160 Unusual Things to See in Ontario -- Blair Sheave Tower

We took the above photos in February 2009 while out letterboxing.

We did find the box but it was retired in 2018.

"In a time before power was supplied by electrical grids, grist mills were responsible for generating their own hydro to operate the mills. Sheave towers were an economical way to generate power from rivers by use of a water turbine underneath the tower.

The last remaining wooden sheave tower in Ontario can be found in the former Village of Blair, now a part of the City of Cambridge.

The Blair Sheave Tower, a 31-foot tower, was built beside the Blair (Bowman) River in 1876 by Allan Bowman, to power the Blair Carlisle Grist Mill, located 240 feet downstream. The tower used a grooved wheel (sheave) higher up in the tower, to harness water power. It was connected by a pulley and cable system to the grist mill, which dates back to 1846.

Described as having “a mini mining headframe” and a “tapering wooden structure,” the Blair Sheave Tower generated electricity until 1954, making it not only Ontario’s oldest hydroelectric generating site, but one of the world’s smallest hydro-generators.

A restoration was undertaken in 1999 by the City of Cambridge, putting new timbers in its frame and a fresh coat of oxblood paint on its board and batten walls. The tower looks as it did when built and is a very popular subject for painters and photographers.

A partial restoration was done by the Waterloo Historical Society in 1962, but nearby housing developments caused damage to the tower’s foundation when the river overflowed.

The Blair Sheave Tower can be found on Old Mill Road, east of Dickie Settlement Road, across the road from the Carlisle Mill, which also remains. It’s along a trail, about 100 feet off the road and is accessible to the public. It has been owned by the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario, Cambridge chapter, since 1994. Unfortunately, there is very little room to park along the narrow rural road."

https://militarybruce.com/the-blair-sheave-tower-ontarios-last-remaining-wooden-water-powered-hydro-generator-tower/

Comments

A Taste of Canada ~ Fiddleheads

I do enjoy fiddleheads. They have a green bean-y, asparagus-like, pea-ish taste and they are just fun to look at. From Chateline Magazine: HOW-TO It’s Almost Fiddlehead Season! Here’s How To Cook This Springtime Veggie Properly Fiddleheads are a Canadian delicacy, but undercooking them can lead to food poisoning by Amy Grief Updated Apr 9, 2019 Fiddlehead season is short, so when you see the adorable green curlicues at your grocery store or farmers’ market, buy them while you can. Before chowing down on these little springtime delicacies, there’s a few things you should know first since fiddleheads can cause food poisoning if they’re not cooked properly. What are fiddleheads? These tightly curled coils are ostrich fern fronds. They start appearing in late April and early May in Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and are usually found in forests, marshes and by rivers and streams. Taste-wise, fiddleheads, which are popular amongst food foragers, are often co

Week #2 Challenge: Paper . . . and I mean ALL of your paper.

Annual Organization Challenge Week #2 How did you make out with last week's challenge? Did you find your work table? Here's this week's challenge: Your challenge this week is to S.P.A.C.E. your paper - - and I mean ALL of your paper: cardstock, patterned paper, specialty papers, and all those SCRAPS! SORT: Bring all of your paper to one area. Sort it all into piles: KEEP, SELL, DONATE, TRASH PURGE: bag up, and assign a price to paper bundles that you want to SELL at a garage sale or online, and put the bags in the garage sale box. Throw out the TRASH pile. Bag up the DONATE pile and immediately make arrangements for drop-off/pick-up or put in your vehicle. ASSIGN: separate your paper into categories that make sense to you. For example, you may want to divide it simply into cardstock and patterned paper. If you have a huge stash of paper, you may want to divide it by colour, theme, or manufacturer. **Another way to sort your paper is in

Journal Prompt ~ One Thing You Do Really Well

Name one thing you do really well . . . One thing I do really well is solve crossword puzzles.

In My World

Search This Blog