The McKenzie Marsh property has been sold. A large house was built large amount of trees were removed and the land was poisoned grass removed and wild life dissipated. In May 2020 the large house was in flames.
I was asking myself what is the history of this land? Hard to find information about the history of this piece of land.
Who is McKenzie? Who built this lake? What was here before? 1900, 1800, 1700, 1600? Records were lost, paces were renamed, the history even the recent history is lost. Who was the initial recorded Owner of the McKenzie Marsh.
In this area a University Professor of U of T was digging and found an old Town. He had his doctorate thesis based on the discoveries on this area. All artifact dissipated. There are only 4 pictures of the findings in this area of Aurora.
The Aurora Site, also known as the "Old Fort," "Old Indian Fort," "Murphy Farm" or "Hill Fort" site, is a sixteenth-century Huron-Wendat ancestral village located on one of the headwater tributaries of the East Holland River on the north side of the Oak Ridges Moraine in present-day Whitchurch–Stouffville, approximately 30 kilometres north of Toronto. This Huron ancestral village was located on 3.4 hectares (8.4 acres) of land and the settlement was fortified with multiple rows of palisades. The community arrived ca. 1550, likely moving en masse from the so-called Mantle Site located nine kilometres to the south-east in what is today urban Stouffville. The Aurora/Old Fort site is located at the south-east corner of Kennedy Road and Vandorf Side Road, east of the hamlet of Vandorf in the town of Whitchurch–Stouffville. The Aurora site was occupied at the same time as the nearby Ratcliff site.[2]
The Rouge River trail, used by the Huron and then later by the French to travel between Lake Ontario and Lake Simcoe / Georgian Bay, ran through the Aurora site.
Perhaps the busiest and best documented of these routes was that which followed the Humber River valley northward ... although another trail of equal importance and antiquity and used earlier than the former by the French, extended from the mouth of the Rouge River northward to the headwaters of the Little Rouge and over the drainage divide to the East Branch of the Holland River at Holland Landing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_Site,_Wendat_(Huron)_Ancestral_Village
The Aurora/Old Fort site was completely excavated in 1947 and 1957 by the University of Toronto. The 1947 dig was the first student excavation by the university, and it was led by John Norman Emerson. Emerson's doctoral work was largely based on the excavations of the Aurora/Old Fort site.
The lack of public records of the findings make me to assume that the University of Toronto is responsible for the destruction of the real History of the place.
The $20 million St. Johns Sideroad reconstruction project was officially completed on June 26, 2006. On this date local stakeholders, Town, Regional officials and staff attended the ceremony. The project was one of the most environmentally significant projects completed by York Region to date. It was a recipient of the Ontario Public Works Association’s 2006 Project of the Year in the environmental category and the American Public Works Association’s 2007 Transportation Project of the Year.
Aurora (2016 population 55,445) is a town in central York Region in the Greater Toronto Area, within the Golden Horseshoe of Southern Ontario, Canada. It is located north of the Town of Richmond Hill and is partially situated on the Oak Ridges Moraine. In the Canada 2016 Census, the municipal population of Aurora was the 95th largest in Canada, compared to 97th for the 2006 Census. Aurora has been ranked in the top 10 wealthiest towns in Canada.
Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe gave the order for Yonge Street to be extended to Holland Landing in 1793, the first step toward the establishment of a community where Aurora now stands. Yonge Street opened between 1794 and 1796. In 1795, the first house in Aurora was built at Yonge St and Catherine Av. The government began granting deeds to land in 1797. By 1801 there were fourteen homes.
In 1804, Richard Machell became the first merchant at the crossroads of Yonge and Wellington and the hamlet soon became known as Machell's Corners. Charles Doan was another early businessman at Machell's Corners and became the first postmaster and later the first reeve. The post office was originally known as "Whitchurch". As postmaster, he was influential in renaming the village Aurora, after the goddess Aurora from Roman mythology.[7]:10[a] Machell proposed to rename the town "Match-Ville", ostensibly for the match factory in the town, but the name Aurora was more popular and ultimately chosen as the town's name. Flour and grist mills were built around 1827. With the coming of the railway in 1853, Aurora emerged as an important centre north of Toronto. The Fleury plough works foundry opened in 1859, making agricultural implements.
The community was first known as Machell's Corners and had only 100 residents in 1851. The population of Aurora in 1863 was 700, and by 1869 it had grown to 1200.
