Rapids.
Many people continue to use the old name Scout’s Valley, but the name was changed to Scout Valley by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources when they did their mapping updates in the early 2000s.
Mill Creek in Scout Valley has always been well known for its abundance of fish and at one time was considered one of the best trout streams in Orillia, second only to Brough’s (Bluff’s) Creek.
I have reports from Clayton French, Bill Hobson, Bill Rands and Ernie Hucker who all remember catching brook trout in Mills Creek in the 1940’s and all the way to as late as 1961 while camping at Jordon’s Pit in Scout Valley; all remember an abundance of white suckers in the creek.
A group was formed in the early 1970’s to bring a college to Orillia. They purchased land in Scout Valley from several landowners and set up the Simcoe College Foundation. The property, consisting of 228 acres, was purchased from five separate landowners.
The Simcoe College Foundation, when they did not realize their dream of bringing a college to Scout Valley, dissolved in the early 1990s. Five groups filed to take over the land which included Soldiers' Memorial Hospital, Orillia Naturalists’ Club, St. James Court, and Georgian College. The Universal Fellowship of White Light Society also filed to be added to the list.
The land, however, was given to Georgian College. Scout Valley was purchased by the City of Orillia in August 1998 for $235,000 which was paid to Georgian College.
A Scout Valley subcommittee under the city's environmental advisory committee (EAC) was set up to look after Scout Valley from 1998 to 2005 and I chaired this committee.
A new parking lot was built off Old Barrie Road and another from Line 15 Oro-Medonte. A third parking lot for the area is at Forest Home behind the church.
The committee laid out trails, produced maps, and erected signs at access points in 1999 and 2000. A field stone fence was built in 2003 along the Line 15 parking lot. This fence was dedicated to the pioneers who cleared the land in the area. A lookout observation platform was built on the ridge along the Algonquin Trail overlooking the valley in 2004 by the Orillia and District Construction Association.
In 2005, city staff took over the snow removal and maintenance of the parking lots and garbage pick up. The responsibility of Scout Valley was moved from the EAC committee to the City of Orillia Trails for Life Committee in the fall of 2005 by the City of Orillia. I chaired this committee from 2005 to 2011.
In April 2005, 2,000 tree species were planted in Scout Valley. There have been three other planting operations since 2005. For two of these, I engaged Kids For Turtles Environmental Education and the Friends of Scout Valley when jack pines were also planted.
We rebuilt the Regan House in Scout Valley in 2010 and planted pollinator gardens and a three-sisters garden near the Regan House.
Three connecting recreational trails were changed in spring 2005 to provide loop trails from each of the three parking lots. Twin Lakes Conservation Club and community members helped build two bridges and six boardwalks over wet or damp areas that were being destroyed by foot traffic.
The Ganaraska Hiking Trail was routed through Scout Valley in the spring of 2005. In 2023, two new trails, Uplands Trail and Homestead Extension Trail, were added to the three existing trails: Sugarbush Trail, Algonquin Trail and Homestead Trail.
Residents of the City of Orillia and the area are fortunate to have an ecological park within the city limits at Scout Valley. This beautiful 228-acre property adds to the city’s green space, provides recreational opportunities for residents, and a corridor for wildlife movement.
Scout Valley provides a beautiful natural area to walk year around and is in the city's Official Plan to be preserved in its natural state.
This natural area, an oasis in the desert of housing developments that will soon surround it, will be the jewel in the crown as Orillia develops. It will be like Central Park in downtown New York City which provides so much now to city residents in green space and recreation.
To celebrate Earth Day 2023, on Saturday, April 22, we are organizing a spring clean-up of the three parking lots and trails in Scout Valley. Meet at the Regan House at 10 a.m. on Saturday and join us in cleaning up the garbage and pet waste along the trails. I will guide a nature walk after the clean-up and we can enjoy some of the early flowers already in bloom and the birds that are now making their spring mating calls.
