Fall River Park

Fall River Park. Maberly. , The original peoples of the land on which this park is situated are the Omàmiwininì, members of the Algonquin Anishinaabe family. In the distant past, they settled in the valley of the Kiji Sibi, (Ottawa River), and its tributaries, including the unceded Algonquin territory of the Fall River., Here, they found rolling hills with old-growth forests and the streams and granite rock of the billion-year old Precambrian Shield on which the Maberly area and the park rests. The retreating 'Wisconsin' glaciers of 12,000 years ago left these rustic landscape remnants exposed, including the beautiful legacy of the Fall River and our area's scenery., The oral history of the Omàmiwininì people relays how they have lived throughout this area, travelling on the Fall River past this site, enroute to the majestic Mississippi River, the Kiji Sibi and as far as present-day Lake of Two Mountains at the St. Lawrence River. They lived sustainably with nature - hunting, fishing and harvesting the natural foods, such as wild rice and maple sugar., This way of life changed drastically with the arrival of the first European settlers in the mid-1830s, an extension of the migration to Perth's Military Settlement of 1816. The colonists settled on lots surveyed, and allocated to them, by the British government. This was contrary to the 1763 Royal Proclamation as this region had not been ceded by legal treaty with the Algonquins, and left little access for the Omàmiwininì people to their collective lands., The landscape of this area underwent a dramatic change, as roads were built, farmland opened and forests harvested. The thin soil of the Canadian Shield was not conducive to agriculture, but the streams and forests of the area offered opportunity for the milling industries, quickly pursued by early settlers with an entrepreneurial bent., The construction of the first sawmill by 1860, by John Morrow, on the Fall River in this hamlet's east end, laid the foundation for Maberly as a major industrial centre. Later, a grist mill and shingle mill were added to that site. The young hamlet became known as 'Morrows Mills', then, for a short period, 'Mayberry', and, finally, designated 'Maberly', in 1865, after the Secretary of England's Post Office., In 1860, Maberly was made the administrative centre for the newly created Township of South Sherbrooke, with a first Council of Reeve John McGregor and Councillors Adams, Deacon, Moore and Strong., In the early 1860s, John McGregor built a sawmill in the west end, downstream of the present Main Street bridge. The site hosted a sawmill for over 100 years, making it the longest operating mill in the region. A woolen or carding mill was added in the late 1860s and ran into the 1900s., At its colonial era peak, Maberly had a population of 200, and boasted two sawmills, grist mill, shingle mill, woolen mill, carriage works, cheese factory, shoemaker, coffin maker, blacksmiths, hotel and five general stores. In the late 1800s, the depletion of quality timber, centralizing of woolen mills in large Canadian centres and growth of wheat production in the west led to the gradual closing of most of the hamlet's mills., [Photo captions, top to bottom, read] , . Traditional Algonquin Birchbark Canoe built by William and Mary Commanda 1970, . Moberly School House, . Cohen Home and Storefront (Porch on Left), . St. Alban the Martyr Anglican Parish, . A Methodist Church built in 1885 became the United Church in June 1925, . Early Maberly Mill, For more information about other parks in Tay Valley visit: www.tayvalleytwp.ca