Glebe Park is 175 acres of greenspace and woodlands located on the northwest side of Head Lake that includes the Haliburton Highlands Museum, Haliburton Sculpture Forest and the Fleming College Haliburton School of Art + Design. It includes trails for mountain biking, walking, snowshoeing and Nordic skiing.

Unlike in most townships of southern Ontario where the Crown sold or granted most lots directly to individuals that it hoped would settle the land, it parcelled off nine townships (Dysart, Dudley, Harcourt, Guilford, Harburn, Brunton, Havelock, Eyre and Clyde) to British investors—the Canadian Land and Emigration Company. The company then donated land to build an Anglican Church, along with two 100 acre lots on the opposite side of Head Lake. This Glebe (a tract of land to provide income for a clergyman, or to support a church) provided firewood for the rectory and chapel, but also could provide the church with income by selling the timber. In the twentieth century, Clayton W. Hodgson harvested logs on the property twice. After felling sawlogs in 1920, he returned sixteen years later to supply cordwood to the Standard Chemical Company’s distillery at Donald.  This plant used approximately 50 cords per day as it produced wood alcohol—sold as a liquid or as acetate to make explosives (particularly during the world wars). The by-product charcoal was also marketable.

The Standard Chemical Company was interested in many more species and could make use of smaller trees than sawmills, so the property was thoroughly cleared. It was said just that bushes remained. As raspberries sprouted among the stumps, village residents enjoyed picking berries. The church allowed hunters to use the property. As the forests regrew, some adherents tapped the trees and boiled the sap to make maple syrup. After the Glebe was logged one more time in the mid 1960s, the church decided to sell the property. By then, St. George’s Anglican Church had converted to oil heat.

Curry Bishop and Bill Emmerson were interested in buying the property for development, but the church instead chose to sell the Glebe to its municipality in 1968, on the condition that it was used as “sites for public buildings, such as schools, and for recreational parks.” The parcel north of Highway 118 (25 acres) became a municipal yard, while the 175 acres to the south was named Glebe Centennial Park in a public contest. It was soon abbreviated to Glebe Park. The municipality built what has since become Museum Road to facilitate access in the early 1970s. Expecting the park to be used for picnics, the municipality added two sizeable stone barbeques in 1973, with smaller barbeques that were close to the ground, along with green outhouses.

In the 1960s, before the municipality acquired the Glebe, snowmobile trails were cut through the bush—for what was then a new winter sport for many local residents. In 1976, the Haliburton Highlands Nordic Trail Association formed, and the municipality allowed them to build ski trails through Glebe Park. In 1994, the snowmobile trails were closed to ensure that the ski trails could safely be used. In 1978, the Haliburton Highlands Pioneer Museum began a relocation from downtown Haliburton to a new building in the Glebe, with the John Reid House (the original museum) located beside it. The expanded Museum began welcoming visitors in 1980. In 1984 work began on the museum’s farmstead.

To accommodate the Legions’ inaugural Bluegrass Music Festival in the Park in 1986, the municipal roads department cleared and levelled Bluegrass Field. The workers also made campsites in the woods, which helped the event to continue until 1995. The trails to the campgrounds also served to expand the skiing network. In 1990, it the park even temporarily acted as a road to allow access to Haliburton from Eagle Lake and West Guilford, after a beaver dam broke at Moss’ Pond, washing out part of Pine and Maple Avenues.

The municipality logged the park again in 1985-6 as part of a winter works program, then again in 2001, as preparations were underway for Sir Sandford Fleming College to build their new campus beside the park on a 23-acre lot donated by the municipality. Shortly after the college opened, the municipality opened Head Lake Trail, a circuit around Head Lake that became popular for walking, cycling and jogging. In the 2000s, a snowshow trail was added; a toboggan hill in 2004; and then single-track mountain bike trails in the 2010s, after the formation of the Haliburton Mountain Bike Club. At the same time the Sculpture forest has vastly expanded.

Today, the Glebe is much appreciated year-round by local residents and visitors to Haliburton alike, having become home to many different forms of recreation and culture. Since it became a park in 1968, the old church reserve has been developed and redeveloped time and again to become a place where many happy memories have been created.