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The_Hollefor_Crater

Feature Article November 6

Feature Article November 6, 2002

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Special Places-The Hollefor Crater

Crater. The word conjures stark moonscapes and moaning winds. Even more dark and mysterious is the image of Prehistoric Crater. Well, fire up your imaginations, because a prehistoric meteorite crater lies smack in the middle of South Frontenac Township near the old settlement of Holleford. Prepare yourself. You really will need your imagination to set yourself up for the experience, because unless youre looking for it, the Holleford Crater will speed past your car window disguised as just another Land O Lakes swamp. But if you stop the car and let yourself be still; if you get out and stand for awhile gazing over the site, you can still feel some of the awesome power that created one of the worlds oldest and deepest craters.

There are several ways to get to the crater, but my favourite route starts at the corner of Hinchinbrooke Road and Hwy. 38. Turn east there toward BMP and the OPP station (Youll actually be heading north shortly after the turn, because Hinchinbrooke Road roughly parallels Hwy. 38). Drive about one kilometre to Trousdale Road. Turn right (east) and follow that road past some of the northernmost farms in the Portland District farms that lie on the limestone that was formed in the seas which covered the area after the meteorite hit. This farm-friendly topography ends just south of Verona, which accounts for the change in settlement history to the north.

Continuing along Trousdale Road, you see ahead a long, long rise of land that ends at a hill on the horizon. As you travel toward it, you begin to feel like Wyle E. Coyote, heading toward a collision with the fake horizon painted on Road Runners concrete wall. Keep driving. You pass the Holleford Road on your right and then ascend the hill. At the top, on your left, is a beautiful red brick farmhouse, and in May the road here is lined with hundreds of many-hued lilacs. Youve now travelled a little more than two km. along Trousdale Road. You wont hit the Road Runner fake horizon. Instead you crest the hill, and as you look down and to your left, what you see is the remains of the Holleford Crater.

The Crater was formed over half a billion years ago when a meteorite with a diameter of 100 meters (thats a football field) slammed into the earth. At that time, life forms had begun to arise in the oceans, but they were small and not hard-shelled, so ordinary folks on weekend drives dont usually find their fossil remains. In any case, there was no ocean in Holleford at that time. That area was covered with Precambrian sedimentary rock, which broke up on the meteorite impact and remained in the hole that it made. Drilling into the crater and finding that ancient rock is one of the clues geologists used in trying to piece together the puzzle of this site.

Drive down the other side of the hill. On your right is a sizeable rise of land, like a large lip or rim. Its easy to pretend that this is the remains of the splashout from the craters impact. (Apparently this is not true, but pretend anyway. It helps to set the mood.) Farther along the road on your left is an official Ontario Heritage Foundation Marker. Itll give you some history and lots of facts, some of which have changed slightly with new research and theorizing, but its still a good read. Get out of the car and stand near the marker facing the crater. Let the wind blow through the tall grass and prickly ash beside you. Gaze out across the swale into the deadwood, the swamp maple and the birch in the distance. All of that lies within the crater. Look back up the hill beyond the craters edge; then sweep your gaze back across the swale for as far to the right as you can see. All of that lies within the crater too. Imagine the debris (long gone now) that blasted out of there as the meteorite that prehistoric space traveller collided with the ancient earth. Imagine the light, the fire, the steaming hole. Then imagine the silence that settled on this land those 500 million years ago after the debris settled and the fire cooled, before there were fish in the sea. Awesome, isnt it? Thats the Holleford Crater. And its right in your back yard.

Want some real geologic info? Our own Leo Enright wrote a terrific description, which you can find at http://www1.kingston.net/rasc/holle.htm. For an aerial view that gives you a good picture of how the crater lies, hit www.to-scorpio.com//Holleford.JPG. For even more information from a real human, visit Miller Hall Museum at Queens University. Thanks to all these sources for the geologic information in this piece.

With the participation of the Government of Canada