Tourond Creek

History of the site

This ecological waypoint along the Peace Trail takes its name from the creek that winds its way south through the former Gruenfeld village plan. Even up until to the 1940s, it still contained a few bogs with good stands of tamarack trees interspersed with high bush cranberry bushes which in fall women and children of the area would harvest; not infrequently at the risk of stumbling up on a wasp nest hidden among the branches.

Road 35N is the boundary line between Gruenfeld village land and the land occupied by two Isaac brothers and their mother, first referred to as The Isaacs and a later as Schoenau. However, the trail connecting this small hamlet with Gruenfeld retained the name Isaac Road.

Transformation

It’s an ecological Cinderella-story! Most folks in the area simply refer to this site as “the dump”. Because that’s exactly what it was, until the Kleefeld Waste Disposal Site was decommissioned in 2002. A decade later, it was reopened as the Tourond Creek Discovery Centre.

What you see today

Since 2012, the TCDC has played host to school groups, making this a perfect site for kids to explore and learn about nature. Site also includes a picnic shelter, a tower you can climb, a weather station, murals, and as one would expect from the name, a lot of nature! Its trail system winds through wetlands and over its unusual hill, with helpful interpretive signs posted throughout.

Adventurous Peace Trail pilgrims will likely follow the berm lining the east bank of Tourond Creek, and in so doing will encounter a mysterious structure which must have been an animal enclosure at one time, possibly a century ago (ish).

The Tourond Creek Discovery Centre is well established with several welcoming amenities, including a washroom with an ecologically friendly compostable toilet, ample parking, and room for overnight camping.

Dangers include poison ivy and ticks. Also when exploring off-trail, keep in mind this had once been a disposal site. Step carefully.