Parking is available on the road shoulder or at a paved entrance into a field on the east side of the road.
Pine Knot was a community located at what is now the intersection of Hamilton Road and Elgin Road. Today there is no community situated here, only houses and a few businesses. There is no signage indicating a village or the past existence of a village though in the past this spot was an important centre and a stop on a stage coach route between London and Hamilton, thus the historical route for travel between London and Hamilton at one time, long before today's modern highways.
Growing up I was familiar with this community's last standing building from the earlier stages of this village's life, that being a schoolhouse. The schoolhouse was located on the northeast corner and faced what is now Elgin Road. Officially known as S.S. # 8, it became known locally as Pine Knot School. Pine Knot School closed in 1957. No, I do not remember the school closing as I was not yet a part of life on Planet Earth. At the time the school was located here there were many pine trees located on the northeast corner, so, there is good reason for the name of this location.
Close to the east of the school, facing Hamilton Road, also on the northeast corner was a church. I do not recall ever seeing the church as a child. I am not as old as some of you may think. The church was moved to Gladstone, south of Dorchester, around 1930.
A stop on the stage coach route the coach would stop at Snider House where the horses on the London to Hamilton route would be switched out. I guess one could say that this route was the forerunner to today's Highway 401 (also known as the Macdonald-Cartier Freeway). I have not been able to determine where the Snider House was situated.
As was the case on many of the primitive roads of the time a toll gate was located on the route just east of the aforementioned church.
Across from the school house, at one time, on the northwest corner was a tile and brick yard. The brick on many of the area's older homes was fabricated here. Today a commercial plaza exists on that side of the corner.
How did the corner gain the name Pine Knot? There are two variations both of which could be correct and it is doubtful if we will ever know which, if either, is accurate. One is that there was a large knot hole in a tree near the corner and neighbours returning from Dorchester or possibly Mossley would leave the mail for the residents of Pine Knot in that knot hole to be retrieved by the residents. The other variation is that the children of the village would leave a stick of pine gum on a stump to indicate to the other children that they had gone on to school. Personally I like the story about leaving mail in the knot hole of a pine tree as that is the legacy told to me by my father. Perhaps the residents of Pine Knot were the forerunners of today's geocachers.