News clips: residents say NO to closing Springwater Park

By Laurie Watt Barrie Advance Oct 30, 2012

 SPRINGWATER – Midhurst’s Les Stewart remembers the Vespra Boys – and he recalls his days as a Scout when he’d march in Springwater Park to the memorial that goes by the same name.“The heart of the park is the cenotaph,” said Stewart, 53, and president of the new Springwater Park Citizens’ Coalition, which is appealing to Veterans Affairs Canada for help in restoring it.

“It’s striking – the thought and care for the First World War veterans. It was the Great War.”

Reminiscent of a stone cairn but with a cross on top, the memorial has a Latin inscription that translates to “It is sweet and right to die for your country.”

The memorial stood majestically in a hedged public square with gardens and a reflecting lily pond. It featured fountains designed to never be turned off.

“The pond was filled with goldfish and had a fountain. There were two end-field rifles mounted on the cenotaph,” he recalled.  

But over the years, there were attempts to close the park, the last one being in the 1970s, the long-time Midhurst resident recalled.

Throughout the decades, the cenotaph has been cut off from the rest of the park. It’s not plotted on any park maps and to access it, Stewart suggests once entering the park, keep right, then park near a closed gate and walk in. The pond and landscaping are gone, with the cenotaph standing in a field the park administration discourages people from accessing.

“There’s no mention of it on the map. There are no signs, no interpretive messages,” he said. “People will forget. For every year since it was erected up until the last two or three, there were Remembrance Day services on that site.”

But Stewart said the cenotaph isn’t the only reason Springwater Park – and all it has to offer – should remain accessible and be maintained. 

There are lots of White Pines. There’s the animal sanctuary. There are ponds where trumpeter swans swim.

“That park is the only wildlife sanctuary in the provincial park system,” he added. 

“The park only exists because it was a demonstration of what the tree nursery could produce. The ponds were hand-dug during the Depression to provide water to the tree nursery and for trains.”

It was created in 1922 as a reforestation project in an area clear-cut by logging.. 

“The land was so poor because of deforestation. Farmers would have to plow their lanes of sand. It was a desert. If people don’t know what the Midhurst Plain looked like, we’re doomed to repeat that mistake.”