Zorra Township celebrates 50 years of local government and countless years of local heritage

Steve Oliver and Maggie McLaughlin handle the grill at the 50th anniversary celebration of Zorra Township on Aug. 12. (Connor Luczka photo)

Connor Luczka, Echo Correspondent

Fifty years ago, the provincial government of the day ordered the amalgamation of various municipalities across Ontario in a broad push to streamline local governance.

All these years later, the community of Zorra Township is one to be celebrated, and celebrated it was. On Aug. 12, the local government hosted a community barbeque in the parking lot of the Zorra Municipal Centre (ZMC), complete with tours of the building, free food and drinks and complementary music, courtesy of Uncle G, a singer-songwriter native to Kintore.

“I'm really surprised and pleasantly so at how many people showed up today for this,” Mayor Marcus Ryan told the Echo during the festivities. “I think it's a testament to how much this this township has done, to (promote) residents, to promote ourselves and say we have come together as a community.

“On a per capita basis, we probably participate at a higher level than a lot of large municipalities, because things feel close. If a business is doing something or somebody's building something, you know the person who owns it or the person who's building it, so people feel connected to it, right?”

As Ryan said, the roots of the township go back much farther than 1975. Before becoming the municipality that it is today, Zorra was split up into East Nissouri, West Zorra and North Oxford. Before then, there was a long history of settlers and Indigenous people living in the area. Although the day was really to celebrate 50 years, in some respects it was a day to celebrate all that came before as well. With the exponential growth the township has seen and will see, Ryan said it is important to continue sharing that shared heritage with longtime residents and newcomers alike.

“Hopefully over the next year, (we can) make people more aware of that part of it as well,” Ryan said.

As part of the celebration, a display in the vestibule of the ZMC had a historical map of the region, linking to a project undertaken by the Beachville District Museum called “Zorra’s Crossroad Communities,” which connects many of the historical hamlets of the area like Cobble Hill and Dunn’s Corners together.

Visitors could scan a QR code and click on the links to the hamlets, where they could learn more about the history of the community. For instance, Bennington, a hamlet just north of Embro that was once a “bustling and dynamic community boasting general stores, a blacksmith, a post office, a community hall, a cheese and butter factory, a flax mill, a steam-powered sawmill, hotels, a train station and schools.”

For Ryan, aside from celebrating heritage, it was important to celebrate the people of Zorra today.

“I see people from every little corner of the township all standing around and having a chat,” Ryan said. “I've talked to people here from Thamesford, obviously, Embro, Harrington, Lakeside, Uniondale, where I'm from. Literally every part of the township.”

For more on the crossroad communities project, or to check out the crossroad communities yourself, visit https://beachvilledistrictmuseum.com/zorras-crossroad-communities.