Cantley 1889 Articles
The following article first appeared in The Echo of Cantley Volume 30 no 4, October 2018. This article is made available for the enjoyment of others with the express permission of the Echo of Cantley.
Our past - Our future
Margaret Phillips, President, Cantley 1889
In 2010, a few of us met to create Cantley’s own historicalsociety – to discover, catalogue, protect and promote Cantley’s heritage. At that time, our smallgroup of volunteers had no idea about the amazing projects we would undertake, the people and the other localgroups we would work with, the information we would discover.
Please visit our cantley1889.ca website for details ... and continue to read our Echo pages every month to learn more about Cantley’s history. This is our 88th Echo article!
Time passes quickly; people and places disappear leaving very few clues about how life used to be in our community. It is important to preserve some of this localhistory for future generations.
“A generation which ignores history has no past – no future,” author Robert Heinlein.
“History is who we are and why we are the way we are,” author David McCullough.
One way to discover your own family history is by asking your older family members to tellstories of their early years. Keep a record of what they tellyou. Collect and scan family photos. This is exactly what Cantley 1889 has been doing – interviewing Cantley elders. These interviews are enjoyable and rewarding for both interviewee and interviewer. If you are interested in helping us with interviewing, or you are willing to share any of your family stories that are relevant to Cantley, please contact us. We encourage and welcome any help! We are in process of building a digitalarchive collection of stories and photos of Cantley’s early years, its people and its places.
Another way to discover your family history is genealogy. On Sunday, November 4, you are invited to attend our presentations “Discover your family history: Genealogicalsources” at the lovely new Manoir de la Forêt. Admission is free for everyone; we welcome your membership in Cantley 1889 (and donations for the delicious homemade refreshments).
Professionalgenealogist Johanne Gervais, founder of the new Québec Genealogicale-Society, willexplain (in English) how you can use her non-profit virtualsociety to research your Québec roots. At the same time, Pierre Arcand, from Société de généalogie de l’Outaouais, willspeak to Francophone attendees providing lots of genealogicaltips for discovering family history.
The presentations willfollow Cantley 1889’s brief AnnualGeneralMeeting. We encourage new Board members and volunteers. Please contact us for more information, to offer your help as a volunteer or suggest a nomination to our Board of Directors: info.cantley1889@gmail.com
“Our future grows from the roots of our past.”
Highway 307 – speed limit history
Thanks to the memories of Gary Blackburn
Everyone called it “The Old Cantley Road”. Gary Blackburn remembers a time when it was fun to drive on this narrow, gravelhighway, and the speed limit was 90 miles/hour. No paving crews, no construction, no problems exiting the side roads... no traffic jams!
When the road was paved in the early 1960’s the speed limit was 50 miles/hour. In September 1977, Canadian speed limit signs changed to metric so the speed limit became 90 km/hour. When the name changed to Montée de la Source, the speed limit was further reduced to 70 km/hour.
Allthat is history now with the new 60 km/hour speed limit on the busiest stretch of the road.
Ahhh... for the good ol’ days when driving was fast and fun... and you could also drive your cows safely... on the Old Cantley Road!