Chatham-Kent is spread-out southwestern Ontario: farm roads, small towns, Lake Erie shoreline, and a history that is much larger than the quiet landscape suggests. The former city of Chatham sits between Windsor and London, but the real reason to stop is the municipality's role as a northern terminus of the Underground Railroad.
That story is best followed across several sites rather than one monument. Buxton National Historic Site preserves the story of the Elgin Settlement, while the Josiah Henson Museum of African-Canadian History tells the story of the Dawn Settlement and the man whose memoir helped inspire Uncle Tom's Cabin. In town, the Chatham-Kent Museum adds the wider local context, including abolitionist John Brown's Chatham connections.
Chatham-Kent also has a softer outdoors side. Rondeau Provincial Park protects old-growth Carolinian forest, marsh, and a long Lake Erie beach on a narrow sandspit. It is one of the better reasons to make this more than a history stop, especially in spring migration season.
You need a car for the best of Chatham-Kent. The anchors are scattered between Chatham, Dresden, North Buxton, and the Lake Erie shore, so treat the area as a day of short drives rather than a walkable town break.