About eighteen months ago, the topic of the as-yet undeveloped Dunvegan Road quarry (with side orders of asphalt and concrete plants) appeared in this column. The owners, Cornwall Gravel, had requested deforestation approval be added to North Glengarry’s official plan. The stand of timber I believe they wanted permission to fell was at the very north end of the future quarry site, right beside Highway 417. At the time, North Glengarry’s planner, Kasia Olszewska, recommended the request be denied in order to protect the Township’s limited forested areas. I heard nothing more.
However, I’m sad to report that the Dunvegan quarry issue may be raising its ugly head again. For at least two days in a row last week, the quarry gates were open and a car and a van were parked on the future quarry’s access road. The van had a discrete sign on the side indicating that a local technical services company owned it. While I have no way of knowing precisely what the firm was hired to do, I understand that one of the primary services they offer is the surveying of property boundaries. Now, the fact that survey work such as this may be happening could be totally benign. Like King Midas counting his gold, the quarry owners could just be making sure that all the land they bought (and the vast deposit of Glengarry rock below it) is still there. On the other hand, it could be a precursor. As an engineering project manger to whom I spoke over the weekend noted, every big-build project she’s ever worked on “starts “with two guys and a transit.”
For those unfamiliar with the issue, over 15 years ago, many concerned Dunveganites were opposed to a below-water table quarry that was being proposed on Dunvegan Road. Our position was that, with a more than ample number of existing quarries and gravel pits in the area, there was no need to risk the aquifer by adding one more. Under the banner of Quarries Are The Pits, we decided to take on Goliath and insisted a formal Ontario Municipality Board (OMB) hearing be held. The OMB routinely ignores the concerns of citizens and municipalities. So we knew our chances of winning were slim and, in the end, we lost. That’s why there’s a ‘Dunvegan Quarry’ sign on the north side of the road today. The question is: will there be an “Open for Business” added in the near future?
Mac’s motorcycle
According to Wikipedia, the Honda CB350 twin-cylinder, four-stroke motorcycle is a classic. Produced from1968 through 1973, it was one of Honda’s best-selling models, with more than a quarter million purchased over that time. I found out today that one of them is located just south of Dunvegan, in Baltic’s Corners. Mac Williamson slowly, and lovingly, restored it, with the help of a very kind friend. Cancer treatments have greatly sapped the energy of this 70 year-old rural mail delivery person, but he tells me that he does what he can to stay active. Bringing this classic bike back to life was one such project.
Mac and his partner Brenda Kennedy moved to Stanley MacCaskill’s place south of Dunvegan twenty-one years ago. As those who know him will attest, Mac is an ‘accumulator.’ I came across this lovely term in Saturday’s Ottawa Citizen. It perfectly describes someone who’s left ‘collecting’ behind in the dust, but avoids the social stigma of the ‘hoarder’ label. I suspect the couple’s house and outbuildings contain countless other reclamation projects to keep Mac busy.
The primary reason for my official column call was to inquire after his health. I was surprised, and delighted, when he answered the phone. Telephonically, he sounded healthy as a horse, and yet softly positive as he always does. He told me he still goes to Cornwall for regular chemo treatments and recently had to fight a nasty infection of unknown origin. Nevertheless, he and Brenda have had both their vaccine shots and I gather he’s even looking forward to doing a wee bit of gardening.
After I hung up, I couldn’t get my head around how Mac told me he had “cleaned the Honda’s gas tank.” Apparently he filled it with lead shot and then tumbled it in his washing machine. Or perhaps it was his dryer. It doesn’t matter. It must have worked because Mac was thrilled to take the 350 out for a spin… albeit only to the end of his lane and back. Motor on, Mac.
Cartographic nepotism
It was the late Peggi Calder who got me hooked on the Onland “Historical Books” database. It contains digital copies of the property registration books for all of Ontario… from the date the land was first awarded by the Crown to the early 2000s when the registration system was computerized. While I have become fairly adept, of late, in tracking down titles, I recently ran into a brick wall when looking at Dunvegan proper. I was trying to trace the ownership of the parking lot across from the Church. In fact, I could find no records for any of the building lots between Church and Pendleton Streets and Main and Murray Streets. Then I discovered the secret. The plans of the towns, villages and hamlets of Glengarry are recorded separately. They are not part of the Concession Road plans.
Dunvegan’s official plan was drawn by James Wells of Vankleek Hill and filed on March 10th, 1877. It was entitled Plan of Part of the Village of Dunvegan, and was assigned the Plan #23 when registered. The eagle-eyed amongst you will have noted that Mr. Wells only included “part of the village.” I know not why the other three quadrants of the crossroads were ignored, but they were. Even though, at the time the plan was surveyed and drawn, hotels, blacksmith shops, houses, the original Orange Lodge and a whacking big log church and graveyard were there for all to see. Perhaps it was a budgetary or timing issue. Regardless, these other properties are part of the 8th and 9th Concession records instead.
The scan of the Plan that appears online is extremely (perhaps even intentionally) poor. However, the Ontario government gladly emailed me a higher resolution version… for a fee. Carefully drawn with quill and black ink, it lays out the lots of Dunvegan’s northeast quadrant with lines and lettering done in Spencerian script. Think of the Coca-Cola or Ford logos. Invented by Platt Rogers Spencer, it was designed as an elegant style of penmanship that could be written quickly and legibly. The Spencerian style of handwriting was used for business records and correspondence in North America from about 1850 to the early 1920s, when the typewriter displaced it.
The plan drawn by Mr. Wells so many years ago is a fascinating document; one that I suspect he took a bit of liberty in developing. Even before Mr. Wells drove to Dunvegan in his horse and buggy, Church Street was probably always Church Street, and Main was, no doubt, always Main. However, given the name of Dunvegan’s most easterly north-south street — Pendleton Street — I‘m not sure the same can be said of Alice and Murray Streets. The clue lies hidden in the paragraph Mr. Wells signed at the upper right corner of the plan. His middle name was Pendleton. It could well be that his siblings were named Alice and Murray.
-30-