Field trips I've done and want to do...

[Steve]

As spring 2011 approaches and I begin to plan a new season of field trips to discover Lambton history, I thought it might be a good idea to compile a list of explorations I've already done and some of those I'd still like to do.

In this way, those of you who are interested in joining me on future trips can see what I've done, get some ideas of what you'd like to do and suggest some trips I haven't even thought of yet.

Also, just because I may have explored an area already doesn't mean I won't be going back. The results of many of the trips I've done in the past were inconclusive, or I've since learned more about the area and would like to return. So, please feel free to suggest any trip, whether I've done it before, or not.

I'll post a list here with just the 'names' of the trips. That won't tell you much, but over the coming days and weeks, I'll write up more detailed descriptions, post a few at a time and add links to the list to take you directly to that field trip. If a trip in this list intrigues you, inquire about it and I'll bump the posting of its description up.


List of past Lambton explorations (in no particular order)

• Petrolia branch of the Great Western Railway
  
  
• Elarton Salt Works and Tramway
  
  
• Kingscourt and the Kingscourt branch of Grand Trunk Railway
  
  
• Kingscourt GTR branch bridge over the Sydenham River
  
  
• Old Black Creek roads and bridges
  
  
• Grand Trunk roadbed
  
  
• Forest canning factory and Hickory Creek Mills
  
  
• Canadian Oil Company property (Petrolia)
  
  
• Euphemia Mills (Shetland)
  
  
• Florence mill and dam and upstream bridge
  
  
• Canada Southern roadbed
  
  
• Dawn Tramway and wharf on the Sydenham
  
  
• Oil Springs oil fields, gum beds and other landmarks
  
  
• Plank Road bridge over Bear Creek and abandoned section
  
  
• Mission Creek in Sarnia
  
  
• Nitro plants in Petrolia
  
  
• Petrolia area oil fields, refinery district and railway lands
  
  
• Petrolia branch of the New York Central
  
  
• Devil's Elbow
  
  
• Ausauble Gorge waterfalls and quarries
  
  
• Kettle Point kettles
  
  
• Point Edward Elevators
  
  
• Weesbeach Hotel
  
  
• Aughrim abandoned houses
  
  
• Gardner's mill in Alvinston
  
  
• Gardner's mill near Petrolia
  
  
• Edy's Mills and branch railway
  
  
• Rock Glen mills and power station
  
  
• Marsh's Mill (Hungry Hollow)
  

Possible future field trips (more to be added)...

• Brewster's Mill (Grand Bend)
  
  
• Port Franks salt block
  
  
• Lakeshore Rd. settlements and original road alignment
  
  
• Gladstone
  
  
• Smith Falls and the Negro cemetery
  
  
• Wilkesport mills and ship building
  
  
• Victoria Mills
  
  
• Michigan Central Railway at Courtright (wye, engine house, wharf)
  
  
• Froomfield
  
  
• Roman Catholic missionaries on the Sydenham (north of Florence?)
  
  
• Courtright salt block
  
  
• King Well in Petrolia
  
  

[Steve]

One of my earliest explorations was the branch railway that ran from west of Wyoming to Petrolia. This branch was built in 1866 to reach Petrolia's new oil fields. I first 'discovered' the branch when it was still extant and trains still occasionally operated on it. Finding the junction while hiking out in the 'back 40' of Wyoming, down the CNR mainline, further out than ever before, was a thrilling experience for a boy of 12. Over the years, I walked the line all the way into Petrolia a few times.

The line was abandoned and finally torn up about 1994. I still walk out to the old roadbed occasionally because the first section, from the mainline to Churchill Line, runs through a lovely woodlot before emerging at a high spot of the Wyoming Moraine and the views of the rolling countryside are great.

The sections south of Lasalle Ln. on into Petrolia are already mostly impassible due to adjoining landowners aquiring them. I'm really hoping that this section, at least, is eventually preserved as a walking trail.

I'm happy to make this walk anytime...

[Steve]

When I was still a boy, I remember trips to London with my parents. At that time, you still travelled via the London Road (old Hwy. 7 & 22) and one of the highlights for me was passing a spot where tall wooden derricks and abandoned buildings stood. This place always fascinated me. It was the remains of the Elarton Salt Works (Later, the Warwick Salt Works). Since then, the works have all but vanished, but there's still a few hints of what once was there.

Much later, I learned of the work's tramway while perusing Belden's Atlas of Lambton County and a couple of years ago, I headed out to see what was left to find. On the property of the works the only structure still standing is a small concrete building that once stood beside one of the two salt well derricks and contained the engine and gears to pump the brine out of the well. A few of the wheels and machinery were still on site and the grounds are laced with salt (yes, I tasted the dirt...).

As for the tramway, evidence of it is even more elusive. I was hoping to find remains of the bridge that would have had to have existed to cross Bear Creek, but nothing was seen. There is, however, still a cutting in the bank of the creek. Further south, a ditch that must have been there when the tramway was there, as there are small 'fills' of earth on either side of the ditch to form abutments for what would have been a tiny bridge across it.

There's not much more to see, but I've returned many times just hoping to find more evidence of this really cool piece of Lambton history.

[Steve]

Further south, still along the route of the Elarton tramway we come to the site of Kingscourt and the junction of the branch line that ran from there to Glencoe. I've been told that Kingscourt once had several houses and I've seen a photo of the railway junction and tiny station. But, there's very little evidence of either today. You can, however still find clues that it existed. I'll leave it at that for now, as I'd love to go back out there with others to try and find more...

As for the branch line (known as the Kingscourt Cut-off), exploring it has been an ongoing project and a bit of an obsession for me for several years. It all began years ago when I wondered on one of my many 'crop tours' to east Lambton, why the Alvinston's feed mill was on an angle to Hwy. 79 and the streets of the town.

