by Derek Maggs

The Friends of Bon Echo Park are pleased to announce the presentation of two $500 bursaries to Jared Salmond of Flinton and Abby Follett of Omemee, Ontario.

The Friends of Bon Echo Provincial Park have been providing bursaries to deserving students of the North Addington Education Centre and summer employment students at the Park. Eligible candidates must be engaged in a post- secondary program that resonates with the goals of the Friends. In recent years the bursaries have been donated by the McLaren family in memory of Doris and Keith McLaren, long time volunteers with the Friends.

Jared Salmond graduated recently from the North Addington Education Centre in Cloyne and is currently studying Engineering at Queen's University.  Jared's knowledge and commitment to Bon Echo Provincial Park began many years ago.  From the time he was a young child, Jared has spent many weeks every summer camping with his family. As soon as he was old enough, Jared was involved with the Mazinaw Lake Swim Program, first as a student, then as a volunteer, an instructor and as the Program Supervisor.  For the last three years, Jared has worked at Bon Echo--initially as the Wood Lot Attendant and most recently as a Gate Attendant.  For Jared, summer has meant Bon Echo.  He understands the importance of community and volunteerism and has spent countless hours working with community children in a variety of activities. Although pursuing further education has taken Jared out of his community, his hope is to return and continue this contribution in new ways.  Whatever the future brings for Jared, one thing is certain. The roots he has in Bon Echo have enriched and encouraged his genuine interest in people and the environment.   

Abby Follett is in the Environmental Science/Studies program at Trent University, currently completing her third year. Her courses are focused on environmental law and species-at-risk with the hope of going into one of these fields once she completes her degree. This past summer was her first at Bon Echo. She served as a Natural Heritage Educator and found the experience amazing and very fulfilling. She hopes to return this summer. Abby was fortunate enough to spend the majority of her childhood summers traveling across Canada with her family on camping trips. She loved being outside, taking part in programs and activities where she could help the environment. She was a junior member of the horticulture society, and helped plan Earth Day clean up programs in her neighbourhood. In high school, she was part of the Green Team and initiated recycling programs. Abby is committed to do her part to enhance awareness and to motivate others in efforts to serve the  

Addington Highlands Township Reeve Henry Hogg would like everyone to have a fire safe year. He encourages everyone to test their smoke alarms monthly and replace the batteries at least once a year or more often if the “low battery” chirps. Every year people die needlessly in home fires as a result of no smoke alarm or smoke alarms not working due to batteries being dead or removed. Reeve Hogg says “we need to change this by installing, maintaining and testing our smoke alarms”. Ontario law requires there must be at least one working smoke alarm on every level of a dwelling and outside all sleeping areas. Please note “dwelling” can be a home, cottage, hunt camp or camper trailer.

In 35% of Ontario’s fatal residential fires there was no working smoke alarm, in 41% of those fires there was no battery in the smoke alarm or the battery was dead.

Working smoke alarms increase your chance of surviving a home fire by up to 50%. Just like milk or bread, smoke alarms have an expiry date. Smoke alarms should be replaced after 10 years. There will be an expiry date on your smoke alarm.

All families should have a home escape plan with two ways out and practice it with the whole family. Your home escape plan should have a meeting place that everyone knows, a safe distance from the building. You may have less than three minutes to get out before the house becomes unsafe.

If you have any smoke alarm or fire safety questions please contact your local fire department.

It started out as an idea for an outdoor concert back in the winter of 2005 but has turned into a major festival and a labour of love for Duane and Donna Thibault for the past ten years.

For the 10th anniversary of the Flinton Jamboree, some of the perennial favorite acts are returning, such as White Pine, Steve Pitico and South Mountain, the Tebworth Brothers, and Dallas Daisy. Among the newcomers are the Ducharme family, a father and sons band who come from one of the best-named towns for a Bluegrass band, River Valley, which is located north of Highway 17 halfway between North Bay and Sudbury. The Ducharme family is the featured band on the Friday night (August 1) of the three-day festival. They appear at 7:30 pm.

The festival headliner, who will be performing on Saturday night (August 2) at 7:30 pm, is David Church.

Church, who hails from Lancaster, Ohio, has an affinity for traditional country music, and is renowned in North America as a singer “who sounds like Hank”. He performs his own songs as well as a number Hank Williams tunes, but as long-time U.S. based music promoter Joe Sullivan has said, “He is not a Hank imitator; he is someone who performs Hank's songs.” David Church will be backed up by Steve Pitico and South Mountain.

