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Showing posts from November, 2008

There's "Injuns" in the Valley!

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It is the spring of 1913 in March, a boy’s dream happen along Whitemans Creek. Smoke rising from what is called the “Little Field” caught the attention of two boys, Shirley and Roy Davis. Being their farm, they went to investigate. At the corner of the field was a wigwam… and as they approached the flap opened and out stepped an Indian with rabbit snares in his hand. Through the tent doorway they could see a smoldering fire surrounded by flat rocks. On top sat two black kettles. Behind, was a cedar bough bed with blankets on top. The boys brought vegetables to their visitor which he added to his rabbit stew. One day they brought a syrup pail with fresh milk. The Indian poured the milk into his smaller black pot. He put small sticks around the inside rim, threw a hide over it and left it outside to freeze. When he wanted milk he chopped out small pieces. Their visitor stayed for over two weeks trapping muskrat, snaring rabbits and fishing along the creek. One day when they cam

The Grand River Story of the Three Sisters

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Every time I paddle through these magnificent columns,... people ask me about the story behind them. So here it is... But first a "myth" smile for the day! In 2008, a journalist doing a guided canoe trip with a local Paris canoe outfitter was told... the Three Sisters were started just before World War I, but due to lack of funds, never completed. So the published Star quote said : " walked up a rail-trail to a lookout on one of four abutments of limestone pillars, part of an unfinished train bridge constructed before World War I. " Janice Bradbeer Toronto Star A very rare photo is of the Three Sisters with a bridge on top around 1940. The true story of how the "Three Sisters" were birthed... They were built around 1852. They were the pillars for the Great West Railway bridge over the Grand River. This was the the first railway to Paris, running from Niagara Falls. The inaugural trip was December 15, 1853

The Legend of Whitemans Creek

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As a boy, I was told the following story and legend of the buried treasure at Whitemans Creek. There was a settler who lived along the creek where it flowed into the Grand. He was wealthy and had a untrustworthy daughter, who along with her husband were eager to acquire his money. The old man aware of his daughter's greed, secretly buried his coins in a chest along the creek valley. Unfortunately after hiding the chest, he slipped while walking along the creek, striking his head on a rock. The unconscious man drowned, and with him went the location of his wealth. Thus named the creek... Whitemans. Later in life, in the late 1990s an old Cayuga Storyteller recited a story to an acquaintance... who recited the story to me. This story is about how the creek got its name according to Iroquoian memorized history. What is interesting to note, is that the old woman who was in her 80s, refused to write what she knew on paper because she believed the "word" would lose its power. S