This is an earlier post with information that must be updated from the Coldsprings Ontario Story, Part 2. Thanks to an anonymous reader, new information has come to the attention of this writer about Merwin Grieve. Mr. Grieve in all of the time I knew him was employed by the County of Northumberland. He would have driven a large dump truck plowing snow in the winter and and was involved in road maintenance in the summer months. On a summer day he was returning from a gravel run to the County Road (Burnham Street) reconstruction site north of Coldsprings. On one such trip south of Pine Hill, he must have been shocked…his brakes failed! He was picking up speed and was experienced enough to know that he had but one choice to stop his runaway truck. The only way was to quickly make a sharp turn left up the steep incline of the United Church driveway. Still moving at a fast pace, his last chance now was to collide into the brick church building. According to our reader, “the truck went through the church brick wall just about where the pew used by my family was”. The picture below shows the United Church years after the brickwork has been restored.
In the original post, this writer assumed his reasoning was to get stopped before hitting the Coldsprings Community Hall on the right. At a sharp bend in the road a short distance south would have caused major destruction and possible loss or injury to several residents. According to our reader, Merwin was likely concerned of the many elementary school students who would have been leaving the school, next to the church at this same time! The highway back then left no room along it to provide an exit for the many panicked or unaware children of the danger they were in. This story could have had a catastrophic ending for the Grieve family in Camborne, the residents of Coldsprings and Northumberland County. Merwin Grieve was a true hero! A view from Richardson’s Lookout is pictured below.
In order to keep our reference site updated, we have obtained some new and very interesting information from ‘Martin’ in a readers comment we greatly appreciate. Martin has supplied information on the historic Richardson’s Lookout on the north side of County Road #9 in Garden Hill. Martin tells of the other to two residences here now. According to an aerial photograph from 1954 before the County road was aligned in 1961 up the steep hill of today. The road turned north a short distance at the bottom of the hill and then west up a less steep grade to rejoin the original highway we know today. This as ‘the crow flies’ was a common practice to early surveyors when obstructed by steep hills or deep gullies. The picture below shows a panoramic view of Garden Hill from Richardson’s lookout.
From Arthur Herbert Richardson’s book on “The Ganaraska Watershed” there is some mention of old potash works near the top of the hill. Potash was the burning of trees, resulting in a valuable fertilizer for the early farmers crops. On Martin’s and the other properties there was evidence of pits, likely the source of aggregate material for local road construction. Some interesting ‘junk’ (artifacts) Martin has found include some old military communications hardware and part of an old VW Beatle car. In aerial images from the 1950’s and 60’s before the road upgrades of County Road #9, there appears to have been a tunnel under his driveway on ‘the old road’ where Don Morton used to run his cattle through for grazing nearby.
Writer notes: In my opinion, the Ganaraska Conservation Authority has overdone their admirable tree planting efforts to reforest the area that the former perfect view of the landscape for miles around, in all directions has been obscured by the height of these fully grown trees today.
In another more recent news item, the former Nicholson (Globe) File Factory at 121 Cavan Street in Port Hope, once destined for many possible community spaces is in jeopardy. A recent roof collapse of the historic Block 2 of the building appears it might have to be demolished soon. As a result, part of Cavan Street is temporarily closed at this time until safety concerns are addressed by the Town of Port Hope.
Regards, Ranger.
2 Old Guys Walking 