Sunday, July 19, 2015

Grey County's Silent Valley has stories to tell

Ron Savage, director of trails for the Bruce Trail Conservancy's Sydenham Club, stands behind the remains of a Cessna 205 on the Silent Valley Nature Reserve on Saturday July 18, 2015 just north of Bognor, Ont. The plane carrying 4 people from Toronto crashed on September 26, 1970 killing all on board. The wreckage of the plane found scattered over the property has been collected into a memorial. 


You won't find the name on local maps, but a hike at Silent Valley can show why the area has stories enough to inspire a book.

Ron Savage, the trail director for the Sydenham Bruce Trail Club, is so enamoured with the 200-acre swath of land on the east side of Bognor Marsh that he wrote Silent Valley, a 33-page magazine-style book about what Silent Valley Nature Reserve -- the name given to Lot 13, Concession 3 of Sydenham Township by Savage and the Bruce Trail Conservancy -- has to offer for hikers and explorers.

Savage, who's been a trail director for 15 years, has worked tirelessly on keeping the Bruce Trail accessible and beautiful.

"A friend of mine was an avid Bruce Trailer. She told me I should try it out and I fell in love with it," said Savage.

Savage grew up in Durham and worked as a lineman for Bell Canada for most of his life. Even before he retired he developed an interest in Bruce Trail.

Savage wrote the book because, in his opinion, Silent Valley just has a lot to offer.

"It's just got so much. I can take a group of people on this little section of trail and keep them entertained all day," said Savage.

The area was acquired from the Crown in the late 1860s by a family from Scotland, the Wilsons. They erected a couple of cabins and even a barn of cut and layered stone, massive by the standards of the day at 92 by 62 feet. In 1904 the land was sold to the Frizzell family. In 1967, it went from the Frizzells to Hallman Lumber. Finally, in 2013, it was purchased by the Bruce Trail Conservancy.

Parts of the Wilson homestead still stand, including some of the foundation of the old barn and an intact well made of stone.

Another area of interest, a 10-minute hike from the homestead, is the wreckage of an old Cessna 205 that crash landed in the forest on Sept. 26, 1970. The plane, travelling from Toronto to Griffith Island, was caught in weather so severe that it began to come apart in mid air. All four passengers of the plane died in the crash.

Spectacular caves, sculptured boulders and plenty of fossils are just a few of the other things that make the area interesting enough to write a book about.

All proceeds from sales of the book go back to the Bruce Trail Conservancy for further land acquisitions along the Escarpment. The goal of the BTC is to secure the Bruce Trail via donations and land purchases.

About half of land along the trail is made accessible through handshake agreements with private owners and is still vulnerable to development and outside purchasing. The BCT hope to someday preserve all the land for future generations to enjoy and explore.

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