Life in the Canadian Pre-Cambrian Shield has always been precarious – a hard-scrabble culture referred to by some as an “Appalachia of the North” rocky countryside whose few remaining people still occasionally find survival in the form of a poached deer, a gill-netted pickerel or a hamper of blueberries sold to a passing family of tourists.
Its agriculture a commercial failure and its younger generations lured off to shift work in nearby cities, the area documented by photographer Donald McCallum in these pages is clearly in the last throes of a 50-year-death. McCallum’s striking images make it easy, however, to imagine the days when these falling down farmhouses and rusting skeletons of implements served a vital, land-based community. As ramshackle as they appear today, they serve as a reminder of the time when homes were built with pride, care and an eye to keeping the bears out.
Left: Bob Herrington and the woman he had to marry when he was 97 years old. His present wife and her sister had been living in the Herrington home near Elmtree, Ontario, attending to the housework, when the elder sister died. “Bob thought it just wouldn’t look right to be living alone with the younger sister. so they were married,” says Mr. McCallum. Middle: Limestone shed near Erinsville Bottom right: Gate to no-where at Westport.Bottom: A tree growing up through its floor boards, this once proud auto rests stripped, abandoned and vandalized near Brooke; Left: Deserted house near Delta, now famous for its annual maple syrup festivals: Middle: Wagon wheels at Westport.Left: Not a victim of erosion, as it would appear, this house rests precariously on the edge of an Oso township sandpit. Workers eventually burned the house in order to take the sand under it. Right: Detail of door latch.This house, too, is no longer standing. having been torn down so that its stone window sills could be salvaged.Right: Another of the many abandoned homes in the area. “It’s such a bloody waste,” says McCallum. “They are just left behind when the people move into town or a mobile home down the road. When they are used, it is often just to store hay for the winter. Of course, the hay is too heavy for the house and you see the walls starting to give way.” Middle: A not-very-seaworthy craft on Amherst Island in Lake Ontario.
