BENT TREES MARKERS OF THE PAST

A hike through an undisturbed forest is something of a treat, one can clamber over rocks and fauna that has never been traversed by others, providing an escape from the crowds and busy roads of the city. These days it is not easy to get lost in the woods with cell phone apps and GPS to guide our way…but something I recently stumbled upon revealed someone long ago had also trekked the same woods, using not a GPS to guide them, but a strangely bent tree…

THE MYSTERY OF THE CROOKED TREE

Before a network of highways and roads guided us across this country and even before the arrival of Europeans in North America, a network of trails and paths used by native people took them from place to place. What existed was a roadmap of trails, a series of marked paths to guide travelers on a safe route across the wilderness.

The first record of trail marker trees appeared in a document called “Map of Ouilmette Reservation with its Indian Reminders dated 1828–1844”. This map shows actual drawings and locations of existing trail marker trees.

These ancient trail routes were later used by European settlers to build rudimentary carriage roads that would later become the paved asphalt roads we use today. Back then, there were no signposts, rest stops or tourist info centres to point us in the right direction. Instead these native trail blazers built “trail marker trees”, unique bent trees that pointed the passer by in the right direction. These bent tree markers resemble strange oddities of nature if you can find one, markers of the old trail travellers. Once sapling trees bent with rawhide or vines, they now give us mysteriously shaped trees in the forest.

THE BENT TREE SYSTEM

A while ago a friend told me about the bent tree trail markers, but I was skeptical of their existence since nature can behave strangely, giving us oddities that seemingly defy any natural explanation. I thought bent trees were just another one of these natural anomalies until I came across one last week. There, high up on a high rocky ridge was the definite shape of a bent tree, its presence caught my eye much like it would have to a forest traveler many years ago. Upon closer inspection, it became clear that this might not be natural, and could very well be one of the old bent tree trail markers from long ago.

In the 2011 Field Botanists Of Ontario Newsletter, an article written by Paul O’Hara explains in great detail the strange but fascinating “bent tree” markers made by indigenous people in the Toronto area hundreds of years ago. You can read that piece here Also of interest was an informative piece written by William McClain of the University of Illinois piece written by William McClain of the University of Illinois who explains how and why these odd bent trees were formed. Trail-marker trees were important to the indigenous tribes who used used them while traveling, using their own methods to make them. Generally, oak saplings were bent and tied to stakes or rocks using animal skin or wild vines. The direction the tree was bent would indicate the proper course to the traveler. These bent marker trees were usually placed on high ground for visibility and would usually point towards a waterway, a settlement or a lake, the route best taken to find these places.

In 1965 archaeologist, Robert E. Ritzenthaler, wrote an article about the bent tree trail markers that appeared in the Wisconsin Archeologist, Volume 46, Number 3, 1965, claiming any trees 200 years of age or younger would have to have been made by pioneers with early Europeans quick to copy this practice of Native Americans. The practice was widespread throughout North America, and Raymond E. Janssen, in the February 1940 issue of Natural History magazine, mentions their distribution into the Great Lakes region.

Dennis Downes, President and Founder of the Great Lakes Trail Marker Tree Society explains “Some of these trees would have brought them to fresh water springs, the preferred source of water used by the Native Americans and settlers alike. Other Trail Marker Trees would have guided them to areas with exposed stone and copper deposits needed for their adornments, hunting implements, and everyday tools. Yet, others would lead them to the areas where they could gather medicinal plants as well as plants used to make their dyes and paints. The Trail Marker Trees would have taken them to ceremonial sites and occasionally the burial sites of their ancestors. Also, in relation to the rivers, these trees would indicate areas of portage and safe crossing.” Downes continues to research and document the bent trees of the Great Lakes, and his impressive amount of work on these trees can be viewed here.

Indian Country Today Media Network, which covers Native American and First Nations of Canada culture, sat down in 2013 with Don Wells, author of “Mystery Of The Trees” and discussed the history of these strange trees. Wells explains that back in the 1600s and 1700s, when natives were traveling from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from Canada to Mexico, there were trails all over North America. “They didn’t have GPS or a map, so to find their way from A to B and back home again, they had marker trees, or trail trees, or a signal tree or a yoke tree”. explained Wells, who also produced a documentary about these fascinating historic trees. “These trees would be bent as saplings, when they were about ¾-inch in size, and tied down. They would be left that way for a year and lock into that position. They used them to mark trails, crossing points on streams, springs to find water and medicinal sites where they would get plants.

