A day along the Ganaraska River turned out to be an adventure for a Port Hope father and daughter on Sunday, August 5, 2018.
Bill Clark and his daughter Chelsea (age 8) were walking up the river near Cavan Street looking for crayfish when they discovered numerous files from the former file factory on Cavan Street.
“We ended up stumbling across a railway spike and once we saw it, we started digging around the rocks and mud and that’s when we started uncovering files,” said Clark.
“Once we uncovered one, we just didn’t stop.”
“At first I thought why would someone just throw a file in the river. Then I started pulling them out. If you dig through the mud, you can pull them out all day.”
The hunt for crayfish soon became an adventure for files, that is, until the water got muddy.
“We went further up and kept looking and there were other chunks of metal that we found.”
Historical documents state the file factory was in operation from the 1850’s to 1976 along Cavan Street in Port Hope by the river. Files were mainly used for filing down rough edges of metal.
“I was pretty surprised. I’ve never heard of somebody finding files in the water.”
The pair plan to try to clean up the files and see if there are any markings on them to help determine the age.
It’s not uncommon for the pair to walk along the river with their dogs as they live close by, but now they have another reason for coming back.
“I want to find more of these and start collecting,” said Chelsea.
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
