Spencerville Riverside Park

Spencerville Riverside Park. Why This Place Matters. , Downstream from present day Spencerville, the Roebuck area was once home to 1,600 Indigenous people. Based upon research done by Augusta Township we understand that this park is on aboriginal land that was inhabited by Indigenous peoples for thousands of years. Spencerville is acknowledged to be the traditional territory of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) peoples. For generations aboriginal people were stewards of this land. This river would have been used as a transportation hub and food source long before European settlement., In 1811 when Peleg Spencer made his way north from the St. Lawrence River through wilderness he stopped at Big Creek, later called the South Nation River. There he saw the potential to build a wooden dam and sawmill to serve the needs of settlers in the backwoods of Edwardsburgh Township. His vision led to a series of mills where settlers could bring their lumber to be sawed, their wool to be carded and fulled, their grain to be milled and their animal feed purchased. Around the mills a rural hub developed and in 1855 the first Spencerville Agricultural Fair was held on the south river bank., By the 1930s Spencerville had a large enough population to support a doctor, dentist, pharmacist, several blacksmiths, general stores, churches, schools, two hotels and an indoor arena., The present day stone gristmill beside this park is the last remaining mill on the South Nation River. It operated from 1864 to 1972. In the Spencerville Mill and Museum you can learn about the river, early saw mills, and the development of our thriving community.