Weekend passes for the festival cost $35 ($55 with camping). Day passes are $20 for the all day and evening Saturday show, which kicks off at 11am, and $10 for the Friday evening or the Sunday 11 am to 4 pm show. For advance tickets, call 613-336-0995. Day passes will be available at the gate. (Note – a full schedule will be published in the Frontenac News on July 24)

On June 21 over 250 children and their families gathered at the Flinton Recreation Centre for the second annual Touch a Truck event, which was sponsored by the Lennox and Addington Resources for Children (LARC) and the Flinton Recreation Club. Representatives of local emergency service groups, social service teams and other organizations were invited to attend and bring their vehicles for children to get up close and personal with. There were school buses, Hydro One trucks, an EMS ambulance and local fire trucks, tow trucks, tractors, transport trucks, race cars and more.

Becky Cavanaugh of LARC said that the purpose of the event is not only to provide a lot of fun for children, it is also aimed at familiarizing them with emergency service workers, their vehicles and the other equipment they use, which helps to quell the children's fears if they are in an emergency situation. “It's a fun thing for kids to do; not only do they get to learn more about the people, their vehicles and the services they provide but they get to do so in a friendly and fun environment,” Cavanaugh said.

A group of paramedics invited youngsters to lie on a stretcher and to experience some of the machinery and tests they would undergo in the event of a 911 emergency call. Paramedic Ryan Thielman explained, “We show them the tools that we would normally use in an on-scene call so that if they have to experience a call in the future, they will know that there is nothing to be afraid of and that none of this stuff can hurt them.”

The children had their blood pressure taken and were also hooked up to the electrodes used for taking an electrocardiogram.

LARC provides other services to children and their families in Lennox and Addington, including playgroups, parenting courses and other outreach programs. For more information about the services they provide call 613-354-6318 or visit www.larc4kids.com

The Touch-a-Truck event also raised donations for the food bank.

 

Feature article, March 25, 2005

Feature article March 25 2005

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Paying taxes with Bag tags to cease Addington Highlands Council report

by Jule Koch Brison

A little known loophole which allowed residents to pay their taxes using free bag tags will be closed when the next tax bills go out, Council decided at this weeks meeting in Denbigh.

The Waste Management Committee brought a recommendation to the Addington Highlands Council meeting on March 21, that effective immediately, bag tags could no longer be used to pay taxes, but only to pay tipping fees.

Presently, at Addington Highlands waste disposal sites, residents who bring in bags of recyclables are given free bag tags in exchange, and the tags can be used to pay ones taxes. The Waste Management Committees concern was that people would bring in recycling from other places in order to get tags.

All of the councilors wondered if residents are even aware of the fact that they can pay their taxes with bag tags. However, when Councilor Bill Cox brought forward a motion to make the change to the bag tag system effective immediately, none of the other members of council would second it because they felt that residents should be given notice of the change.

The information about the bag tags and taxes is contained in a brochure on the bag tag system that was written by Reeve Hook. He said that the idea was to give people a further incentive to recycle, but that he was sketchy on the details as to when the motion [to adopt the policy] was made. Councilor Cox said he was not familiar with it and asked if the brochure had been distributed. Economic Development Chair Bill Brown said it had been mailed.

Waste site attendant Floyd Kellar was asked if he had seen an influx of recyclables. He replied, Its hard to say, but no, there may be one thats a little suspect.

Reeve Hook said that paying tipping fees for dumping mattresses, sofas, tires etc. with the tags would still give residents ample opportunity to use them up. Although Township Clerk Jack Pauhl was uncertain as to when the next tax bills would be going out, Deputy Reeve Loraine Berger brought forward a motion that a notice be sent out with the bills, and that bag tags for taxes would cease two weeks later. The motion was approved.

? Dump Closure: The Dump Closure Fund presently contains $133,208

? Business The next Business Breakfast meeting will be held on April 13 at 8 am at the Flinton Hall. The tenders for the catering will be in this week and the price for breakfast will be determined.

? Cloyne Soccer Club: The Cloyne Soccer Club is unable to get insurance, which it had previously obtained through the now defunct Cloyne Recreation Club, and has asked for coverage under the townships insurance policy. The township consulted with its insurers, who agreed to cover the soccer club under two conditions, one of which is that all of the clubs proceeds (registration fees, etc.) must pass through the township. Council voted to provide the insurance subject to the conditions.

? Country Music Jamboree: Council approved a request by the Flinton Recreation Club to hold a Country Music Jamboree in and around the Flinton hall on the weekend of July 29-31.

? Adventure race: An Adventure Race, sponsored by Salomon, will be held in and around Bon Echo Park on May 7. The event is expected to draw over 500 participants, among whom will be Reeve Hook and his wife Cathy, bringing up the rear, he joked. The race is 60 km long and is in three steps: mountain biking, running and canoeing.