Read more of their info on bent trees here.

HOW BENT TREES WERE MADE

A sapling of either oak, maple, elm or other hardwood that could bend easily would have been staked down, pointing in the direction of interest. As the sapling grew, its side branch would grow upwards, and later form the main trunk of the tree. (see sketch)

The bend of the tree would be a few feet off the ground so the horizontal trunk could still be seen in the deep snow of winter. Sometimes there would be a hollow made in the bend to leave message sticks or other parcels.

DISCOVERING THE BENT TREE

On a recent trip to Opinicon Lake we traveled down an old road that was previously used to transport rocks quarried from nearby Elgin used in the construction of the Rideau Canal locks. This winding, narrow road led from the main road of Highway 15 to the Rideau system at Davis Lock. I noticed high up on a rock cliff an unusual tree that matched the description of the “marker trees” my friend had once told me about. I grabbed some gear and hiked through the forest to inspect the tree in closer detail and sure enough it was a strange bent tree, pointing in the direction of Opinicon Lake and the connection between two lakes. Upon further inspection it was revealed that another bent tree was also on another area of high ground. It seemed to be consistent with the old bent tree practice: on high ground, bent towards a place of interest, along a very old old road that was most likely once a trail.

In McClain’s article it is also mentioned that the settling pioneers also adopted the bending of trees method to mark a path, so it is likely that perhaps the one I found was made by one of the early settlers to the area before, or during construction of the Rideau Canal system. Perhaps the trail was marked by natives as away to the waterfalls of Opinicon Lake (Which is a native word for “potato”).

The Rideau system was once an important route used by the First Nations people to travel between Kingston and Ottawa, so finding a trail marker tree along it is not unusual. The tree also contained a hollowed out area in the bend, as mentioned before for leaving message sticks. It was fascinating to see one up close and in person, its location a once prominent point of land for a traveler long ago. I will not dismiss the possibility that it is or natural origin but the evidence and research seems to prove otherwise.

ARE THERE MORE OUT THERE?

Many of these unique bent tress have been lost to road construction, development, logging, or just uncertainty as to what they were. When an original trail was later made into a road, many were most likely lost, yet they may remain as the last living piece of history connecting us with our first nations people and their unique way of life.

 

As with any historical mystery, some will continue to debate their origins and deem them as natural phenomena, but with so much evidence proving otherwise, it seems unlikely these mysterious trees are the product of natural mutation. These unique markers to our past have been with us for centuries yet they remain largely forgotten in the unexplored wilderness of our region. Who knows how many more are out there waiting to be found, lost markers to the past, silently awaiting their next visitor.

Andrew King, August 2016

OttawaRewind.com

SOURCES

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trail_trees

http://www.greatlakestrailtreesociety.org/index.html

https://web.extension.illinois.edu/illinoissteward/openarticle.cfm?ArticleID=26&Page=2

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/05/03/groups-quest-find-and-save-indian-trail-trees-149169

 

 

For hundreds of years sightings of unclassified marine creatures have filled the log books of ships, menacing creatures that lurk beneath the waves. Often called “sea serpents”, these elusive creatures often appear on old maps as fanciful drawings of sea faring monsters with great teeth, devouring entire ships.

Scientists currently believe these sightings can be best explained as documented creatures such as the lungfish, oarfish or even eels. Yet there is one sighting of a sea serpent that goes beyond just a visual interpretation, an incident that involved one being captured. Not on the ocean, but right here in the Ottawa River.

OTTAWA RIVER SEA SERPENT

Along the Ottawa River near Arnprior the waters widen as they stretch north, resembling more of a lake than a river, hence it being given the name Chats Lake. It reaches from the once mighty Chats Falls, now dammed for a hydro station, northwards to more rapids at Portage Du Fort near Renfrew. Bookended by these two waterfalls, this 30km long lake was the scene of much logging and timber transport during Ottawa’s lumber boom of the mid to late 1800s.

At that time, large volumes of lumber was being transported downriver to the busy mills of Bytown. Many steamships were employed to carry both crews and supplies, as well as to tow logs to various points along the river.

