Lambton Musings LAMBTON’S HISTORY AND HERITAGE NEWSLETTER – SPRING 2024 www.discoveriesthatmatter.ca
All Aboard! David McLean, The Forest Museum Anyone involved in the museum “business” knows how important it is to stay relevant, engaging and interesting to visitors. They also know that providing sufficient space to accommodate our ever expanding collections is critical. With these two “needs” in mind, The Forest-Lambton Museum Society (FLMS) has decided to explore the possibilities of expanding our square footage with an addition to our building PLUS creating what it hopes will be a very “relevant, engaging and interesting” new feature…. What is this new feature? Read on to find out…. First, some background…. As you may know, Forest was founded thanks to the construction of the Grand Trunk Railway in 1859. In those days, locomotives were mainly wood burning, steam powered engines. With the (then) dense forests in our area, and the availability of water from Hickory Creek, this was a good place for locomotives to refuel. In short order, the railway stop attracted business interests and the community’s earliest settlers. It was the railway men who are credited with giving the settlement its simple, but very appropriate name. In the decades that followed the establishment of the Forest Grand Trunk Railway Station, the community grew and flourished. Numerous additional industries and businesses came into existence and close ties developed with the