You know those tourist-attracting lakes that I mentioned wishing Dunvegan had? It turns out that Glengarry was once completely covered with water. The only problem is that this was around 400 million years ago, when tourists with their bass boats and paddleboards were in real short supply. According to local paleontologist, George Kampouris (who will be giving a presentation at the Glengarry Pioneer Museum on Sunday, August 14th), the coast of this early body of water followed the base of the Canadian Shield. That’s the Lower Laurentian mountain range across the Ottawa River from Hawkesbury.
As time inched along, the ancient seafloor was pushed up and the ocean moved further away. As a result, by the Permian period (290 to 245 million years ago), Glengarry was part of a huge biomass factory of lakes and swamps that laid down the immense beds of coal (in some places several thousand feet thick) that stretch from Pennsylvania in the south to Moose River near Abitibi in the north.
Next on the timeline would have been the Mesozoic period (245 to 65 million years ago). “This is when Dunvegan and the rest of Glengarry would have been well above water, densely forested, crisscrossed by rivers… and inhabited by dinosaurs and their contemporaries,” George told me.
So why have dinosaur remains never been uncovered in our region, or any other part of Ontario for that matter? “They certainly lived here along with all the other animals of the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods,” reports George. “However, the soil and rocks that originally contained their bones… were all scraped away by the weight and force of the glacial ice that covered much of Canada some 50,000 years ago.”
While I had George on the line, I asked him about a rumour I’d heard that Shell Oil drilled exploratory wells in the Dunvegan area back in the late 1970s. I wondered if Glengarry might contain pockets of black gold or bubbling crude. “Yes and no,” George replied. “There are no traditional oil reserves… However, natural gas has been known to be released from black shale when drilling for water wells.” Interestingly, George did confirm that, around 30 years ago, test holes were drilled just over the 417 from Dunvegan, but the gas deposits weren’t economically viable given market prices at the time. He also told me that the capped wellheads are still visible on a side road east of the northern off ramp.
As you can see, George Kampouris (a research associate at the Cincinnati Museum of Natural History and the Dunvegan museum’s informal paleontologist in residence) is one knowledgeable guy. I know he wowed the crowd at the first Glengarry Rocks event back in 2011. And I see no reason to doubt that he will do so again. But the best way to find out is to bring your family to his presentation on Sunday, August 14th from 1:00 to 4:00 PM. Admission is only $10 ($5.00 for members) and children under 12 are free.
George will take you back to a time when Glengarry was just emerging from the primordial soup — eons before the first swirl of the pipes would ever be heard. If there’s time, George will identify your backyard fossils and other archaeological discoveries and discuss them with the audience. Sort of like a Prehistoric Roadshow. And there will be lots of fun in store for your junior paleontologists, as well. The museum will have a mock archaeological dig where kids can search for real artifacts… fossils to identify… petrified artifacts to examine… and many other kid-friendly activities. Plus, homemade sweets and cold drinks will be served.
Before I let George go, I asked him if he had three little known facts about Glengarry’s paleontological past that he’d be willing to share. Here’s what I dug up for you:
- Vankleek Hill and Rigaud Mountain are kissing cousins. Both pushed their way up through the bedrock during the Jurassic period, but never became full-fledged volcanoes… yet.
- As the glaciers retreated, the rushing melt water carved a web of channels and tunnels through the bedrock. While most of these ‘karst,’ as they are called, have filled in over time, some still move water long distances. From high points like Finch, all the way to low points like the Moose Creek Bog.
- Glengarry rocks contain both freshwater and saltwater fossils.
(Because of the extensive photo coverage of the Glengarry Highland Games
in this week’s Glengarry News, the Dunvegan column was truncated.)
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