Road-Tripping Claremont Shoe Tree

Last year we went road tripping around the back roads of south eastern Ontario. At the that time we ended up driving through Claremont, a little town in the northern part of Pickering where I saw this amazing huge old tree with shoes nailed to it from as high as people to get to down to the ground all around the base of the trunk. Unfortunately I did not notice it until we drove past it, and could not turn around. At the time I wasn't even sure where we had traveled too.

When we go out road tripping we we just randomly pick roads by left, right, or heck lets just go straight and see where this takes us! When I had mentioned this to a couple of people they had heard of the "shoe tree" too but could not remember where they had seen it and why this awesome phenomenon had started.

So this year on our fisrt outing of the season we decided to try and it found it with camera ready. Amazingly we picked the right roads and found it with 45 minutes! Unfortuntaly the Shoe Tree was no longer massive amd majestic. Whether through age and or weater the top part of the Shoe  was no more. But that had not stopped people from adding they shoes and paying homeage to the "shoe tree".

Pictures below:

So legend goes that "In Wallaceburg, there was a legend among the natives of Walpole Island of the magic Shoe Tree. It was rumoured that if you hung a pair of moccasins on a sacred tree, it brought you good luck. Bill Boland was intimately familiar with this ancient native tradition and immediately started his own Shoe tree in his adopted area." And if you nail your shoes on the sacred tree, others will follow. Bill’s Shoe Tree become a local landmark. This was the very first Shoe Tree. Others started spouting up not long after.

I hope you are lucky enough to come across one of these Shoe Trees in your travels. They are quite the sight! And to me the trees are telling you are story of all the different kinds of people who believe magic and good wishes can hopefully bring wonder things into your life. 

Good travels and adventures!

* Legend information courtesy Kinmount Shoe Trees