? Big Bike: The fitness theme continued with the announcement by Councilor Louise Scott that Peggy Rahm has asked if AH Waste Management would be interested in riding the Big Bike for Stroke. Peggy can get a lot of sponsors, said Reeve Hook. I know, replied Louise Scott, Ill have to get out before her.

Feature Article - October 27, 2005

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October 27, 2005

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Gray MerriamLegaleseGeneral information and opinion on legal topics by Rural Legal ServicesNature Reflectionsby Jean GriffinNight Skiesby Leo Enright

Excursion of historic Flinton and area:Part II

by Carol Morrow

On October 1, 27 passengers embarked for a day trip to historic Flinton and area on an ideal sunny fall day, autumn’s muted golds and oranges a canvas to their travels. Much historic background was imparted to the group by this year’s tour guide, President Margaret Axford, and our skilled bus driver, John Bolton, provided humourous commentaries along the route. And he is skilled, for John was required to muscle out a route over an old Indian trail skirting the Skootamata River, scarcely more than a twisting country laneway not meant for bus travel.

We learned how important a character Billa Flint was to the settlement and planning of the community of Flinton: how, in 1858 Elzevir township came into being and Mr. Flint was its first reeve, a position which he held for 21 years; that in 1859, the village of Flinton was laid out in 98 lots on seven different streets; and that Billa donated the land for the first school, town hall, church and cemetery. Now, Billa was a teetotaler of grand proportions and no liquor would be served in his village! This meant that the Stewart Hotel had to be built “just beyond the fringe” of the village limits. That hotel operated under several ownerships – Lessards early on, and later Yanches, to mention a couple - until it burned down in 1991; today the land lies vacant. After 1859, a buggy-maker, shoemaker, a casket-maker, a milliner and a blacksmith all set up shop in addition to other businesses. There was even a doctor in town, a Dr Tindle. Billa Flint was an enterprising sort, and had interests in the village of Troy (which we know as Actinolite) just across the marshes and through the woods towards Tweed, as the crow flies. At some time, Troy was named Bridgewater. To make it easier for Billa to go back and forth between his enterprises, a road was built between the two communities, and so, that is how the Bridgewater Road came to be. In 1879 Bridgewater burned, all except the marble church and one house. The loss of his business there took the stuffing out of “Senator” Flint, and he subsequently retired to Belleville, discouraged, and died in 1886.

Carol Lessard passed around old photos, some of which identified the original blacksmith shop and the Joe Pete Lessard house, as we traveled through some farming country along the Clark Line where the Bryden Settlements were located, with the Spicer and Andrew farms further along, both well over 100 years old. Flinton was first settled by the lumbermen, and this eventually gave over to agriculture which reached its peak in the 1890s. After the land became depleted, reforestation started in the early 1900s, or alternative farming in beef cattle sprung up. Some farmers also left for the West.

We passed the former site of the old mill which powered the Golden Fleece Mine. The middle part of the trip centred on a walk around the falls and the historic bridge over the Skootamatta River which flows into the Moira River and out to the Bay of Quinte at Belleville. This had been the timber route for lumbering businesses “shooting their logs” down river. In the Conservation Park, one of our bus passengers who had grown up in the village observed that “some things never change – the picnic table is covered with beer bottles.”

It is an amusing fact that the casket-making business, which Joshua Stone started, was combined with grain and flour sales in the front of the shop when his son Halley took over. Halley did not believe in “putting all his eggs in one basket” but operated a general store as well, selling vinegar and coal oil out the back. In addition, he was also a drover; that is, he was in the cattle business, and drove them from Flinton to Kaladar, to be loaded on the train for Toronto. He was not an embalmer, but he owned the only hearse in town until he died. After that, the hearse went into “cold storage” for a few years in Billa Flint’s old ox barn (the shed beside the former Davidson’s Garage), until it was sold to V. Bryden for $40, who converted it into a half-ton truck.

There was more fascinating information; for instance, the establishment of three village churches as mission churches in the beginning; these form a kind of trinity in Flinton. They are the Community Club, a symbol of three different faiths – Anglican, Roman Catholic and United (Methodist) - all working together in fellowship to serve the greater good, their community. Space does not allow for the writer to go into all the details of the interesting talk that Ms Axford gave on the early history and municipal events of the new townships of Elzevir, Kaladar, Anglesea and Effingham.