During this period of increased steamship travel on Chats Lake a number of these ships began to spot an unusual water creature of immense proportions in the lake. Described as a large serpentine creature, a well respected Arnprior citizen by the name of Robert Young related to the local newspaper his glimpse of an aquatic monster in Chats Lake, which he described as “being of enormous size and proportions”. Soon, those on the water in boats and those that swam in its cooling waters grew fearful of what sounded to be a large serpent creature in Chats Lake.

Below Chats Falls, an 1880 newspaper article relates the story of a boy in a canoe encountering a serpent creature “about the size of an ordinary telegraph pole” and explains how an unknown serpent creature lurks in the Ottawa River, witnessed by many.

A few years after Young’s sighting, and also near Arnprior, Captain Brown of the steamship Alliance, saw a creature of the same description. Large. Serpentine. Fast.

With summer in full swing, and like something from a Spielbergian film, the legend of the sea serpent in Chats Lake reached epic proportions. Then, one hot summer day in 1882 the creature was spotted again, but this time there was no escape for the Chats Lake Monster.

Announced in the Arnprior Chronicle on August 26, 1882, the elusive sea serpent of Chats Lake had been captured. Having struck terror in the hearts of superstitious lumber men of the time, superstition became reality when the steamship Levi Young encountered the legendary creature of the lake. Departing the Snow Rapids, near present day Castleford where the Bonnechere River empties into the Ottawa River, the crew of the LeviYoung noticed a huge serpent creature swimming ahead of the boat. The newspaper article states that “Mr. John Durgan, chief engineer, and a deck hand, named Shaw, jumped into a boat and started in pursuit of the reptile. They succeeded in getting within striking distance of the serpent when Mr. Durgan struck it a blow over the head with his oar.” This in turn enraged the creature who churned the water into a furious froth, attacking the boat and the men inside. An oar was used to lay a powerful blow to the creature’s neck where it writhed to rest and was then towed back to the steamship.

Once back at the ship, the crew heaved the lifeless serpent aboard the deck of the Levi Young where it was laid out for inspection. Aboard the ship lay dead a serpent creature measuring 11 feet in length and more than a foot in thickness. The jaws of the creature were pried open and measured a span of half a foot.

No further records of the creature have been found, and the whatever happened to the carcass of the Chats Lake creature remains unknown. Was it some sort of ancient fish trapped between the falls on either end of the lake after the prehistoric Champlain Sea receded? Was it an abnormally large snake, catfish or eel? It is unclear as to what exactly plied the waters of the Ottawa River those years in the late 1800’s, but there is one thing for certain, a large serpent creature was indeed captured. So as we lazily splash around at our cottages this summer without fear of sharks or jellyfish, remember there was once another type of creature lurking in the dark waters of the Ottawa River, a creature that could still very well be out there, and possibly very hungry.

Andrew King, July 2016

SOURCES

Giant Serpent Killed?

The Quebec Daily Telegraph, August 4, 1880

The Upper Ottawa Valley: A Glimpse of History, by Clyde Kennedy

 

 

Former Speed Record Holder Miss Canada IV listed for sale on Antique Boat America

In what could be another unfortunate example of our country’s oversight in preserving our own history, a signifigant piece of it appears for sale in an American classified ad. Antique Boat America recently listed speedboat record holder Miss Canada IV on their website for $775,000 US dollars. Peter Mellon from Antique Boat America does mention though that
they are the only Antique and Classic Boat Broker in North America with a Canadian presence / office and full time staff. They are working hard to make sure this piece of Canadian history remains in Canada. Mellon states they are “working diligently to keep this boat in Canada as it is an iconic piece of Canadian race boat history.”
Miss Canada IV is a late 1940’s Unlimited class race boat originally owned and driven by Harold & Lorna Wilson who, on Sunday, October 2, 1949 took Miss Canada IV into the history books. The result was a North American speed boat record of 138.865 m.p.h., which exceeded the best American boat by 12 m.p.h. Miss Canada IV was built by Greavette boats in Gravenhurst, ON and powered by a 3,000 HP Rolls Royce Griffon engine, the largest aero engine in the world at that time. The powerplant was still on the British classified list when British authorities allowed it to be brought to Canada to challenge the Americans for the coveted Harmsworth Trophy. The Harmsworth Trophy was the pinnacle of international speedboat racing with each boat entered having to be entirely from the country of which it represented. The Rolls Royce Griffon engine was a 37 litre, V-12, liquid-cooled airplane engine designed and built for WW2 use, mainly in Shackleton bombers, and in Spitfire fighters near the end of the war.

