Physiography of Culross Township

"The land is chiefly rolling, diversified by occasional flat stretches, with here and there a sprinkling of swampy area; while the soil may be described as second to none over a large porton of the surface - the average of the whole being a high one. It is drained by the Teeswater River and its affluents, this being itself an affluent of the Saugeen." - Illustrated Atlas of the County of Bruce - 1880.

The physiography of Culross Township was determined by the Wisconsin Glaciation which ended about 10000 years ago. Culross is covered by glacial features such as moraines, spillways, drumlins and eskers. All Our Yesterdays - A History of Culross Township notes that during its retreat the main glacier split into a Lake Huron lobe and a Georgian Bay lobe. The split occurred in southwestern Culross and as this feature was stationary for many years the glaciers created the moraines known locally as the Alps. At a later stage in the retreat a large low lying area to the north acted as a shallow catch basin for many years and this resulted in the formation of the Greenock Swamp.

This is an image from the Earth Resources Technology Satellite (ERTS) on 31 Jan 1973. ERTS was a forerunner of the Landsat satellite and had a much higher resolution than most satellite images allowing us to see the grid in some areas. The dark area in the lower left is the Greenock swamp which covers the southwest corner of Greenock Township and extends into Culross. The Teeswater River flows through the swamp. It is a heavily forested area which has not been penetrated by roads and is one of the largest swamps left in Ontario. The clouds over Georgian Bay are due to cold southeasterly winds flowing from the land over the water. This is the opposite to the usual pattern of northwest winds bringing heavy snowsqualls from Lake Huron over Culross Township. Culross averages about 120" of snow a year. The image below shows a topographical map of the southwest corner of Culross Township. The brown height contours show that it is a region of small but steep hills. There are numerous small lakes. The area on the boundary with Turnberry Township is an extensive peat bog. The green shading indicvates that much of the area has reverted to forest becuase of its unsuitability for farming.