a pine alone

White Pines, Rockcliffe Park 1908 — after W.J. Wilson

In the spring of 1881, the Ottawa Citizen printed two short pieces on two consecutive days. I reproduce them here.

[Monday, April 18 1881] 
The "Lone Pine" — This old landmark on the Bank Street Road, which was by order of the Vandals of the road company ordered to be levelled with mother earth, has since its downfall had its timbers put to a variety of uses. Several early residents of the locality have secured circular slabs of it, with which to make rustic tables and fancy articles to keep as mementos of the only remaining monarch of the primeval forest existing in the immediate vicinity of the city. There is some of it left yet.

The writer doesn't specify where along the "Bank Street Road" this once-majestic pine stood. That detail could have dovetailed nicely into a narrative of Bank Street's construction history. No matter. The date suggests that road-work either began or resumed as soon as the snow had melted, which is more useful than a kick in the head. The next day the following brief appeared...

[Tuesday, April 19 1881]
The "Lone Pine" — Under the above caption a paragraph appeared in yesterday's CITIZEN, and to-day from an experienced lumberman, none other than the Hon. James Skead [biography here], who should know something about such matters, gives the age of the "Monarch of the Forest" at from 275 to 280 years. Truly a venerable tree. The stump is 4ft. 6in. in diameter, and 13ft. 6in. in circumference. What a pity to cut it down. With the exception of one limb, the one blasted by lightning last summer, the "lone pine" might have lived out the present generation.

The "Lone Pine" was almost certainly a White Pine (Pinus strobus L.), the mainstay of the Ottawa Valley's lumber/timber trade. Red Pines (Pinus resinosa Ait.) were also taken, though their smaller size and reluctance to grow in exclusive tracts made them less desirable. The trunk of the Red Pine rarely exceeds 3 feet in diameter — Skead measured that of the Lone Pine's at four-and-a-half-feet across.

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The photo at the head of this post shows a stand of White Pine in Rockcliffe Park, shot 110 years ago, apparently in the spring, given the patches of melting snow. The location reminds me of the Pavilion Meadow. If so, the trees are rooted in a layer of glacial till, spread atop the shaly bedrock of the Rockcliffe Formation.

The Ottawa area timber trade began in 1806 when Philemon Wright floated the first timber raft downriver from Gatineau to Quebec City. Thomas McKay acquired the lands that now make up Rockcliffe between 1829 and 1850. I think it's fair to guess that some time between 1806 and 1829, a good deal of the Park's original pine stands were logged in what may have been, in retrospect, a free-for-all.

We should also consider the likelihood that McKay himself cut trees, pines included, on these lands while they were in his possession. This would make virtually all of Rockcliffe's pines, including those in the photo, post-logging regrowth. I mention this in light of the Citizen writer's claim that the Lone Pine was "the only remaining monarch of the primeval forest existing in the immediate vicinity of the city." Exactly how accurate was this statement and did the writer's "immediate vicinity of the city" include Rockcliffe?