Buffalo Trails & Very Old Trees Alongside Historic Stony Brook

I’ve amassed many Preservings issues from the past… and somewhere, sometime when I was paging through one, I came across a snippet, labeled “Steinbach Creek.” It was such a little bit of text that I simply took a photo. Now I have the picture, but cannot find which issue it’s from. (Likely from the mid-90’s.) Believe me, I’ve looked! I’ve become lost in the piles of Preservings for several hours now… and while I’ve learned other things, I haven’t learned where this snippet was taken from. Nevertheless, I’ll just post the photo here, for you to read for yourself:

Now, there is a “Heritage Walkway” that runs alongside what was once the creek… though now it’s a landscaped ditch which is typically quite dry. I’ve often wondered what happened to the creek to make it dry up like that. Someone recently told me that the creek had been diverted at some point. That is why the ditch along Hespeler often contains much more water than does the “Stony Brook”.

Anyway, I often walk along that Heritage Walkway. On one side is the Stony Brook, on the other side is Elmdale Elementary. And between them, are some of Steinbach’s largest, most fantastic trees. I think it’s wonderful that the trees are just inside the fence, so that the kids can play on them during recess.

These trees are so very large and they look very old… there isn’t much in Steinbach that has stood the test of time… but I think these trees were probably here already in 1874. They are beautiful and important.

Here are some photos that I took of them as I walked home from work last week:

Don’t these just look like the kind of large trees that grow alongside creeks? The Heritage Walkway is on the other side of the chain link fence. And next to it, is the “Stony Brook”, which is presently quite dry.

Evidence of children playing beneath the trees… I think it’s cute that a child appears to have placed some art in the hollow of this old tree.

As I walked, I thought about how there used to be a buffalo trail here, a long time ago. I tried to picture the buffalo, their huge forms lumbering alongside a lively brook, beside these very trees… and was momentarily transported.