Celebrate YOUR Community – Cayuga

Perched on the banks of the Grand River, Cayuga is well known for its iconic heritage bridge and its drag strip, a hot track for stock car racing, drag racing and motorsports.

Population:  1,622 (2011)

Geographic location:
Cayuga is situated on the banks of the Grand River between Caledonia and Port Maitland.  It is a 20-minute drive from Lake Erie and 30 minutes south of Hamilton.

Historical facts:

• Cayuga was incorporated as a village in 1859 and became the county seat for Haldimand County because of its central location. It is named after the Cayuga, one of the Six Nations of the Grand River Natives who were awarded land in the area for siding with the British in the American Revolution.
• As the county seat, Cayuga was the location of the Court House and jail.  In the late 1700s and early 1800s, public hangings were held in the courtyard and the prisoners buried on site.
• In 1974, the village was amalgamated into the new town of Haldimand within the Regional Municipality of Haldimand-Norfolk.  Cayuga is now an unincorporated community in Ward 2 of Haldimand County.
• Cayuga Bridge, the town’s five-span steel through-truss bridge built in 1924, is currently being replaced.  The iconic heritage bridge carried Highway 3 over the Grand River and was last rebuilt in 1976. It was the only five-span steel through-truss highway bridge in the province, and the longest steel through-truss bridge in Ontario, with a total length of almost 190 metres (615 feet).

Points of Interest:

• The Grand River runs along the western portion of the town and offers fishing and other recreational activities.
• Ruthven Park, located just north of Cayuga, is a 1500-acre National Historic Site featuring the Thompson Mansion, the summer home of the Thompson family who owned the steamship line on the Grand River when it was a commercial route.  The Greek Revival style mansion is open for tours during the summer. (www.ruthvenpark.ca)
• Cayuga Courthouse, one of the oldest Courthouses in Canada, is located at 55 Munsee St.  A functioning jail surrounded by rock walls was attached to the Courthouse until the late 1960s.
• Toronto Motorsports Park has been, under various names, the home of drag racing since 1955.  It originally shared runways with planes on the Kohler Airstrip, built for training British Commonwealth pilots during the Second World War.  (www.torontomotorsportspark.com)
• Taquanyah Nature Centre offers natural history and walking and hiking trails.
• Haldmand County Museum and Archives showcases Haldimand’s heritage.  The Nicholas Log Cabin, built in 1835, was home to the Nicholas family, early settlers to the area.  In 1961 the cabin and its artifacts were moved to Courthouse Park and made a permanent exhibit of the museum.  (www.haldimandcounty.on.ca)

Annual Events:

• CayugaFest is the community’s largest event, held annually during the third weekend of July. This event is staged by local service clubs and offers live entertainment, a parade, crafts and more. (www.cayugafest.com)
• Haldimand Motors Great Tricycle Race is an annual charity event in which Haldimand service clubs, fire stations and high schools compete for cash prizes; the event is a major food drive for Haldimand food banks.  (www.thegreattricyclerace.com)
• Cayuga Santa Claus Parade  (http://www.cayugaparade.ca/)

Sources:  Wikipedia and County of Haldimand websites; http://www.thekingshighway.ca/cayuga.htm; http://www.historicbridges.org; www.torontomotorsportspark.com.

Pssst – we hope you took note of the photos published in this column over the past year – they could be the answers to the contest at the 2014 REALTOR® CONNECTIONS Member Services booth.