The Longwoods Barn Quilt Trail is a sister project to the Native Women's Trail of Tears located within the Thames River Watershed. The Chatham-Kent stretch of this trail runs east of Thamesville to just west of Bothwell with six of the thirty barn quilts featured including; Memory, Homeward Bound, Moravian Star, Oil, Maple Leaf and Dogwood. Beyond Wardsville, east of Chatham-Kent, the remainder of the barn quilts follow along Longwoods Road, telling the stories of how women and children fared during the War of 1812. After the Battle of the Thames where Tecumseh lost his life in October 1813, the British army retreated to Burlington leaving the settler and Indigenous communities to fend for themselves at the end of a difficult three-year war.
Your adventure on this trail would be incomplete without a stop at Park's Blueberries. Open from mid-March to Christmas, this beloved stop along the way offers seasonal blueberry picking, treats and giftware. If bus trips make a point to stop here, you should too! In the winter, the trail will lead you to Sloan's Village, Southwestern Ontario's largest U-Cut Christmas Tree farm with activities for the whole family.