In 1950, the Americans grew wary of this new speedboat marvel from Canada, and the Harmsworth Trophy was where their concerns were put to the test. Unfortunately, in the first heat of the race, Miss Canada IV suffered serious steering and hull damage and had to be pulled from competition. She was later taken to Picton, ON where she attempted to break the World Speed Record in the Bay Of Quinte but suffered a gearbox blowout nearing 200MPH. The Wilsons sold the boat to Gord and Jim Thompson, who raced her under the Miss Supertest name before retiring her to build their own boats.

Apparently lost in a fire, Miss Canada IV was found years later decaying in a farmer’s field sometime in the 1980s near Windsor, ON. Harold & Charles Mistele bought her and restored her before it was placed in the Ingersoll Cheese & Agricultural Museum. In the 2000s it was acquired by Bobby Genovese of Lake Rosseau in Muskoka where it was completely restored and unveiled at the Gravenhurst Boat Show. I was in attendance and had the pleasure of being rumbled awake by the sound of its V12 engine one morning.

Miss Canada IV appeared in Picton last year where I got to see her up close again as she attempted to break the speed record on the same waters she once plied in 1950. Yet those efforts were thwarted once again when bizarre winds and weather prevented Miss Canada IV from performing.

Keeping an eye on this Canadian boating marvel, I recently noticed this important part of our nation’s history ironically appear on the Antique Boat America classified ads. These are good people at Antique Boat America having dealt with them in the past, and I know they would like nothing more than this boat to remain in Canada. We just need someone to make this happen…like our Canadian Museums. Yet, I fear due to “budgets” and whatever other excuses, this will be an unlikely outcome. Here is the ad with live link to it below:

http://www.antiqueboatamerica.com/ab_list_boatNew.asp?Left=&Type=ViewBoat&BoatId=37213

Her proud Canadian heritage all up for grabs to anyone with $775,000 USD. To have such an important piece of Canadian history end up anywhere else than in a Canadian museum would be a tragic fate that this country would regret. I hope someone will please take notice and make sure Miss Canada IV remains in Canada.

Thank you.

Andrew King 2016

 

Sixty years ago to this day the flames of hell consumed the souls of 11 nuns and two airmen when a fighter jet screamed down from the heavens and exploded into a remote Ottawa convent in the fields of Orleans. On this 60th Anniversary of what is called The Convent Crash, let’s take a closer look at the events and aftermath of this gruesome chapter in Ottawa’s history.

On the evening of May 15, 1956 two CF-100s were scrambled from their base at RCAF Station, 445 Squadron Uplands to intercept an Unidentified Flying Object heading towards Montréal. The time was 10:37pm and the Canadian built CF-100 Canucks quickly reached their target which turned out to be a RCAF North Star flying from Resolute Bay to Dorval Airport. The two planes then decided to ascend to to 33,000 feet to practice interception techniques and burn off excess fuel before returning to base.

One of the planes then landed but the other jet reported they were going to continue flying, burning off their excess fuel. This was to be the last communication received from the aircraft.

The plane was piloted by F/O William J. Schmidt (age 25) and F/O Kenneth D. Thomas (age 20), two young men who would soon scream downwards and take eleven nuns and a covent into a fireball from hell. No one is quite sure what happened at 33,000 feet that night sixty years ago, but one explanation says that the oxygen masks of the two crewmen malfunctioned and they lost consciousness, sending the jet into a death dive. (Here is a short video of a real CF-100 fighter jet I filmed at RMC Kingston.)

Below, on the outskirts of Ottawa, The Sisters of Villa St. Louis were getting ready for bed in their convent located on the shores of the Ottawa River. In the heavens above, a fighter jet was screaming down at 680mph and slammed into the remote convent, ironically one of the few buildings in the area at the time.

Upon impact, the jet exploded into a ball of flames, igniting the jet fuel and weapons munitions aboard the plane, vapourizing the three storey, 70 room building, and instantly killing the airmen. What happened next was a scene from hell as burning nuns jumped from windows, while others screamed as they were trapped and frantically trying to open windows. Those unable to escape their rooms died of smoke inhalation.

