Buxton National Historic Site preserves one of the strongest Black history stories in southwestern Ontario. The Elgin Settlement was founded in 1849 as a planned community for fugitive slaves and free Black settlers, with land, schools, churches, and trades forming a self-reliant village.
The museum includes exhibits, an 1861 schoolhouse, a log cabin, a barn, and the surrounding cemetery landscape. It is quiet rather than theatrical, which suits the place: the power is in seeing how a community built freedom into ordinary institutions.