When the Internet came along and I learned about the branch, I began seeking its route on my tours. Eventually, aerial photography of Lambton began to emerge on the Internet and being able to see the route of the branch on this imagery fostered my fascination with aerial archeology.

Eventually, using aerial imagery and topographic maps, I began locating remaining evidence of the branch. I was surprised to find culverts and other features in plain site along roads I'd traveled countless times without ever noticing them.

I've covered most of the places where the branch crossed roads now, but I've done very little exploring in the 'back 40' along the line's route. I'm currently studying new high resolution Google Earth imagery to identify places where I hope to find more evidence of the line.

[Steve]

Shortly after I learned about the Kingscourt branch of the Grand Trunk railway, I realized, looking at the map, that there must have been a bridge over the Sydenham River somewhere southeast of Alvinston. This knowledge simmered in the back of my mind for several years and I even went as far as trying to narrow down the location on my 'crop tours' of the area by driving around the block of back roads surrounding where I thought the bridge must have been. But, it wasn't until February of 2004 that I parked my car near the Pratt Siding Rd. bridge over the river and set out along the river's bank to try and find evidence of the elusive bridge.

I didn't really expect to find an intact bridge; my past experiences in searching out and finding old bridges was that I could expect to find at best two, or maybe three, concrete piers, or abutments. What I found turned out to be far better! After walking for about a kilometer in thick woods along the river, the valley widened into a broad, treeless flood plain that was a bucolic pasture. There, dividing the large field in two was what I've since referred to as "Lambton's Stonehenge"; a long, double row of heavy cut stone foundations for what must have been tall, steel piers holding up an impressively long and tall railway bridge!

Of course, the bridge and piers were long gone, but I was very happy to have found what I did. There were 13 pairs of stone foundations, two large concrete piers at the river side and two large, cut stone abutments at either end. The bridge remains have since become visible on Google Earth and using it to measure, the bridge was determined to be about 600 feet long! This would have made it the longest, highest bridge in Lambton County by far, from it's construction in 1893 until the Bluewater Bridge was built in 1938.

I've been back to the bridge a few times since that first visit. It really is a beautiful spot, well worth returning to. Imagining steam trains crossing it and the wonderful views the passengers would have had has me wanting to go back again.

Now, the elusive find I continue to search for is a picture of what must have been a fabulous bridge...

[Steve]

Early in the history of the county, before the 'grid iron' mesh of sideroads that now cover the county existed, the transportation routes within the county were few and far between. The first roads in the county tended to follow the rivers and streams, as not only were these routes the easiest ones, the waterways had also been the first transport routes into the county and so, the greatest number of settlers still lived close to them.

We're fortunate to still have many miles of these river roads, relatively unmodified, along the Sydenham and Ausable rivers. They not only provide a much appreciated change from the majority of arrow straight country roads now in the county, but they also take us back in time, traveling the same paths that the early pioneers did.

For many years, a route along Black Creek was the main way to get from 'civilization' on the St. Clair River, into the swampy center of the county. When oil was first discovered in Oil Springs in the 1850s, there were still very few settlers and next to no roads into Enniskillen. Before the Wyoming plank road was built, the road - or perhaps "path" would be a more accurate term - along Black Creek, from its confluence with the north branch of the Sydenham (Bear Creek), near where Wilkesport is now (the head of navigation on the Sydenham), was the only practical way to get people in and the oil out.

Very little of this original route is evident looking at the map today. The concession and sideroads have supplanted what was likely a much more winding route following the creek. But, there's still little hints here and there of what once was. Last summer, my wife and I kayaked from Wilkesport, up Black Creek for about 5 km and came across remains of old wooden bridges and road alignments much closer to the creek than those existing today.

I know very little about what I'll call the "Black Creek Road", but the early roads and traffic patterns of the county, as well as why and how they eventually developed into completely different patterns has alway fascinated me.

I'd like to do more exploring along this route and perhaps incorporate it into one of the county tours I'm hoping to develop in the future.

[Steve]

The first abandoned railway I explored was the original Grand Trunk line across north Lambton. This was the second railway to come to Lambton, arriving in 1859, one year after the Great Western. The line ran from Stratford to Point Edward. The section from Blackwell to Point Edward was abandoned by CN (the GTR's successor) in 1938 and became Cathcart Ave.

In the 1980s, CN began abandoning this line, starting at Sarnia and working east. This process occurred in sections and took several years to complete. I remember driving some of the first cars I owned over the line as the rails were lifted, first to Forest, and gradually all the way to St. Marys. I even drove one of my Chevettes over the large bridge over the Thames at St. Marys before it was converted into a wonderful pedestrian walkway!

In spring 2002, I spent two days cycling the entire line from Sarnia to St. Marys on my mountain bike. By this time the rails were completely gone and had disappeared under farmers fields in many places. I did my best to stay on the roadbed as much as possible, but detoured around the missing sections.

Today, it's much more difficult to follow the line. Adjacent landowners have reclaimed large sections of it and 'quarried' the ballast to use on their driveways. One highlight that still survives is the large truss bridge over the Ausable River, east of Thedford. It's the only surviving abandoned railway bridge in the county.

I hope to do a detailed article on exploring this line and am always looking for more info on surviving artifacts from it.

[Steve]

The north of Lambton has long been a vegatable and fruit growing area, due to both the lush muck soil of the Thedford marsh and the well drained gravel and sand ridges around Arkona. As a result, a canning factory was built in Forest in the early 1900s on the west side of town, adjacent to the GTR tracks and Hickory Creek. The factory is long gone, but there's still some ruins of the water intake on the creek. The GTR bridge is still there as well. I've also read that in this area, there were water powered mills on the creek.

I've only done one fairly cursory search in this area, so more research and visits are forthcoming...