Nearby neighbours rushed to help at the gruesome scene, but little could be done to save the trapped nuns inside. When the flames were finally extinguished, 25 people had made it out alive, but 11 nuns, a priest, a servant, and the jet crew perished. In what was one of the worst air disasters in Ottawa’s history, the RCAF began an investigation into the disaster but could not determine what had happened. The jet’s crew had given no indication that they were in any trouble, and there was no attempt to eject from the aircraft. The plane could have easily hit the vacant fields or the empty waters of the Ottawa River, but for some ironic reason it slammed into the nuns convent like a godforsaken curse.

The RCAF cleaned up the site and today the Bruyere Centre Saint Louis sits on the scene of crash. A memorial marks the location where 15 souls lost their lives the night hell fell from the skies.

Andrew King, May 2016

SOURCES

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convent_Crash

http://ottawa.ca/en/jet-crash-villa-st-louis

Google Maps

http://www.canaero.ca/subpages/Article%20content/cf-100rocketspage1_Rocket%20podsa.html

 

 

 

The era of Hollywood Western film reached its peak in the 1960s and 70s with film and television productions depicting the gripping adventures of the Wild West. Mostly fictional tales, these Westerns created some of the most memorable moments in cinematic history, from the classic “The Magnificent Seven” to Clint Eastwood’s collection of Westerns. Yet the greatest Western story yet to be told is not from the Wild West, but from the fields of west Ottawa…

GUNFIGHT AT THE STONE CORRAL: California’s greatest outlaw from Bells Corners

If you drive south on Greenbank Road past Hunt Club into the NCC Greenbelt, there is a parcel of land that stretches west towards Cedarview Road. It’s a flat field owned by the NCC with an annual crop growing up from its soil but nothing else marks its place in history, a place where something else grew, the Biggest Outlaw In California History, a man by the name of Chris Evans.

Thomas and Mary Ann Evans, residents of Bells Corners brought their son Chris into the world on February 19th 1847. One of their many children, Tom and Mary Ann raised Chris to work the farmland they owned between Cedarview and Greenbank roads, just southeast of Bells Corners, the same property now owned by the NCC.

Here young Chris worked on his parents farm until the age of sixteen, at which point he decided that he wanted to “seek out his fortune”. Chris headed south to the United States and soon joined the Union Army fighting against the Confederate forces in the U.S. Civil War.

A natural sharpshooter and good with gun, Chris stayed with the Army as a talented scout after the Civil War ended and served alongside American legend Lt.Col George Custer, of “Custer’s Last Stand” fame, but Evans later deserted the Army and headed to California and the emerging Wild West. Once in California Chris Evans met a girl by the name of Molly Byrd, of whom he married and settled down with on a farm of his own in Visalia, California.

Here in the quiet hills of San Joaquin Valley, Evans worked as a miner, teamster, lumberjack and railroad employee. He hired a young man by the John Sontag to work on his own farm, who also worked the railroads with the Southern Pacific Railroad. Sontag was injured on the job, then fired by the company, sharing in Evans contempt for the railroad companies. Evans and Sontag became close friends, even going into a livery business together in Modesto, California. They both shared a dislike of the Southern Pacific Railroad, a sentiment shared by many in the area since the railroad company expropriated many properties under market value. A fire burned down their Modesto business in 1891, leaving them both bankrupt and forcing them to return to Visalia. It was at this time an unusual number of train robberies occurred perpetrated by two masked men.

On August 3 1892, a Southern Pacific Railroad train was held up near Fresno by two bandits who made off with $50,000. Authorities followed the bandits tracks which lead to none other than Visalia. Authorities had grown suspicious of Evans and Sontag and paid a visit to the Evans farm. Two men, Railroad Detective Will Smith and and Deputy Sheriff George Witty approached the Evans residence when Evans and Sontag appeared with shotguns. The two parties engaged in a firefight, with Evans and Sontag blasting their way out, wounding both lawmen and killing another who arrived on the scene. This began the largest manhunt in California’s history.

 

Now on the run, buddies Evans and Sontag had a posse of dozens of lawmen, 300 armed civilians and a score of bounty hunters looking to claim the $10,000 reward for their capture, dead or alive. The pair were well liked in the area by the locals who provided them with the necessary cover and hiding places while the epic manhunt ensued, and they were able to avoid any confrontation for about a month. Then one day in September, a posse tracked Evans and Sontag to a cabin in the mountains. Here the posse approached the fugitive’s cabin but were quickly ambushed by Evans and Sontag who blew out the windows and shot up the approaching posse, killing a Marshal and another member of the posse. An eight hour shootout resulted in Evans and Sontag escaping further into the mountains where they spent the winter camping.