We took a moment to reflect at the cenotaph which commemorates all of Flinton’s soldiers who died in various conflicts. The cenotaph in settlement times had been the site of the milliner’s shop; across the road had been a bank, and Magistrate Carscallen lived nearby. Next door, the librarian was waiting for us and we had a peek at this facility which was established after WW2. A ladies’ group called the Soldiers’ Comfort Club had formed to remember soldiers in the war by sending letters overseas. They continued as the Flinton Community Club in 1948 and established the library. Today the library is mainly funded from local efforts of the club and administrated by a local Library Board. Recent innovations have been a wheelchair ramp with the support of the Trillium Foundation and a computer terminal with high speed access for the public’s use. Plans are in the works for washroom expansion, work on the roof rafters, a new paint job outside and carpeting inside as well as large print books, videos and DVDs. With lots of community support and the triumvirate of churches working towards that goal, these plans are sure to become a reality. We wish them every success.

The tour of the village would not be complete without mentioning the Continuation School. It was built in 1945 from plans which came from Iceland, strangely enough, and operated until June of 1971.The structure is in the form of a V, and contained a science lab, a nurse’s office to the left of the main front door, a lunch room with a long bench and seating so students wouldn’t have to eat at the desks in the classroom, a phys ed room replete with mats plus other exercise and gymnastic equipment – sorry, no basketball or volley court, and a principal’s office strategically placed in the middle between the elementary and the secondary wings. Community dances were often held in the School, and one Hallowe’en – so the story goes – one old gentleman left the shenanigans to go home and couldn’t find his cart or his horse! Some enterprising young rascals had shinnied the cart up onto the roof, and led the horse down to the dam and tied it there for the night. In 1963 the High School in Cloyne opened, and the secondary wing of the Continuation School closed, and the whole facility shut down when the Education Centre in Cloyne opened in full swing in 1971 – in the name of progress, I suppose. Plans for making the old school into a facility for disadvantaged children were considered once, but “red tape” discouraged that idea.

After lunch our bus driver John plied his skill on the 5th Concession Road, better known at the Flinton end as the River Road, or at the 41 Highway end, as the O’Donnell Road. Originally called the Skootamata Trail, it was an Indian trail that followed the river and became a logging route to complement the riverway. Twenty seven families once lived along it; now there are three. John informed us this was “Lessard Country”, one of the families along the way being that of Louie and Dolly Lessard who lived there until the late 1950s. All that remains are a few foundation stones from the farmstead, an asparagus patch, and a clump of lilacs. Close by was the rubble from an old school house. Two walls of that early pioneer school (1830-1941) have been re-assembled and housed as a display in the Pioneer Museum in Cloyne. A hotel that served as an overnight stopping-off point for loggers once overlooked the road, but no more. There were some nice clearings in the woods, and stands of lilac bushes, evidence perhaps of other farmsteads belonging to families such as the Stones, Sedgewicks, Bradshaws, and others that once lined the road. The road is not kept open through the winter. Although the way is twisty and narrow, the branches of some large trees almost forming a canopy overhead, parts of it have seen some work in the last two years. Some of the roadway has been raised at the Flinton end, and at the upper end a new bridge over the River was constructed.

After passing some barely visible hunting camps and mobile homes, the back-end of Bosley’s farm and lumber mill, we crossed the sluiceway and came to the power house that in the 1920s provided energy for the Ore Chimney Mine on the east side of Highway 41. The Skootamata River used to be dammed to form a reservoir called Slave Lake. The water then travelled along the sluiceway through 5-foot diameter pipes about 150 metres to the powerhouse which housed the turbines needed to generate energy for the Mine. Excess water would pool around the block foundation and empty out into the river further down. Our group trooped through the twisted roots and straggling undergrowth to stand in wonder at the precipice of the ruins. The structure was awesome in its simplicity: made of concrete blocks, its twin circular openings like huge mouths gulping in water, the rusted iron grates above thundering dynamos that churned the waters of the river in usable energy. Our resident engineer, Ian Brumell, explained the operation details of the plant. Pretty amazing that this connection to our not-so-distant past remains hidden in the bush, and unknown by the “modern” generation!

The trip concluded with a drive past Sacha’s Legacy which is the Blackwell home, the O’Donnell place and the Miller homestead, the home of Arnold and Florence Miller and their 17 children. This property first had been settled in 1892 by Michael Walsh who built the log end, still part of the house. The Millers came in 1939 from Saskatchewan and bought from Roy Reid in 1942, adding on to the house as their family grew. They had no electrical power until the 1960s, and the children walked 2 miles to the Bishop Lake school. For the first few years Mr. Miller made the long trip back west on the harvest excursions, returning to work winters locally in logging; later he would work at Bon Echo Park and on the highways. Also evidence of a past era, the Millers kept their own animals for dairy products and meat, while cultivating a large vegetable garden.

