The Cheltenham Badlands

       Recently, we visited what is known as the Cheltenham Badlands where Medina shale, a red and green sediment is quite pronounced here. This type of landscape is expected in the Alberta Badlands where years of water and wind erosion have worn through layers of shale, leaving a barren landscape, but not in Ontario.
       Once, the area was covered with a forest and soil. But settlers moved in, cleared the land and allowed cattle to graze here. Erosion occurred, exposing the hard surface beneath, where nothing would grow. However, the rolling hills contained the ingredients for brickmaking, resulting in the villages of Terra Cotta and Cheltenham brickyards to spring up. Brickmaking was no longer needed, and so the villages no longer prospered. Terra Cotta has become a small residential community, but Cheltenham only contains remnants of the kilns.
       The badlands are worth a visit. They are located beside Old Baseline Road between Highway 10 and Mississauga Road. In 1999, the Ontario government acquired ownership and transferred it to the Ontario Heritage Foundation. It has become part of the Bruce Trail Association.