In the spring of 1893 another special posse of lawmen lead by a new marshal, Marshal George E. Gard kept his posse small and secret, stealthily tracking the fugitives and slowly gathering information without being detected by the two outlaws. Marshal Gard soon got a tip that said that Sontag and Evans were planning a visit to Evans’ wife, Molly, who was located at the Evan’s cabin about ten miles northeast of Visalia. Gard and his posse headed to the Stone Corral, next to the Evans home, so they could begin searching the area for the two bandits.

Once at the Stone Corral, the Marshal and his posse of three men, Hiram Lee Rapelje, a deputized bounty hunter, Fred Jackson, a policeman from Nevada and Thomas Burns, holed up in a cabin to wait and watch if Evans and Sontag would pass by. The tip would prove to be correct, since soon afterwards on June 11th, 1893, Evans and Sontag appeared on the hill overlooking the Stone Corral. Evans wanted to fire a few shots into the cabin below to see if anybody was there, but, because the place appeared to be empty and because the cabin was known as a “lover’s rendezvous,” Sontag talked him out of it.

The two men got off their horses and headed down to the cabin where Jackson, the policeman, was keeping watch. Beside a haystack Evans looked down and saw someone in the cabin window and quickly opened fire with his Winchester rifle.

Jackson hearing the shots, picked up his shotgun from the porch and blasted the pair near the haystack where Evans was hit by the blast.

The two retreated behind the haystack knowing they were now being ambushed, and lay as flat as possible to avoid the incoming fire from the cabin below. The San Francisco Examiner later interviewed Marshal Gard who gave his account of the gunfight at Stone Corral, who said “I will take Chris, and you take John.” But before I had time to get a line on Sontag’s breast, Fred fired. Evans fell endway, with both hands up. Sontag dived for the straw pile, and I let go as him. Then both of them, from behind the strawstack, turned loose their big Winchesters. Bullets whizzed through the house.”

Enraged at the ambush, Evans and Sontag lead a barrage of angry shots into the cabin, and Jackson, hoping to flank the two from the side ran out the cabin and approached the haystack from the side…Evans caught sight of the approaching policeman and blasted him with his revolver taking out Jackson’s kneecaps and legs. Sontag at some point was hit in the stomach and in the right arm, taking him out of the battle. With night falling, the shootout left the adversaries without visibility.

Now dying, Sontag pleaded with his friend to escape in the dark, but Evans refused to leave his friend’s side. In great pain Sontag also begged Evans to shoot him, ending his misery of pain, but again Evans refused. Sontag begged his friend to leave and so obeying his dying wish, Evans grabbed his rifle and began to crawl into the darkness. Spotted by Rapelje trying to crawl away from the haystack, the bounty hunter opened fire and started running towards him. Evans, however jumped to his feet and ran into the darkness without shooting back. He was hit in the face and arm from the blast of the shotgun, yet Evans managed to escape.

Now left for dead, Sontag raised his own revolver to his head in an effort to end his misery but the gun missed, injuring the dying outlaw even more. Calling out for water, the posse in the cabin ignored Sontag’s pleas and stayed in the cabin until dawn when reinforcements arrived and the posse rushed the haystack to find Sontag lying there barely alive. A reporter arrived and the posse heaved up Sontag’s almost lifeless body for a photograph in that would soon appear in the San Francisco Examiner. Sontag was hauled away on a wagon to a jail cell in Visalia.

Meanwhile, Evans, although badly wounded, walked six miles up Wilcox Canyon to another cabin and begged the owners for help. They bandaged him up but a few days later, they informed the police they had a fugitive in their cabin. A large force of lawmen surrounded the cabin expecting Evans to take them on in another massive shootout, but Evans surrendered without further resistance. He was taken to the jail in Visalia and put in the cell next to the dying Sontag. His friend would later die of his wounds in that jail cell on July 3. Evans own wounds resulted in his left arm having to be amputated and the loss of his right eye. Chris Evans’ trial was held Fresno, CA and on December 13, 1893, he was sentenced to life in Folsom Prison.

Despite the lack of an arm and an eye on December 28th Evans escaped from the Fresno jail with a fellow prisoner leaving a Marshal John D. Morgan wounded. Once again, the Ottawa native returned to Visalia to see his wife and children where he was captured again without incident. Evans was then sent to Folsom and remained there until May 1911 when he was released under the conditions that he would never set foot in California again. With his wife and family he moved to Portland, Oregon, where he read, tended to his garden and cats, living out his remaining days quietly and without incident.