Winner of the door prize – a wicker basket full of donated goodies – was Georgina Hughes. A special thanks from the Cloyne and District Historical Society is extended to Henry Hogg for donating the use of his bus. Everyone appreciated the excellent lunch served by the ladies of the Flinton Community Club – a big Hurrah! Also, the passengers applauded Margaret and John for their fine preparation and interpretive remarks; everyone enjoyed another successful trip!

Feature Article - October13, 2005

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October 13, 2005

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ArchiveImage GalleryAlgonquin Land Claims

Gray MerriamLegaleseGeneral information and opinion on legal topics by Rural Legal ServicesNature Reflectionsby Jean GriffinNight Skiesby Leo Enright

Excursion of Historic Flinton and area

by Carol Morrow

On October 1, 27 passengers embarked for a day trip to historic Flinton and area on an ideal sunny fall day, autumn’s muted golds and oranges a canvas to their travels. Much historic background was imparted to the group by this year’s tour guide, President Margaret Axford, and our skilled bus driver, John Bolton, provided humourous commentaries along the route. And he is skilled, for John was required to muscle out a route over an old Indian trail skirting the Skootamata River, scarcely more than a twisting country laneway not meant for bus travel.

We learned how important a character Billa Flint was to the settlement and planning of the community of Flinton: how, in 1858 Elzevir township came into being and Mr Flint was its first reeve, a position which he held for 21 years; that in 1859, the village of Flinton was laid out in 98 lots on seven different streets; and that Billa donated the land for the first school, town hall, church and cemetery. Now, Billa was a teetotaler of grand proportions and no liquor would be served in his village! This meant that the Stewart Hotel had to be built “just beyond the fringe” of the village limits. That hotel operated under several ownerships – Lessards early on, and later Yanches, to mention a couple - until it burned down in 1991; today the land lies vacant. After 1859, a buggy-maker, shoemaker, a casket-maker, a milliner and a blacksmith all set up shop in addition to other businesses. There was even a doctor in town, a Dr Tindle. Billa Flint was an enterprising sort, and had interests in the village of Troy (which we know as Actinolite) just across the marshes and through the woods towards Tweed, as the crow flies. At some time, Troy was named Bridgewater. To make it easier for Billa to go back and forth between his enterprises, a road was built between the two communities, and so, that is how the Bridgewater Road came to be. In 1879 Bridgewater burned, all except the marble church and one house. The loss of his business there took the stuffing out of “Senator” Flint, and he subsequently retired to Belleville, discouraged, and died in 1886.

Carol Lessard passed around old photos, some of which identified the original blacksmith shop and the Joe Pete Lessard house, as we traveled through some farming country along the Clark Line where the Bryden Settlements were located, with the Spicer and Andrew farms further along, both well over 100 years old. Flinton was first settled by the lumbermen, and this eventually gave over to agriculture which reached its peak in the 1890s. After the land became depleted, reforestation started in the early 1900s, or alternative farming in beef cattle sprung up. Some farmers also left for the West.

We passed the former site of the old mill which powered the Golden Fleece Mine. The middle part of the trip centred on a walk around the falls and the historic bridge over the Skootamatta River which flows into the Moira River and out to the Bay of Quinte at Belleville. This had been the timber route for lumbering businesses “shooting their logs” down river. In the Conservation Park, one of our bus passengers who had grown up in the village observed that “some things never change – the picnic table is covered with beer bottles.”

Billa Flint's old ox barn (click image for larger view)

It is an amusing fact that the casket-making business, which Joshua Stone started, was combined with grain and flour sales in the front of the shop when his son Halley took over. Halley did not believe in “putting all his eggs in one basket” but operated a general store as well, selling vinegar and coal oil out the back. In addition, he was also a drover; that is, he was in the cattle business, and drove them from Flinton to Kaladar, to be loaded on the train for Toronto. He was not an embalmer, but he owned the only hearse in town until he died. After that, the hearse went into “cold storage” for a few years in Billa Flint’s old ox barn (the shed beside the former Davidson’s Garage), until it was sold to V. Bryden for $40, who converted it into a half-ton truck.

There was more fascinating information; for instance, the establishment of three village churches as mission churches in the beginning; these form a kind of trinity in Flinton. They are the Community Club, a symbol of three different faiths – Anglican, Roman Catholic and United (Methodist) - all working together in fellowship to serve the greater good, their community. Space does not allow for the writer to go into all the details of the interesting talk that Ms Axford gave on the early history and municipal events of the new townships of Elzevir, Kaladar, Anglesea and Effingham.

