Goderich Historian Talks About Challenging Times in Huron County

by Bob Montgomery

Goderich Historian and retired History Teacher David Yates will be the guest speaker of the Huron County Historical Society at a zoom presentation this Wednesday (January 17th, 2024).

David Yates will talk about the disasters, both man-made and natural, that have tested the resilience of Huron County residents since the beginning of European settlement. Yates says the disasters range from the extermination of the Passenger Pigeon, which was natural, to some that were self-inflicted, like the great fire of Seaforth in 1874, which destroyed about five acres of the downtown area. And he points out, that led to the construction of some of the magnificent brick buildings that now define the main street of Seaforth.

One event that most people can still remember is the tornado that ripped through Goderich in 2011 and one of the messages from that is that even in the modern age we are still subject to the forces of Mother Nature, and she usually wins. Another fairly modern event was the flood in Exeter in 1969 which he says would be almost unthinkable today, and people still remember the 1971 blizzard and where they spent those three days and two nights. And we're still impacted by our natural environment along the shores of Lake Huron.

Yates says the cyclone that hit Goderich in the summer of 1995 sent a message and emergency planning in Goderich stemmed from that cyclone, and that event was partly responsible for the rebuild in the year following the tornado. He also points out through all of the disasters the county has had to deal with, it's residents have been remarkably resilient. He says the tornado took one life and injured several more people and in its wake left about 150-million dollars in damage to the downtown core buildings, but within a year the town was well on its way to recovery. And he says that same determination prevailed about 150 years earlier with the fire in Seaforth when, within a year the old wooden buildings were replaced with even better brick buildings.

Yates will be hosting a zoom meeting on the Challenging Times of Huron County on Wednesday, January 17th at 7pm.

For more information visit the Huron County Historical Society website, and click on News & Events.

photo courtesy of the Huron County Historical Society