The settlement was incorporated as a village in 1863 with Charles Doan as the first reeve. Records from 1885 describe Aurora as the "largest village in the county" an "enterprising and stirring business community" with several factories and mills, five churches, a school house with 210 students, and two weekly newspapers. The population in 1881 was 1540. The population reached 2,107 by 1888.
Total Area 49.85 km2
Aurora got its start with the opening of Yonge Street in 1796 by Governor John Graves Simcoe. The first settlers were refugees from the new United States of America: Loyalists, who had sided with the British Crown, and Quakers, who had sided with no one. In both cases, the newcomers proved to be both industrious pioneers and exceedingly loyal to their adoptive homeland.
Aurora’s big boost came when Richard Machell settled along the corners of Yonge and Wellington Street in 1804. He was soon joined by other settlers and soon, as was common in those days, a thriving hamlet sprung up around this busy crossroad. The community took the name, Machell’s Corners, in honour of its first settler.
In a very real sense, the arrival of the railway heralded the dawn of a
new age for the community. Sensing that, postmaster, Charles Doan,
decided to rename the village Aurora, after the Greek goddess of the
dawn. The new name became official on January 1, 1854.
William Lyon Mackenzie (March 12, 1795 – August 28, 1861) was a Scottish-born Canadian-American journalist and politician. His strong views on political equality and clean government drove him to outright rebellion in 1837 after a career as mayor of Toronto and in the colonial legislative assembly of Upper Canada (Ontario). He led the 1837 Upper Canada Rebellion and during its bitter end he set up a small rebel enclave named "Republic of Canada," where he served as president December 13, 1837 to January 14, 1838. After a period of exile in the U.S., he returned to Canada and served as elected member of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada from 1851 to 1858.
While Mackenzie was not a religious man himself; he remained a lifelong proponent of separation of church and state.
William Lyon Mackenzie was born on March 12, 1795, in Scotland in the Dundee suburb Springfield. His mother Elizabeth (née Chambers) of Kirkmichael was a widow seventeen years older than his father, weaver Daniel Mackenzie; the couple married on May 8, 1794. Daniel died three weeks after William's birth, and his 45-year-old mother raised him alone; as Daniel had left her no significant property.
Mackenzie's mother arranged for him to apprentice with tradesmen in Dundee, but in 1814, he secured financial backing from Edward Lesslie to open a general store and circulating library in Alyth. During this period Mackenzie had a relationship with Isabel Reid, of whom nothing is known except that she gave birth to Mackenzie's illegitimate son on July 17, 1814. The boy was raised by Mackenzie's mother.
During the recession which followed the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, Mackenzie's store in Dundee went bankrupt and he travelled to seek work in Wiltshire in 1818, for a canal company. He travelled briefly to France and then worked for a short period for a newspaper in London. Lacking stable employment, at age 25 Mackenzie emigrated to British North America with John Lesslie.
Mackenzie initially found a job working on the Lachine Canal in Lower Canada, then wrote for the Montreal Herald. John Lesslie settled in York, Upper Canada (now Toronto). Mackenzie was soon employed at Lesslie's bookselling/drugstore business. Mackenzie began to write for the York Observer.
In 1822, Edward Lesslie and the rest of his family, along with Elizabeth Mackenzie, joined Mackenzie and John Lesslie in Upper Canada. Elizabeth brought along a young woman, Isabel Baxter (1802–73), whom she had chosen for Mackenzie to marry. The couple were wed July 1, 1822 in Montreal. Isabel had 14 children with Mackenzie, including Isabel Grace Mackenzie, the mother of William Lyon Mackenzie King.
Edward and John Lesslie opened a branch of their business in Dundas, entering into a partnership with Mackenzie who moved to Dundas to be the store's manager. The store sold drugs, hardware, and general merchandise. Mackenzie also operated a circulating library. However, his relationship with the Lesslies soured and the partnership was dissolved in 1823. He moved to Queenston and established a business there. While there, he established a relationship with Robert Randal, one of four members representing Lincoln County in the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada.
The McKenzie Marsh property on St. John’s Sideroad in Aurora has been sold and landscaping behind the pond began sometime in May. Changes can be seen from the main boardwalk observation deck just West of the railroad tracks on the North side of the road. The pond is transforming and the standing trees and shrubs in the midst of the pond are progressively collapsing. Also note that on the East side of the pond behind the leaf-less landmark oak tree a white cell tower post appeared sometime last year standing behind the water treatment facility.
