Enjoying Our Natural and Human Heritage

ENJOYING OUR NATURAL AND HUMAN HERITAGE

Wednesday, October 17, 2007 (Napanee Beaver)

Friday, October 19, 2007 (Picton Gazette)

I seem to be doing a lot of bus tours this year, and it is encouraging to see the interest that people have in wanting to explore and learn more about our area. Give me some money and a meal at the Waring House, and I am yours for the day! Seriously, I learned many years ago, when I was a Park Naturalist at Sandbanks Provincial Park, that I was guilty of taking many of our local attractions for granted. The number of queries I would receive in the space of a day about Lake-on-the-Mountain was phenomenal. And it was here where our bus load of seniors from Toronto wanted to go on a recent tour.

One of the tricks to a successful tour though, is filling in the gaps between major points of interest. It is a learning process and one which requires committing everything to memory as we drive along. The history behind the famous Claramount Inn, the story of the Black River Cheese Factory and the fascinating tales of shipwrecks as we near South Bay. Throw in some nature trivia about fishers, and bears, and an even a stray moose that once wandered into the county’s west side, and most bus trips usually work. I have yet to be cautious though about directing buses into places they must back out of. “Who was that fellow in the Tilley hat, guiding a big Greyhound bus out of the Waring House entrance the other day?” asked one observant resident of the county who I must have stopped, among several, as I ushered the hind end of a bus out onto the highway. Bus drivers are skilled at manoeuvring these behemoths, and this driver was exceptional. At Black River Cheese, another Toronto tour bus arrived at the same time we did, and pointed the front of his bus into a parking space, his rear end barely clearing traffic. “I thought I WAS a car,” laughed the driver when I commented on him nonchalantly occupying a parking space as though he were just another small vehicle.

Bus tours are enjoyable that way, and it’s another extension of what I do in my effort to present both the natural and human history of those areas that attract visitors. The Quinte area, and beyond, offers such a diversity of attractions and it is a pleasure to share my enthusiasm of some of those areas that mean so much to me. Of all that I do, Algonquin Provincial Park remains my favourite destination, and bus trips to this location never fail to be filled. It is a special area with its diversity of walking trails, the Visitor Centre, the logging museum, moose, bears, finches, Labrador tea and black spruce and, of course, the fall colour. Videos and DVDs keep passengers occupied during those dry stretches when there is little to say, and an accompanying host always has a joke or two to share.

It isn’t long before one has a handle on suitable restaurants that will accommodate large numbers, and stores such as the famous Kilborn’s in Newboro, or Village Green in Westport. While in Westport last month, I directed the bus driver up the steep entrance road to Foley Mountain Conservation Area, assuring the driver there was a place to turn around once we reached the summit, even though I wasn’t sure myself. The view from Foley Mountain is rivetting as the village and Upper Rideau Lake sprawls out some 250 feet below. It’s where I would like to retire. The altitude reminded me of Mazinaw Rock at Bon Echo. We seemed so high, and at one point, a turkey vulture rode the thermals far below us.

As we get older, the natural history and especially, the human history, mean more to us. The challenge is being able to draw on our memories and bring it all alive. When I attend plowing matches and antique shows, I often wonder who is going to be around to show us these things after we are gone? Or will tomorrow’s generation even care about the Rideau Canal’s background, the early logging days at Algonquin, or the Loyalist history of the Quinte area. Fortunately, there are still guides like Don MacKay who, when not otherwise occupied being a blacksmith at Jones Falls, brings the history of the Rideau Canal alive in his colourful two hour walking tour around the lockstation. Very few have the flare that Don has, or the dedication to the past, or the skill to present it in a lively and interesting way. Walking with him on one such tour a month or two ago, had many of us furiously jotting down notes.

It is wonderful to see pioneer villages and the agricultural museum at Stirling, and even relatively small museums like Ameliasburgh trying to keep this history intact. Through their efforts, generations following us will still know how a threshing machine worked, and what a Massey-Harris Pony tractor looked like, and how rope was made and cows were milked. We are fortunate in this part of the province to have such a wealth of natural and human history, and touring companies and facilities who care, eager to bring visitors to our area so they may leave with a better understanding of what they came to see. We can only hope that many of these financially struggling attractions and museums are able to survive as their existence is essential to preserving this history.

Meanwhile, if you should see a large bus struggling to get turned around across the bridge at Chaffey’s Locks, or attempting to negotiate the entrance at Bancroft’s Tim Horton’s, you’ll know that I am probably somewhere nearby!