We took a moment to reflect at the cenotaph which commemorates all of Flinton’s soldiers who died in various conflicts. The cenotaph in settlement times had been the site of the milliner’s shop; across the road had been a bank, and Magistrate Carscallen lived nearby. Next door, the librarian was waiting for us and we had a peek at this facility which was established after WW2. A ladies’ group called the Soldiers’ Comfort Club had formed to remember soldiers in the war by sending letters overseas. They continued as the Flinton Community Club in 1948 and established the library. Today the library is mainly funded from local efforts of the club and administrated by a local Library Board. Recent innovations have been a wheelchair ramp with the support of the Trillium Foundation and a computer terminal with high speed access for the public’s use. Plans are in the works for washroom expansion, work on the roof rafters, a new paint job outside and carpeting inside as well as large print books, videos and DVDs. With lots of community support and the triumvirate of churches working towards that goal, these plans are sure to become a reality. We wish them every success.

The tour of the village would not be complete without mentioning the Continuation School. It was built in 1945 from plans which came from Iceland, strangely enough, and operated until June of 1971.The structure is in the form of a V, and contained a science lab, a nurse’s office to the left of the main front door, a lunch room with a long bench and seating so students wouldn’t have to eat at the desks in the classroom, a phys ed room replete with mats plus other exercise and gymnastic equipment – sorry, no basketball or volley court, and a principal’s office strategically placed in the middle between the elementary and the secondary wings. Community dances were often held in the School, and one Hallowe’en – so the story goes – one old gentleman left the shenanigans to go home and couldn’t find his cart or his horse! Some enterprising young rascals had shinnied the cart up onto the roof, and led the horse down to the dam and tied it there for the night. In 1963 the High School in Cloyne opened, and the secondary wing of the Continuation School closed, and the whole facility shut down when the Education Centre in Cloyne opened in full swing in 1971 – in the name of progress, I suppose. Plans for making the old school into a facility for disadvantaged children were considered once, but “red tape” discouraged that idea.

After lunch our bus driver John plied his skill on the 5th Concession Road, better known at the Flinton end as the River Road, or at the 41 Highway end, as the O’Donnell Road. Originally called the Skootamata Trail, it was an Indian trail that followed the river and became a logging route to complement the riverway. Twenty seven families once lived along it; now there are three. John informed us this was “Lessard Country”, one of the families along the way being that of Louie and Dolly Lessard who lived there until the late 1950s. All that remains are a few foundation stones from the farmstead, an asparagus patch, and a clump of lilacs. Close by was the rubble from an old school house. Two walls of that early pioneer school (1830-1941) have been re-assembled and housed as a display in the Pioneer Museum in Cloyne. A hotel that served as an overnight stopping-off point for loggers once overlooked the road, but no more. There were some nice clearings in the woods, and stands of lilac bushes, evidence perhaps of other farmsteads belonging to families such as the Stones, Sedgewicks, Bradshaws, and others that once lined the road. The road is not kept open through the winter. Although the way is twisty and narrow, the branches of some large trees almost forming a canopy overhead, parts of it have seen some work in the last two years. Some of the roadway has been raised at the Flinton end, and at the upper end a new bridge over the River was constructed.

After passing some barely visible hunting camps and mobile homes, the back-end of Bosley’s farm and lumber mill, we crossed the sluiceway and came to the power house that in the 1920s provided energy for the Ore Chimney Mine on the east side of Highway 41. The Skootamata River used to be dammed to form a reservoir called Slave Lake. The water then travelled along the sluiceway through 5-foot diameter pipes about 150 metres to the powerhouse which housed the turbines needed to generate energy for the Mine. Excess water would pool around the block foundation and empty out into the river further down. Our group trooped through the twisted roots and straggling undergrowth to stand in wonder at the precipice of the ruins. The structure was awesome in its simplicity: made of concrete blocks, its twin circular openings like huge mouths gulping in water, the rusted iron grates above thundering dynamos that churned the waters of the river in usable energy. Our resident engineer, Ian Brumell, explained the operation details of the plant. Pretty amazing that this connection to our not-so-distant past remains hidden in the bush, and unknown by the “modern” generation!

The trip concluded with a drive past Sacha’s Legacy which is the Blackwell home, the O’Donnell place and the Miller homestead, the home of Arnold and Florence Miller and their 17 children. This property first had been settled in 1892 by Michael Walsh who built the log end, still part of the house. The Millers came in 1939 from Saskatchewan and bought from Roy Reid in 1942, adding on to the house as their family grew. They had no electrical power until the 1960s, and the children walked 2 miles to the Bishop Lake school. For the first few years Mr. Miller made the long trip back west on the harvest excursions, returning to work winters locally in logging; later he would work at Bon Echo Park and on the highways. Also evidence of a past era, the Millers kept their own animals for dairy products and meat, while cultivating a large vegetable garden.