The devastation of the property is reflected in the lack of wild life Gooses that used to lay eggs here were not returning.
I believe that land destruction for the benefit of one person had consequences.
McKenzie Wetland (also known as Aurora Wetland or McKenzie Marsh), an area designated as a Provincially Significant Wetland and an important environmental feature to the local community. The McKenzie Wetland is a permanent home to numerous fish and wildlife species. Recognizing a significant opportunity to both protect and enhance the wetland and its functions along with the roadway, York Region implemented a number of key design elements to limit intrusion in the marsh and restore many of the impaired functions of the wetland.
While achieving the transportation objectives, project design emphasized improvements to: (1) Wetland area, function and attributes; (2) Fish and wildlife habitat and function; (3) Water quality and circulation. Other technical innovations associated with the project included: (1) Timber boardwalks, viewing areas, education and interpretive signage; (2) Unique streetscaping elements including landscaping and decorative lighting; (3) Bike paths throughout the length of the project, which linked the Town’s existing bicycle trail network to the McKenzie Wetland and its boardwalk; (4) Widening the roadway to a fully illuminated four lane urban cross-section with curb and gutter, storm sewers, sidewalks on both sides and traffic signals at major intersections. (5) Railway safety improvements that included profile revisions and new gates and signals at an existing at-grade commuter railway crossing; (6) Extension of the East Holland River Culvert, a triple-cell culvert, with construction being staged to maintain stream flows without using dam-and-pump or flow bypass methods; (7) Tunnel construction of the East Holland Sanitary Trunk Sewer using a tunnel boring machine with a connection to the Aurora Pumping Station. This $20 million project presented several challenges that in turn provided opportunities to develop unique design approaches. This project complimented the surroundings by being sensitive to both the natural environment, while enhancing the communities enjoyment of the area.
Links
https://youtu.be/1PlGB-RPo7g
https://www.livinginaurora.com/mckenzie-marsh-changing-landscape/
http://www.torontozoo.com/adoptapond/pdfs/r&e_Wed5.BHenshaw.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratcliff_Site,_Wendat_(Huron)_Ancestral_Village
I was asking myself what is the history of this land? Hard to find information about the history of this piece of land.
Who is McKenzie? Who built this lake? What was here before? 1900, 1800, 1700, 1600? Records were lost, paces were renamed, the history even the recent history is lost. Who was the initial recorded Owner of the McKenzie Marsh.
In this area a University Professor of U of T was digging and found an old Town. He had his doctorate thesis based on the discoveries on this area. All artifact dissipated. There are only 4 pictures of the findings in this area of Aurora.
The Aurora Site, also known as the "Old Fort," "Old Indian Fort," "Murphy Farm" or "Hill Fort" site, is a sixteenth-century Huron-Wendat ancestral village located on one of the headwater tributaries of the East Holland River on the north side of the Oak Ridges Moraine in present-day Whitchurch–Stouffville, approximately 30 kilometres north of Toronto. This Huron ancestral village was located on 3.4 hectares (8.4 acres) of land and the settlement was fortified with multiple rows of palisades. The community arrived ca. 1550, likely moving en masse from the so-called Mantle Site located nine kilometres to the south-east in what is today urban Stouffville. The Aurora/Old Fort site is located at the south-east corner of Kennedy Road and Vandorf Side Road, east of the hamlet of Vandorf in the town of Whitchurch–Stouffville. The Aurora site was occupied at the same time as the nearby Ratcliff site.[2]
The Rouge River trail, used by the Huron and then later by the French to travel between Lake Ontario and Lake Simcoe / Georgian Bay, ran through the Aurora site.
Perhaps the busiest and best documented of these routes was that which followed the Humber River valley northward ... although another trail of equal importance and antiquity and used earlier than the former by the French, extended from the mouth of the Rouge River northward to the headwaters of the Little Rouge and over the drainage divide to the East Branch of the Holland River at Holland Landing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_Site,_Wendat_(Huron)_Ancestral_Village
The Aurora/Old Fort site was completely excavated in 1947 and 1957 by the University of Toronto. The 1947 dig was the first student excavation by the university, and it was led by John Norman Emerson. Emerson's doctoral work was largely based on the excavations of the Aurora/Old Fort site.
The lack of public records of the findings make me to assume that the University of Toronto is responsible for the destruction of the real History of the place.
