Welcome home.

The 103rd Buxton Homecoming. September 4 to 7, 2026, at the Buxton National Historic Site in North Buxton, Ontario.

Friends,

On Labour Day weekend, for the 103rd year running, Buxton again throws its gates and hearts open. Come and join us. We're calling everybody home for the famous parade down A.D. Shadd Rd, grudge-match baseball and basketball all day, thirty years of shined-up classic cars, live bands, a Saturday-night DJ dance party that runs late, a marketplace full of untold treasures, and every corner filled with kids who will not sit down.

Why do we do it? This ground was cleared by hand before Canada was even Canada. This is Raleigh Township, farmed into being through determination and faith. Some of us followed the North Star up the Underground Railroad and built this Elgin Settlement into a place to be free. Some of us came as Loyalists and settlers to find better lives. We stayed. We farmed. We raised our children up the road from one another. We became friends and neighbours.

We became a community.

There's a bell at the museum that used to ring the day somebody made it to freedom. Everyone would drop everything and come running with blankets, food and support. One hundred years back, our great-aunts and great-grandmothers did the very same thing again under a pear tree and called it a picnic. We've been coming home every September since. The power of community isn't just our theme for the weekend; it's the reason any of us are here at all. Think about that. Nobody came to freedom alone.

A hundred years later, that same togetherness looks like a grudge-match ball game and a swarm of kids high on glitter tattoos. Same spirit, better snacks. Big fun weekend, very deep roots. You don't have to be from here to belong here. Whether your people helped clear this land or you just heard the music from the road, you're one of us the minute you show up.

Welcome home.

The 103rd Buxton Homecoming

• Friday · the Buxton History and Genealogy Conference, nine to five, and the Walk to Freedom at the end of the day
• Saturday · ball tournament, the Giant Yard Sale and Swap, and Party in the Park after dark
• Sunday · church, meals, square dancing and the evening program
• Monday · the parade at half past twelve, the car show, the vendors and the whole grounds open