Winner of the door prize – a wicker basket full of donated goodies – was Georgina Hughes. A special thanks from the Cloyne and District Historical Society is extended to Henry Hogg for donating the use of his bus. Everyone appreciated the excellent lunch served by the ladies of the Flinton Community Club – a big Hurrah! Also, the passengers applauded Margaret and John for their fine preparation and interpretive remarks; everyone enjoyed another successful trip!

Feature Article - November 10, 2005

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Feature Article

November 10, 2005

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ArchiveImage GalleryAlgonquin Land Claims

Gray MerriamLegaleseGeneral information and opinion on legal topics by Rural Legal ServicesNature Reflectionsby Jean GriffinNight Skiesby Leo Enright

Remembrance Day in the Year of theVeteran

by Jeff Green

Remembrance Day is being marked this week in ceremonies at schools and Cenotaphs throughout the country. Always an opportunity for young and old to acknowledge the price paid by those who have served as soldiers in combat and peacekeeping missions around the world, Remembrance Day has special significance this year. It is the United Nations Year of the Veteran, and the 60th Anniversary of the end of the Second World War.

The numbers of veterans from WWII is dwindling as the years pass, since even the youngest surviving veterans from that war are now in their early eighties. Once such youngster is Gordon R Wood of Flinton.

When Gordon Wood signed up for the Canadian Army in Kingston he was barely 17 years old. After training for two years at Camp Borden he was finally sent to England in the early spring of 1944. Three months later, Private Gordon Wood, by then an infantryman with the Regina Rifles of Saskatchewan (which he had joined while in England), took part in the landing at Juno Beach on June 6, 1944.

“We had a rough landing,” Gordon recalled this Monday from his home in Flinton as he was celebrating his 81st birthday. “We came out of the landing craft in water up to our chests and had to run to shore with our rifles held up in the air.”

Gordon’s landing craft was among those in the middle of the pack of craft that came into shore that morning. “By the time we hit the water, it was red with blood,” he recalls. He doesn’t remember being particularly frightened, however. “I was too young to know I wasn’t invincible,” he says, “even though we lost a pile of men on that beach.”

After hitting land, Gordon and the other soldiers who had survived pressed forward, shooting as they went. “The first 24 hours were probably the most dangerous, but then things did settle down,” he said.

Gordon Wood spent the next nine months fighting through France, Belgium and Holland. He became a Lance Corporal and a Section Leader.

“We would advance for days and then stop, and then we would take a rest for three or four days when the supplies arrived, and let another bunch push ahead. Then it was our turn again,” he remembers.

At one point Wood and three other men were captured. Since the war was in its dying days and the German army was in a state of disarray, the men bade their time until one night when there didn’t seem to be anyone guarding them, and then they made a run for it. They kept down, hiding in ditches and wooded areas, and eventually rejoined their comrades.

Again, Gordon does not recall being particularly frightened during the time when he was a prisoner, even though he says that “we knew that if we didn’t escape the Germans would have eventually killed us, but you don’t think about dying when you’re 20 years old.”

After the War ended, Lance Corporal Wood stayed on in Europe for a year as a member of the Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa, spending some of that time as a guard in a prison camp just inside of Germany.

In 1946, Gordon returned to Canada and was discharged. He returned home to Kaladar Township, where he soon met Wilma Bryden, a schoolteacher who was a day less than one year younger than him. The two married, and built a house in Flinton in 1947, where they raised 5 children, three boys and two girls. The now have 13 grandchildren as well.

Wilma taught in most of the schools in the district over the years, and Gordon worked at Sawyer Stoll Lumber for a time, before taking a job with the township road crew. He eventually became the road superintendent and retired in the late 1980’s after 21 years.

Although the Gordon and Wilma have lived for 58 years in the same house, they have travelled extensively, particularly after retiring from the work force. They have returned four times to Holland, most recently in 1998, and have travelled to every province and territory within Canada over the years, “except for Labrador,” Gordon said, “but we have gone five times across the Prairies.

This Sunday, at the Remembrance Day Ceremony in Flinton, Gordon Wood was surrounded by family, as all the Wood children and most of the grandchildren descended on Flinton for the Remembrance Day Ceremony and Wilma’s 80th Birthday party.

“We’ve had a good life,” Gordon Wood said, “a pretty good life.”

Albinism

by Jean Griffin

After receiving a report of an albino Evening Grosbeak in Flinton, I started looking for more information on albinism. There is a lot of information on this subject as it relates to humans, but I did not find much on animals or birds, except one article that said that the various mutations which result in one or another form of albinism and their effects have been found to be identical in both humans and non-humans. So a definition I found which calls albinism "a group of related conditions that are a result of altered genes that cause a defect of melanin production, which results in the partial or full absence of pigment from the skin, hair, and eyes" can be applied to birds and animals.

