The Monck Road

Photo by Alan L Brown - July 25, 2005

Plaque Location

The County of Hastings
The Town of Bancroft
In front of a museum on the north side of Station Street just west of the York River bridge

Plaque Text

This road was constructed for the dual purpose of opening up a wilderness area to settlement and providing an alternative, less vulnerable military route between the upper Great Lakes and the Ottawa Valley. Its line from the vicinity of Lake Couchiching to the junction of the Hastings and Mississippi Colonization Roads at the hamlet of York River (now Bancroft), was surveyed in 1864-65 at the time of the American Civil War. Named in honour of the Governor General (1861-68), Lord Monck, construction was begun in 1866 and completed in 1873. Free grants of land along its route were made to persons fulfilling the required settlement duties.