The $20 million St. Johns Sideroad reconstruction project was officially completed on June 26, 2006. On this date local stakeholders, Town, Regional officials and staff attended the ceremony. The project was one of the most environmentally significant projects completed by York Region to date. It was a recipient of the Ontario Public Works Association’s 2006 Project of the Year in the environmental category and the American Public Works Association’s 2007 Transportation Project of the Year.
Aurora (2016 population 55,445) is a town in central York Region in the Greater Toronto Area, within the Golden Horseshoe of Southern Ontario, Canada. It is located north of the Town of Richmond Hill and is partially situated on the Oak Ridges Moraine. In the Canada 2016 Census, the municipal population of Aurora was the 95th largest in Canada, compared to 97th for the 2006 Census. Aurora has been ranked in the top 10 wealthiest towns in Canada.
Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe gave the order for Yonge Street to be extended to Holland Landing in 1793, the first step toward the establishment of a community where Aurora now stands. Yonge Street opened between 1794 and 1796. In 1795, the first house in Aurora was built at Yonge St and Catherine Av. The government began granting deeds to land in 1797. By 1801 there were fourteen homes.
In 1804, Richard Machell became the first merchant at the crossroads of Yonge and Wellington and the hamlet soon became known as Machell's Corners. Charles Doan was another early businessman at Machell's Corners and became the first postmaster and later the first reeve. The post office was originally known as "Whitchurch". As postmaster, he was influential in renaming the village Aurora, after the goddess Aurora from Roman mythology.[7]:10[a] Machell proposed to rename the town "Match-Ville", ostensibly for the match factory in the town, but the name Aurora was more popular and ultimately chosen as the town's name. Flour and grist mills were built around 1827. With the coming of the railway in 1853, Aurora emerged as an important centre north of Toronto. The Fleury plough works foundry opened in 1859, making agricultural implements.
The community was first known as Machell's Corners and had only 100 residents in 1851. The population of Aurora in 1863 was 700, and by 1869 it had grown to 1200.
The settlement was incorporated as a village in 1863 with Charles Doan as the first reeve. Records from 1885 describe Aurora as the "largest village in the county" an "enterprising and stirring business community" with several factories and mills, five churches, a school house with 210 students, and two weekly newspapers. The population in 1881 was 1540. The population reached 2,107 by 1888.
Total Area 49.85 km2
Aurora got its start with the opening of Yonge Street in 1796 by Governor John Graves Simcoe. The first settlers were refugees from the new United States of America: Loyalists, who had sided with the British Crown, and Quakers, who had sided with no one. In both cases, the newcomers proved to be both industrious pioneers and exceedingly loyal to their adoptive homeland.
Aurora’s big boost came when Richard Machell settled along the corners of Yonge and Wellington Street in 1804. He was soon joined by other settlers and soon, as was common in those days, a thriving hamlet sprung up around this busy crossroad. The community took the name, Machell’s Corners, in honour of its first settler.
In 1853, and to much excitement, the tracks of Ontario’s first railway
arrived in the village. The railway provided a direct link to Toronto
and encouraged growth in population and industry in Aurora. On the eve
of the railway’s arrival, a mere 100 people lived in the village. By
1878, that number had risen to 1500. Aurora had become an important
industrial town, home to two farming implement factories, three
sawmills, two cabinet factories, and other business enterprises.
William Lyon Mackenzie (March 12, 1795 – August 28, 1861) was a Scottish-born Canadian-American journalist and politician. His strong views on political equality and clean government drove him to outright rebellion in 1837 after a career as mayor of Toronto and in the colonial legislative assembly of Upper Canada (Ontario). He led the 1837 Upper Canada Rebellion and during its bitter end he set up a small rebel enclave named "Republic of Canada," where he served as president December 13, 1837 to January 14, 1838. After a period of exile in the U.S., he returned to Canada and served as elected member of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada from 1851 to 1858.
While Mackenzie was not a religious man himself; he remained a lifelong proponent of separation of church and state.
William Lyon Mackenzie was born on March 12, 1795, in Scotland in the Dundee suburb Springfield. His mother Elizabeth (née Chambers) of Kirkmichael was a widow seventeen years older than his father, weaver Daniel Mackenzie; the couple married on May 8, 1794. Daniel died three weeks after William's birth, and his 45-year-old mother raised him alone; as Daniel had left her no significant property.