I have had people tell me that a person, bird or animal should only be called albino if they are ‘completely’ albino, but the sources I have been checking indicate that even though an individual may have a substantial amount of pigment such as some yellows, browns, or reds, they are still albinos and this source referred to them as ‘partial’ albinos.

The bird in Flinton was one of a large flock of Evening Grosbeaks (hey, why am I not getting these birds at my feeders!) and was described as "all yellow, some white and a buff color - no black or dark brown!" so this bird still has some pigmentation. How is this going to affect this bird? Will it be accepted readily by the members of the flock or will it be at the low end of the pecking order? Will it be more susceptible to predation because of the colour? Will it find a mate that accepts it? And if it does find a mate, will its offspring be albinos? We probably will not know what happens to this particular bird.

Over the years I have had a number of reports of albino birds and animals, including one Evening Grosbeak that appeared at my feeder a number of years ago, and was primarily white with a limited amount of yellowish-buff. I saw it for only a few days, so what happened to it? With the wandering habits of the grosbeaks it could have moved away. On the east side of Perth there was a totally white "Red" Squirrel around for most of one winter. Also east of Perth a partially-white American Robin was around one summer, and the next summer another partially-white robin. The same bird? Or the offspring of the first? We don’t know. I have heard of all-white White-tailed Deer, and, not in this area - a white elephant in Africa - now there is an animal that would be conspicuous!

One thought I have to which I have not found an answer - when the bird molts is there any chance the new feathers will be more normal? This of course is not to be confused with the molting of a Rock Ptarmigan, which living in the Arctic molts from brown to white in the fall, and back to brown in the spring - a matter of survival in this area and presumably no relation to albinism.

Observations: Thanks to Carolyn Hasler of Flinton for the report on the albino and flock of Evening Grosbeaks. She also has had 5 or 6 Pine Grosbeaks. Helm, in Oconto, had a visit from a Raccoon the night of January 18 - obviously stirring because of the mild weather. He also has several Dark-eyed Juncos, and 4 Mourning Doves. Share your sightings - call Jean at 268-2518 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Feature Article - April 20, 2006

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Feature Article - April 20, 2006

AddingtonHighlands Council -- April 18, 2006

by JuleKochBrison

Hall Renovations: Council received only one tender for renovations at the Flinton Hall, for $6,831, and voted to accept it. The plans for renovations at the Denbigh Hall are finally ready to be put out to tender.

The Flinton Recreation Club requested that they be allowed to remove a wall between the utility room and the kitchen area of the canteen at the Flinton Hall. Permission was granted subject to approval from the building inspector

The Library Board asked for permission to remove part of a wall at the Denbigh library because when children are in the room it encloses, the librarian cannot see what is going on. Council granted the request subject to approval by the building inspector.

Addington Highlands will be holding a contest for homeowners to beautify their properties. The area will be divided by postal codes e.g. Kaladar, Denbigh, etc., and homeowners who always have taken care to make their properties attractive will be eligible too. Local businesses will be asked to donate prizes and the judges will travel through the areas to make their decisions.

Interesting film footage from the 1967 Centennial celebrations in the Denbigh area was discovered when the library was cleaned up. The films have been put on DVDs, which will be sold for $10 as a fundraiser for the library. The footage recorded fishing derbies, Santa Claus parades, track and field events, and boring holes in the 4 foot deep ice on Denbigh Lake . “Pretty well everyone in Denbigh is on there,” commented Reeve Hook.

An agreement with the Town of Renfrew for hazardous waste disposal is ready to sign. The service will be available from May to August.

The Recreation Facilities Committee has recommended to council that the township’s snowblower and lawnmower in Denbigh be sold, and that whoever wins the tender for rink attendant be required to supply their own equipment. Councilor Cox said that the equipment has been broken and would be too expensive to fix.

Council voted to change their pay from a per diem rate to per annum. The new salaries are: Reeve - $10,000 per annum; Deputy Reeve - $7000 per annum; Councilors - $5,000 per annum. The mileage rate for councilors and township employees was raised from 38 cents/km to 40 cents/km.

Conestoga Rovers, a firm that approached the township with a proposal to investigate the feasibility of wind power generation, will need certain data. The MNR has the data, but AH has to join a data exchange to access it. The cost is $1000, but Township CAO Jack Pauhl did not know whether that was a one-time or a yearly fee. Reeve Hook said the wind power would be such a positive thing for the township that he didn’t want to turn anyone off the proposal, but as Conestoga Rovers had approached the township saying there would be no charge to AH, he felt that the cost of the data should be shared. Council will wait for further details.

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