Evans claimed he never did rob a train and he only ever fired his gun in self defense. The boy from Bells Corners died in 1917 and is buried in Mount Calvary Cemetery in Portland, Oregon.

His parents, Tom and Mary Ann, died in 1898 and 1893 respectively and their graves can still be seen today in the Union Cemetery in Bells Corners. Chris’ Evans wife, Molly, would spend her last days in Laguna Beach, California where she died in 1944.

 

The Wild West is full of characters, most notably those that lived an adventure of crime, but for Ottawa’s Chris Evans, the greatest outlaw in the history of California, he always maintained his innocence til death, stating “I am guilty of no crimes. I killed men who were trying to kill me.”

I eagerly await the Hollywood Western film that should be made based on this fantastic tale of the Outlaw From Bells Corners.

Andrew King, May 2016

SOURCES

http://www.switzergenealogy.com/showmedia.php?mediaID=154&medialinkID=281

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Evans_(outlaw)

http://www.eshomvalley.com/sontag_evans.html

CHRISTOPHER EVANS (1847-1917) & JOHN SONTAG (1862-1893) Train Robbers

https://books.google.ca/books?id=HjMozd3dBjoC&pg=PA78&lpg=PA78&dq=back+country+adventures+california+chris+evans&source=bl&ots=1Hc2C_rIMC&sig=SvnqoyUqxzHLwfJXZE1FXqjoFUY&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=back%20country%20adventures%20california%20chris%20evans&f=false

http://www.eshomvalley.com/stone.html

Once called Bytown, this city had a place of great merriment, a place where thirsty labourers and travelers alike would gather to relax and have fun…it was Ottawa’s first pub, a place called Firth’s Tavern. The Nation’s Capital has all but forgotten where this entertainment mecca was located and if we want to remind oursleves that fun is not forgotten here, maybe we should not forget where fun began. Let’s find where we once  relaxed, partied and had fun…let’s find our Firth Tavern.

Maps and sketches drawn by Colonel John By upon his arrival in this area in the early 1800’s survey this area for his ambitious Rideau Canal project that started in 1826. At the time, Philemon Wright had set up his abode in 1800 across the river in Hull, and Ottawa saw its first settlers on the other side of the river soon after. The once unpopulated wilderness of the area soon saw American Loyalists, retired military personnel, and entrepreneurs staking out properties along with general labourers who built the structures needed for this developing lumber town. Colonel By sketched the Chaudiere Islands and Lebreton Flats area and within his sketches there is a place labelled “Mrs. Firth’s Tavern.

According to the “Journey To Nationhood”, an amazing website devoted to the history of Ottawa, the tavern was originally the “Chaudiere Inn” owned by Miss Dalmahoy, a brazen Scottish woman who soon married Isaac Firth. Together they opened the area’s first watering hole, “Firth’s Tavern” in 1819. Thirsty travelers, fur traders, voyageurs and military personnel of the time all gathered at this new pub where beer and food could be had. Originally a log cabin structure, the Firth’s expanded their tavern operation to include a two storey hotel, stables and barn structures to accommodate the town’s growing population.

Wild nights of partying beside the rushing waters of the nearby Chaudiere Falls entertained a mix of people from all walks of life…decorated military captains drank among grit covered mill workers and soaked raftsmen of the lumber trade. It was a place where stories were told, songs were sung and the vibrancy of what was to become the Nation’s Capital was born.

The pub was almost closed when Lebreton who purchased the lands nearby tried to evict the Firth’s but Governor General Dalhousie, knowing the importance it had in the community, came to the rescue and saved Firth’s Tavern from closing. The Firth’s operated the pub until 1832, but future owners of the tavern stopped serving in 1836. The tavern then closed around 1860 and was soon forgotten as Ottawa’s landscape evolved and development covered any remains of this once important gathering place. So where was the tavern? Is there anything left to remind us of where our ancestors partied?

