Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
The Lafontaine Creek
Life is good here!
We’re lucky because
we’re in the country.
We would head out on
adventure, in the countryside.
Life as a kid in Lafontaine
Spring, summer and fall,
we would wander along the Lafontaine Creek.
On Saturday mornings,
with our little back packs
and our fishing rods,
wearing our little rubber boots,
we would leave in the morning
and follow the creek
as far as we could.
There was a place on the 15th Concession,
under the bridge
where wild mint grew.
We would gather some mint
then cross onto private land
where there was the best
possible habitat for fish.
We would sneak in there
and go fishing on property.
We would build a small fire
and make a bit of mint tea.
We would heat up a
little something for lunch.
Often, the landowner
would come to check on things.
Many a time, we had to run
to high tail it out of there,
because he would chase us off his property.
That’s how we spent our days.
We would often come home at dusk,
soaked, covered in mud,
completely exhausted, but happy.
Lafontaine Creek
The Lafontaine Creek
has a groundwater source.
It’s very unique because
the water is pure and cold.
That’s a very important
habitat for some species of fish.
The watershed covers almost
the entire area of Lafontaine.
It drains approximately
53 square km of land
before emptying into Nottawasaga Bay,
at around the 13th Concession.
The Creek's Source
The East branch of the creek originate
somewhere around the 18th or 19th Concession,
at Dorion’s Corner.
Somewhere around there.
There is a lake there
that is shown on the maps
as Macey Lake.
But I have always known it
as “Bullhead Lake”.
It is also known as
“Bottomless Lake”,
“Desrochers Lake”,
“Mud Lake”
as well as “Macey Lake”.
It’s unique because
apparently there’s no bottom!
At one time,
a couple of guys went out
in a small rowboat.
They had a rope
weighted with a short chain,
and they let out as much
rope as they could
and they supposedly
never reached the bottom.
So it’s quite unique and
I believe it nourishes, feeds
the creek from underground.
In the past, the Dorion farm
used to be located there.
I found out that they just
stuck a pipe in the ground
in the edge of hill where the water came out,
so they had running water
in the house, all year round.
Nice, clean, fresh water
that they could drink,
without having to drill a well.
The 17th Concession
The creek fed ponds in that area,
where the Marchildon house was.
They had dug out a couple of ponds
that they would stock
with rainbow trout.
People would come to fish trout there.
Then, a little further,
I knew them as Urbain Maurice’s ponds,
but in the old days
it was known as Boyer’s Swamp.
That brings up a reference in the
legend about the Lafontaine wolf.
Mr. Urbain Maurice,
was himself a legend in Lafontaine.
He had built a house there.
He loved the creek so much,
was so impressed by it,
that there’s a section of the house
with a glass floor
where you can see the creek
flowing under the house.
That’s really special.
Baptism in the Creek
Well, when my mother was pregnant with me,
she and my father were visiting some friends.
At one point, in the evening,
the two men decided ,
“Hey, let’s go to creek
to see if there are some fish.
Maybe do some fishing.”
You know, a little night fishing.
So they went down to the creek,
and my mother
got a little too close,
once again,
and fell right into the water.
She was eight months pregnant with me.
It must have had an impact on me,
because I was born the next day
at 3 o’clock in the afternoon.
You could say I was baptised
in the Lafontaine Creek.
André Beausoleil is an environment technologist
He initiates environment restauration projects
in the Lafontaine area.