Historical monument unveiled: A monument was unveiled last Saturday on the Picanoc Road above Otter Lake, when Basil Quaile of Otter Lake and David Lunam of Campbell’s Bay unveiled a monument to record the fact that the Duke of Connaught, second son of Queen Victoria, spent about a week hunting moose in the area back in the fall of 1872.
The monument is a bronze plaque mounted on a 3 x 4 stone which is bedded in a concrete base about 10 ft x 10 ft.
The Duke of Connaught was stationed in Quebec City in 1872 and came up to Ottawa to visit his sister who was married to the Governor General, the Marquis of Lorne. While in Ottawa, he went moose hunting in the area of Gilmour’s Lumber Depot (now Otter Lake).
Mr. and Mrs. David Lunam, great grandparents of the present David Lunam, were in charge of the depot and entertained the Prince at their home on the way to and from the hunting camp which was located at McLeod Creek some miles up the Picanoc above Otter Lake.
Community spirit in action: When fire of undetermined origin destroyed the three story brick home of Stanley Kearns on the Mine Road, north of Quyon on Sept. 3, it was a tragic blow. Mr. and Mrs. Kearns and the four of their children at home at the time, managed to escape and call the Quyon Volunteer Fire Dept. which responded quickly as did the Hilton Mines fire truck also. But to little avail as the large house was doomed from the start.
Fortunately, on the adjoining farm which Stanley is in the process of buying, there is a fairly good house which has been vacant for about 10 years. Every cloud has a silver lining, in this case in the form of instant help from willing neighbours. Within hours, a dozen men and women were on the scene putting in new windows to replace the several broken ones and the house was cleaned from top to bottom.
Amié Dubois, local contractor dropped his work, took his men and built a new chimney at no cost to the family.
By evening the following day, the house was ready to move into, completely furnished and clothing for the entire family continues to pour in.