Mackenzie's mother arranged for him to apprentice with tradesmen in Dundee, but in 1814, he secured financial backing from Edward Lesslie to open a general store and circulating library in Alyth. During this period Mackenzie had a relationship with Isabel Reid, of whom nothing is known except that she gave birth to Mackenzie's illegitimate son on July 17, 1814. The boy was raised by Mackenzie's mother.
During the recession which followed the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, Mackenzie's store in Dundee went bankrupt and he travelled to seek work in Wiltshire in 1818, for a canal company. He travelled briefly to France and then worked for a short period for a newspaper in London. Lacking stable employment, at age 25 Mackenzie emigrated to British North America with John Lesslie.
Mackenzie initially found a job working on the Lachine Canal in Lower Canada, then wrote for the Montreal Herald. John Lesslie settled in York, Upper Canada (now Toronto). Mackenzie was soon employed at Lesslie's bookselling/drugstore business. Mackenzie began to write for the York Observer.
In 1822, Edward Lesslie and the rest of his family, along with Elizabeth Mackenzie, joined Mackenzie and John Lesslie in Upper Canada. Elizabeth brought along a young woman, Isabel Baxter (1802–73), whom she had chosen for Mackenzie to marry. The couple were wed July 1, 1822 in Montreal. Isabel had 14 children with Mackenzie, including Isabel Grace Mackenzie, the mother of William Lyon Mackenzie King.
Edward and John Lesslie opened a branch of their business in Dundas, entering into a partnership with Mackenzie who moved to Dundas to be the store's manager. The store sold drugs, hardware, and general merchandise. Mackenzie also operated a circulating library. However, his relationship with the Lesslies soured and the partnership was dissolved in 1823. He moved to Queenston and established a business there. While there, he established a relationship with Robert Randal, one of four members representing Lincoln County in the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada.
The McKenzie Marsh property on St. John’s Sideroad in Aurora has been sold and landscaping behind the pond began sometime in May. Changes can be seen from the main boardwalk observation deck just West of the railroad tracks on the North side of the road. The pond is transforming and the standing trees and shrubs in the midst of the pond are progressively collapsing. Also note that on the East side of the pond behind the leaf-less landmark oak tree a white cell tower post appeared sometime last year standing behind the water treatment facility.
Large Aurora house under construction on McKenzie Marsh goes up in flames
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2020/05/14/large-aurora-house-under-construction-goes-up-in-flames.htmlThe devastation of the property is reflected in the lack of wild life Gooses that used to lay eggs here were not returning.
I believe that land destruction for the benefit of one person had consequences.
McKenzie Wetland (also known as Aurora Wetland or McKenzie Marsh), an area designated as a Provincially Significant Wetland and an important environmental feature to the local community. The McKenzie Wetland is a permanent home to numerous fish and wildlife species. Recognizing a significant opportunity to both protect and enhance the wetland and its functions along with the roadway, York Region implemented a number of key design elements to limit intrusion in the marsh and restore many of the impaired functions of the wetland.
While achieving the transportation objectives, project design emphasized improvements to: (1) Wetland area, function and attributes; (2) Fish and wildlife habitat and function; (3) Water quality and circulation. Other technical innovations associated with the project included: (1) Timber boardwalks, viewing areas, education and interpretive signage; (2) Unique streetscaping elements including landscaping and decorative lighting; (3) Bike paths throughout the length of the project, which linked the Town’s existing bicycle trail network to the McKenzie Wetland and its boardwalk; (4) Widening the roadway to a fully illuminated four lane urban cross-section with curb and gutter, storm sewers, sidewalks on both sides and traffic signals at major intersections. (5) Railway safety improvements that included profile revisions and new gates and signals at an existing at-grade commuter railway crossing; (6) Extension of the East Holland River Culvert, a triple-cell culvert, with construction being staged to maintain stream flows without using dam-and-pump or flow bypass methods; (7) Tunnel construction of the East Holland Sanitary Trunk Sewer using a tunnel boring machine with a connection to the Aurora Pumping Station. This $20 million project presented several challenges that in turn provided opportunities to develop unique design approaches. This project complimented the surroundings by being sensitive to both the natural environment, while enhancing the communities enjoyment of the area.
Links
https://youtu.be/1PlGB-RPo7g
https://www.livinginaurora.com/mckenzie-marsh-changing-landscape/
http://www.torontozoo.com/adoptapond/pdfs/r&e_Wed5.BHenshaw.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratcliff_Site,_Wendat_(Huron)_Ancestral_Village
