It’s been almost 15 years since the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) ruled against a group of concerned Dunvegan Road residents and allowed the licensing of a quarry one mile east of the Dunvegan crossroads… a license that also allows the holder to operate an asphalt mixer and a concrete plant.
In the intervening years, the site has remained dormant. Since it was licensed, there has been no quarry-related activity. The only tangible evidence of quarry’s existence is a wide gate, partially hidden by trees, and a small sign. Many members of the original Quarries Are The Pits (QATP) committee have moved on, physically or spiritually. But those who are still around have been holding their breath for the other shoe to drop. I fear that it has, and that the recently announced upgrades to both County Road 24 and Highway 417 will entice the license holder to throw open the gates to the Dunvegan Quarry.
For those of you unfamiliar with the issue, here’s a Reader’s Digestversion of a presentation I made to the North Glengarry’s Council on November 11, 2002: “… I wish to make it clear that we are not opposed to quarries and gravel pits. We are well aware that aggregates are needed for farming, roads, construction, septic systems, and the like. They are one of our community’s basic building blocks. However, we are opposed to unnecessary quarries. Based on the Ministry of Natural Resources’ own figures, the Blair and Cruickshank quarries on the 8thConcession are estimated to have sufficient reserves to meet North Glengarry’s aggregate needs for over 200 years. And if that’s not enough, there are over nine other existing quarries and 20 gravel pits in the immediate area!
Another reason that the people here with me tonight are so upset is the proposed quarry’s proximity to neighbouring farms and residences. Most quarries are located in less-inhabited areas. If the proposed quarry was 400 acres away from the nearest neighbour, we might be a bit less worried about its impact. But it’s not! In fact, the proposed site is so close to abutting properties that the applicant has had to request a Special Exception Zone to get around the 300-metre minimum buffer area stipulated by law.
A third reason for our concern is the applicant’s plans for asphalt and concrete manufacturing on the site. In addition to the noxious fumes and dust, there’s the very real threat of permanent contamination of our soil and water by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
So the question is — who will benefit if this new quarry goes ahead? Well, it won’t be the buyers of aggregate. We already have lots of competing suppliers from which to choose. It also won’t be the Township of North Glengarry. For each tonne of aggregate removed, North Glengarry receives a royalty of just 4¢. And it won’t be the residents along Dunvegan Road. Putting a quarry smack in the midst of our community could destroy our quality of life and the equity we have worked so hard to build up in our homes and businesses. The only reason you are being asked to re-zone this land and amend our Township’s Official Plan is so that one single company can make money… lots of money… at the expense of an entire community!”
As I indicated earlier, QATP’s efforts to block the license were in vain. The OMB once again sided with big business and overruled our local planning officials and the will of Council. Now, only time will tell if there’s sufficient return on investment to warrant hauling rock-crushing equipment and truckloads of ANFO explosive from Cornwall to blast a huge, aquifer-draining hole on the outskirts of Dunvegan.
Eyewitness testimony
To date, I have come across two references to the majestic MacLeod Maple Grove that once graced Dunvegan. The first was in The MacLeod’s of Glengarry, 1793-1993.This exhaustive genealogical account contains a glowing description of the Clan MacLeod Society of Glengarry’s very first Clan Picnic. Held on July 4th, 1936 in the “beautiful maple grove belonging to Mr. D.A. MacLeod,” the inaugural event attracted around 1,000 clan members to Dunvegan from as far away as Tisdale, Saskatchewan and Detroit, Michigan. The day’s activities kicked off with registration, pipe music and sports leading up to lunch served en plein air This was followed by all manner of Scottish-themed activities in the afternoon and yet another picnic for supper. The shindig was then topped off with an evening of fun at the Dunvegan Orange Hall, where Clan MacLeod partied until just shy of midnight.
The second reference was in a front-page article in the July 19th, 1918 issue of the Glengarry News. It described an event that had been held the previous Friday… “a most successful Orange Celebration in the grove of Mr. W.J. McLeod, near the Village, an ideal picnic ground.” The article went on to report that four to five thousand Orangemen and their families came from Cornwall in the south and East Hawkesbury in the north and all the Lodges in between. To be honest, I take the reporter’s attendance figures with a grain of salt. But even if he were off by a factor of ten, it still would have been an impressive turnout.
While I knew the renowned maple grove was somewhere on Lot 25 Concession 9 Kenyon, I wasn’t sure exactly where. Luckily, John C. MacLeod came to the rescue.He wrote and told me there was a similar event in the grove when he was growing up. “It was either a MacLeod Clan gathering or a 12thof July celebration,” John recollected. “It was probably around 1950… I was there.”
John C. had just moved here from Toronto. His father, John D. MacLeod, had been the Director of Ontario’s Crops Seeds and Weeds Branch, but decided to return home to Dunvegan. The family bought the farm on Lot 25 Con. 8 and moved into its classic Ontario style brick farmhouse. John C.’s dad also opened a seed cleaning plant on the northeast corner of the Dunvegan crossroads… at the north end of the general store.
As John C. describes it, the grove would have been a breathtaking sight to the modern eye that’s accustomed to calling a sad field of skinny weed trees a forest. Here’s how John remembers it from when he was a boy: “It consisted of mature maple trees right to the fence line with Christena Ferguson’s lot. The grove continued at least half way northward to the side road. I believe at one point about half way north it opened westward to a field. The roadway extended northward past more woodlot and then an open field which would have been on the south side of the side road and across the road from Gordie Dan’s house.” The reference to “Christena Ferguson’s lot” is the little house beside the brick manse. And I believe the “side road” reference is to today’s Stewart’s Glen Road.
And there you go; one more burning question about Dunvegan answered. You’re welcome.
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