The radical re-development of the Lebreton Flats area wiped clean any visible traces of Firth’s Tavern, but super-imposing old maps onto modern ones we can pinpoint the area where the tavern once stood. This shows that it was located on property that is now the
Canadian War Museum, on the North East end of the building. The current museum was opened in 2005, but before construction would have began, an archeological assessment would have to be completed. A quick check turned up the archeological assessment of the area that indeed was conducted between 2002-2004. The report by Past Recovery Archeological Services Inc. states a foundation was unearthed and labeled as site ‘Bi-Fw-53” …this was Firth’s Tavern. A Stage 4 assessment at the Firth Tavern site (BiFW-53) was completed by Jacques Whitford Environment Ltd. in 2005 and it was found that “remnants included a small part of the original circa 1818- 1819 log tavern building, the stone foundation from a late 1830s addition to the second tavern building constructed in the late 1820s, and the southern portion of a stable or shed to the east of the tavern complex constructed in the early 1830s. The artifact assemblage led the researchers to conclude that the tavern had likely ceased operations sometime in the early 1860s.”

Following the investigation of unearthing Firth’s Tavern it was decided that “there were no further concerns for the Firth Tavern site” and it was subsequently reburied and built over. No remains or plaque have yet to be erected on the site to indicate its location or the history of the tavern where Ottawa’s first publicly poured drinks occurred. Today, a garden and concrete path cover the site and it is largely forgotten by most residents who pass by it each day.

Using Colonel By’s original map and sketch I was able to recreate an image of how Firth’s Tavern would have looked during its heyday as Ottawa’s party place. The original log cabin tavern of 1819 and the addition of the two-storey hotel and stables are as accurately portrayed to the best of my interpretation of the old maps and knowledge of 1820s architecture allow.

As we ramp up to our Ottawa 2017 celebrations next year it would only seem fitting if we could somehow once again pour a beer or two and party like our ancestors did at the same spot where we gathered to do so 200 years ago.  Let’s not forget where the city once had fun.

 

Andrew King, April 27, 2016

 

SOURCES

Google Maps

Bing Maps

Library and Archives Canada – MIKAN 2837923, C-000226

ByTown.net

Journey To Nationhood, journeytonationhood.com/firths-tavern/

Click to access All_Image%20Referencing_OP%20Amendment%20Application_Image%20Reference_D01-01-16-0005%20STAGE%201%20AND%202%20ARCHAEOLOGICAL.PDF

http://www.passageshistoriques-heritagepassages.ca/ang-eng/communaute-community/bytown_une_ville_tumultueuse-brawling_bytown/la_taverne_firths-firths_tavern#la_taverne_firths-firths_tavern

 

Recent news of a possible second ancient Norse settlement on Canadian soil could add an exciting new chapter to our nation’s history. Sea-faring explorers from Scandinavia traversing the Atlantic in planked ships to Newfoundland further ignites our imagination as to who visited our country over a thousand years ago. At that time, this country would not have seen anything like the Norse ships that reached our shores. I then wondered what watercraft people here would be familiar with thousands of years ago? Some research uncovered an archeological document from 1990 that reveals an ancient vessel inscribed on a stone found south of Ottawa, a vessel that is not a thousand years old, but apparently eight thousand years old.

ANCIENT SAILORS

Just south of the Nation’s Capital lies the tranquil cottage region of Rideau Lakes which comprises of Westport, Perth, Portland and Newboro. This area was once part of an archeological study in the 1980s that uncovered numerous artifacts from a period of time known as the Archaic period. The Archaic period occurred between 8000-800BC, or in other words, a time that was 3,000 to 10,000 years ago. This period of history saw a significant change in climate as the giant glaciers that once covered our region receded and new deciduous trees, animals and fish began to appear in a much warmer environment.

Once the Champlain Sea eventually drained, people who once camped on its shore now moved into this new, warmer region and began to use stone tools, grinding and flaking them to assemble weapons for hunting in the bountiful lands that provided game, nuts and berries.

In 1990 an archeologist by the name of Gordon Watson compiled a report on some ancient objects recovered from these people south of Ottawa and determined they were from tribes that had gathered to hunt and fish on the shores of these Rideau lakes around 6000 B.C. (8,000 years ago). Rivers and lakes around here took their present conditions about 2,000 years after the retreat of the Champlain Sea. These ancient people that moved in used stone tools and copper obtained from ancient mines on Lake Superior to fashion weapons and utensils to survive in our region, for hunting and fishing in many of the same lakes we have cottages on today.

Andrew King, Ottawa Rewind, April 2016

SOURCES

Click to access oa50-1-watson.pdf

http://diggingontario.uwo.ca/Archaic.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champlain_Sea