Going South to Hamilton /Sept.1864

Wild Turkeys on the road south from Orangeville.

On the walk that John Muir did in the late summer and into the Autumn of 1864, we know from letters that he sent home to Wisconsin that he was on his way down to Dundas to meet his brother Daniel. This brother had already been living in Ontario for a year since he too was avoiding the Civil War draft. What I could discern from the way that the plant specimens were collected was that Muir had done his first major saunter starting in May. He had gone west from Bradford and over a three week period apparently made it as far west as Luther Marsh which was then called Luther Woods. Muir then returned to Bradford and was there until late August. I can imagine since he was a "farm boy" that he came back to help out with the harvest at the Campbell farm. Arthur Campbell the father had died a decade earlier so Muir would have been a great asset to this struggling pioneer family.

The view from the Dundas Train Station.
Dundas below in the trees, Hamilton on the horizon.

I am sure that a letter from his brother Daniel would have caught up with him at the Campbell farm. There is some knowledge that they arranged to meet in early September in Dundas and then go together to Niagara Falls. They both would have known about this town because the train from Detroit to Toronto which I assume they would have travelled on stopped here. The station is located half way down the Niagara Escarpment with an incredible view overlooking both Dundas and Hamilton. Perhaps they would have gotten off the train to have a look around. At that time Dundas was a vibrant mill town with a booming industrial base due to abundant water-power and shipping access to Lake Ontario via the Desjardins Canal. A lot of cast iron mill equipment that ended up in gristmills across Ontario came from the early foundries of Dundas.

Original foundry in Dundas circa 1850.

In late August Muir leaves Bradford and heads west again to Orangeville and then south. Once again from one crucial plant specimen I can tell that he headed south via Alton to the village of Cataract and into what we now call the Forks of the Credit. This valley is a wonderful nook in the escarpment where two branches of the Credit River tumble over various falls and cataracts (obviously) to join together in the valley bottom at a village called Brimstone. This is the area that I believed was called The Devil's Half Acre and where he collected a specimen of a Wild Calla (Calla palustris). From there it would have been another day's hike along the escarpment to Georgetown and then another day's hike down Trafalgar Road to Oakville. Trafalgar Road at the time was a major settlement road for pioneers heading north into Wellington, Grey and Bruce Counties.

Hot fall day in the Royal Botanical Gardens.

As I travelled this route in mid September I realized that it was still HOT like summer. But the plants were ending their seasonal growth by turning golden or yellow or were already brown and dead. As I was now a long way south I realized that I had gradually entered the Carolinian vegetation zone. The northern shore of Lake Ontario is as far north as this zone stretches. When I hiked into the grounds of the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington I could see Carolinian plants growing on the south facing slopes while hardy northern plants were still to be seen on the north facing slopes. Quite interesting to witness a transition zone but also very distressing to see a forest in great distress. The extended droughts, the air pollution, the extreme wind events and pests like the Emerald Ash Borer were all causing havoc in this idyllic nature preserve.

Honey Locust (Gleditsia triacanthos) 

My ultimate goal for this day of "Sauntering" was to find a Honey Locust tree or the Gleditsia triacanthos in its Latin moniker. Of all the specimens that Muir collected in Ontario this was the most definite for both location and date. Found on Sept.5,1864 in a "dooryard near Hamilton Ontario". This should be easy I thought.With the help of the Royal Botanical Garden  (RBG as it is locally known) I stopped in to see if I could get some help and was kindly directed to the Herbarium. This is not a public space but I was truly on a Mission and was given some special dispensation! I met Dr. Jim Pringle who is the Chief Guru of plants in the herbarium. The RBG has the largest collection of plant specimens in Canada and I was given a quick tour. Their oldest specimens were collected by Countess Dalhousie (wife of the Governor General) during 1828 in Nova Scotia. Truly impressive to see the collection.

Royal Botanical Garden - Burlington

Historic plant Collection at the RBG

Specimen collected in 1828 by Lady Dalhousie

Dr. Pringle drew me a map as to where I could find a grove of Honey Locusts that grew on the property in the RBG's Arboretum. Off I went with great confidence that I would finish off my summer of honouring Muir with the ultimate ID'd specimen. Well I do pride myself on following maps, even ones drawn on the backs of envelopes. Yes I found the Arboretum, and yes I found the "Native Trail" along the inner harbour on what is called Cootes Paradise. But could I find a GROVE  of Honey Locusts? NO.

The view of the entrance to Hamilton from the lakeside "Native Trail".

I walked back and forth and up and down the banks looking for a Honey Locust. All the trees were HUGE and I couldn't see what the leaves looked like and I didn't know what the bark of the tree should look like. I was exasperated and annoyed and rapidly overheating on this extraordinarily HOT day. So I collapsed onto a park bench nicely placed along the trail. As I looked around tired and dispirited, I noticed a tiny pebble on the bench with the word TRUST drawn on it along with a small heart. Hrrmph I thought and flipped it over and there was the word "Jesus" printed on the other side. I hrrmmpphed again and put it aside - born again Christians telling me how to live my life.

The pebble of "Trust"

 But as I sat there staring at the ground in my miasma of despair I realized that all over the ground were seed pods of a Honey Locust! I slowly looked up, way up and with a different eye I could see the compound leaf cluster that was the tree that I was searching for! YEE HA! I better "trust" more, maybe Jesus and definitely Dr. Jim Pringle. I was turned right around! I was actually sitting in the grove that I had been looking for! Duhhhhh. . . . I had finished the "Season of Muir" exactly with what I wanted to find and collect. 

The huge Honey Locust tree.

So yes a good finish (at least I thought I was done for the season) to be sitting in a Honey Locust grove at the edge of Lake Ontario revelling in the history of Muir and looking across the water of this inner part of Hamilton harbour at McMaster University where my father had graduated as a botanist in the 1930's. Then too behind that was the City of Hamilton where my grandfather had been instrumental in starting the Hamilton Field Naturalists in the early 1900's. So how does that old aphorism go, "the nut doesn't fall far from the tree"!

Building cranes at McMaster University
across the inner harbour from the Honey Locust Grove!

Now the question was, is this the actual grove where Muir had collected his specimen? I would really like to believe it because as I exited from the Arboretum I turned onto the Old Guelph Road. That would have been the road that John and Daniel would take as they headed north to Meaford in the fall of 1864.

Myself on the "Trust" bench in the "Grove" of the RBG's Arboretum. The end of a successful day.