Barbara Raue

Colborne Ontario and Area in Colour Photos Barbara Raue

Cramahe Township was established in 1792. Joseph Abbott Keeler, son of the first settler of Cramahe Township, founded the village of Colborne in 1815 when he opened the first store and post office. He had the village surveyed, laid out the public square and donated the land. Joseph Keeler (1770-1839) was the first settler who landed on the shores of Cramahe Township with forty United Empire Loyalist families from Rutland, Vermont. Keeler, his son Joseph Abbott Keeler (1788-1855) and his grandson Joseph Keeler (1824-1881) were instrumental in establishing the settlements at Lakeport, Colborne and Castleton. A store established in Colborne in about 1819 by Joseph Keeler provided the nucleus around which a small community began to develop. Within ten years, a distillery and a blacksmith's shop had been erected. Colborne was named after Lieutenant Governor Sir John Colborne. With the establishment of a harbor nearby for the shipment of lumber and grain, Colborne prospered. By 1846, it contained a foundry, a pottery, six stores, three churches, tradesmen and artisans, and about four hundred residents. The arrival of the Grand Trunk Railway in 1856, spurred further growth. In 2001, Colborne and Cramahe Township were amalgamated as part of municipal restructuring to form an expanded Township of Cramahe. Colborne is the home of the Big Apple, a tourist attraction located along Highway 401. The Big Apple is 10.7 meters (35 feet) tall and has a diameter of 11.6 meters (38 feet) - the largest apple in the world. There is an observation deck on top of the apple, a restaurant and a store to buy all your apple treats.