Maps tell interesting story of Long Point’s past

Even today, major storm could cause “catastrophic damage”

By Bob Wood

Michael Bradstreet’s in-depth presentation, Historical Maps of Long Point, engaged a full house audience at Birds Canada on a Sunday afternoon in November.

Bradstreet was guest speaker at the Port Rowan/South Walsingham Heritage Association’s (PRSWHA) last gathering of 2024.

The retired biologist first visited Long Point when he was 14 years old volunteering with the Long Point Bird Observatory (LPBO). Long Point certainly looked different than Bradstreet’s neighbourhood. Back in Etobicoke, young Michael would crawl through a culvert to a three-acre woodlot at the corner of Highway 27 and QEW. That is, until he encountered a sewer rat heading in the opposite direction. From then on, he decided it was better to brave four lanes of traffic for the opportunity to see a few robins’ nests and a single pair of crows.

He wrote in a 1981 edition of Ontario Nature, “Imagine then my utter amazement and delight to find myself in March of 1965, shivering at dawn on the dunes of Long Point, gazing north over the vast marshes of the Inner Bay. Every cattail clump held the scarlet flash and pure spring song of red-wings.”

Since 1980, Bradstreet has studied and analysed those dunes and marshes and Long Point history. His PRSWHA presentation featured 13 charts and maps from 1670–1860.

Bradstreet traced the history of the maps which featured the shifting sands of the 40-kilometre-long sand spit. His comprehensive studies shed new light on many matters.

For example, one issue in dispute is the location of the Long Point Portage or Carrying Place.

Outside the gates of Long Point Provincial Park, you’ll find a Parks Canada Canadian Heritage plaque that says in part: “This portage, which crossed the isthmus joining Long Point to the mainland, was used by travellers in small craft following the north shore of Lake Erie in order to avoid the open waters and the length of the journey around the Point.”

The portage was used by First Nations people for centuries. It was first recorded by Europeans Dollier de Casson and René de Bréhant de Galinée in 1670.

Using materials from James Black’s 1854 journal, gridwork and map image, Bradstreet has been able to pinpoint the exact location of the Carrying Place.

“It was located just west of where the current Causeway turns onto the point, and not outside the provincial park where a heritage plaque is installed,” he said.

Mapping done in 1793 by surveyor William Chewett adds some new insights into Port Rowan history.

“It is commonly assumed that Lucas Dedrick was the first settler along the creek in what is now the Bayview Cemetery,” Bradstreet told the crowd of about 80 people.

“But William Chewett did not map Dedrick’s abode in 1793 because it wasn’t there. Timothy Murphy settled on what is now known as Dedrick Creek in 1790.”

The maps also document changes caused by storms to Long Point that have opened and closed channels over the years. For example, “a channel created in 1830 is the Old Cut of today,” said Bradstreet.

Perhaps surprisingly, there is an eyewitness account of the storm that created this new channel.

“In 1901, 88-year-old Richard Johnson was interviewed by Dr. McInnes of Vittoria. Johnson remembered that when Big Creek emptied into the lake it was about 100 yards wide and two feet deep. He carried women across the creek to pick an abundance of sand cherries on the sand hills there.”

Yes, Big Creek emptied into the lake for a time. But another major storm on October 18, 1844, changed that. There was much damage. At least 78 lives were lost in Buffalo, New York, as the water rose 13 feet overnight in less than an hour. At Long Point the sand banks on the west side of the Cut were washed away almost 3/4 mile to the west.

What can we learn from Michael Bradstreet’s presentation?

“In today’s LPC marsh, the shoreline has retreated northwards more than 2,000 feet since 1854, resulting in a loss of 700 acres of world-renowned dunes, forests and wetland. But it hasn’t always been a story of loss. Farther east, there has been considerable buildup of new land south of Black’s 1854 shoreline.”

With various storms, most notably those of 1833, 1844 and 1859–60, “the shoreline’s integrity has disappeared overnight.”

“The base and tip are particularly unstable. If a major storm arrives under conditions like those that occurred in the 1800s, no practical human intervention is likely to pre-vent catastrophic damage.”

“A sobering conclusion indeed,” declared Bradstreet at the close of his talk.

Originally printed in The Good News, February 2025.