Once upon a time, South Cameron Ave. ran all the way Tecumseh Rd. near the Michigan Central Train Station to Howard Avenue and Kenilworth Race Track. South Cameron hugged the rail line the entire way. Interesting to note, that Grand Marais also crossed the tracks back then too.
Today carved up by the Expressway and shopping plazas, the road terminates at Dougall and picks up again behind the roundhouse centre for a short distance. The line in red shows the original path of the road, overlaid on a current aerial view.
Looking at the view in Google Earth, it appeared that part of the road might still be in existence in the area between Dougall and the Expressway. A line of telephone poles in a parking lot mark the route of the old road.
An old sign frame on the pole, this probably once held a speed limit sign.
Slightly overgrown, and chopped off my the expressway, there was still a concrete road there.
Far from anything that would need it, a lamppost sits in the middle of some overgrown brush.
Concrete curbs mark the driveway to something long gone. This was near the light, maybe it was once a gas station?
Another view of the light.
A final view of the ghost road. As I’ve said before, more history right under our noses.
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I was told that Disputed Road was so named because the original seigneuries began at the river and worked going backwards (x feet back, ongoing). Eventually they intersected - hence "Disputed Road" as they disputed who owned the land!
If you reference Windsor Border Region by Ernest J Lajeunesse (1960) and Garden Gateway to Canada by Neil F Morrison (1954) you will find how complicated the whole process actually was. The former contains actual extracts of survey reports and difficulties that were encountered. (the latter is very good reading with nice pictures!) One such was finding land already occupied and improved without the benefit of grant. from what I can see so far, I can't see why two municipalities would have quarreled over this road as it does not seem to be in any boundary. Sandwich East, West and South at one time were simply Sandwich. Divisions came later on and this road was not on a boundary between Sandwich West and South. It is possible that Sandwich South wanted the boundary West of where it was placed but I would only be speculating.
Surveys were done as more land was needed and usually began from the water fronts extending to the interior of the County.
Some of this really gets interesting when you read the transactions and orders to the surveyors. And let us not forget the how land was transferred from the Native community to the Crown. There were a lot of strange deal and some reversals when lands were granted by Native Chiefs to individuals; that was not tolerated as lands had to first be transferred to the Crown before any grants were made. I am getting off track but I will continue to look for more evidence on this name.
I thought Disputed Road was really Greenlink vs. DRIC (wink, wink..)
I was told that two brothers were fighting over the land a long time ago hense the name of the street "disputed". Is that the real story? who knows? maybe the Broderick family would know since they were the owners at the time. As far as I know they are still around.
WOW! golf course right there and you'd never ever know it.....oh how i'm falling for this site!!!
can anyone tell me what that road is in the old map, running along the north side of the tracks? is it just a service road for the railway, or some kind of access to the up and coming neighbourhood of Zalev? lol you can still see it's remains in that google shot.
it looks as if it could be matched up with provincial LONG before the track sidings got so big.
you know what....those remains are actually the track bed for that second rail bridge. f'rgot all about it. but still curious where that road went. burried under the rust i imagine?
Aaron, that road isn't named on my map... But you are right, traces of it can still be seen today.
DISPUTED ROAD IN LASALLE ONTARIO
This information was gathered with considerable assistance.
Disputed Road runs north south from a point just south of Normandy Street until it reaches the Middle Side Road boundary with Amherstburg. The road is one side of a triangle of land, with the other side being Huron Church Road.
This triangular-shaped piece of territory is nestled in between the seigniorial rang system of land survey of the old French regime, and the British system of grid development in a north-south pattern of development. Some suggest that this pie-shaped section was in dispute between parties in the 19th century related to ownership boundaries. Thus it was the “disputed roadâ€. This survey theme was referred to by Professor Trevor Price (see below).
I tried the Amherstburg Echo for information and was referred to the Marsh Collection Society. That was a dead end. I asked the LaSalle Silhouette for a suggestion and was directed to Joe Durocher, a former LaSalle councilor and high school teacher who runs Durocher Farms.
He said that the road relates to the family history of his great grandfather, also Joseph Durocher, who was elected to Sandwich West Council in 1885 and served as Reeve for 10 years. He was 6’6†tall and weighed some 300 pounds. Council wanted the road to bend to and join the sixth concession road, while Durocher wanted to have the road join the fifth concession. A major council dispute occurred, and Durocher’s view prevailed.
Rural township politics does have a context to consider. In the 1880s and 1890s the context for relations between French and English citizens and farmers must be accounted for, given the facts of the Riel Rebellions in western Canada, the industrialization of traditional rural French communities, and the rise of English language education and the impact of English Catholic leadership on French Canadian parishes, including those in the area of Sandwich West and Windsor.
My reference books (Morrison, Lajeunesse, Neal) and my 1888 county atlas have not yielded any information about this road dispute. There may be records at the LaSalle town hall or at the planning department.
Professor Trevor Price suggests that a book by John Clarke, professor of geography at Carlton University, “Land Power & Economics on the Frontier of Upper Canada†may provide a survey context for such French-English situations, and the land speculation of politicians. There was lots of that going on. McGill Queen’s Press published it in 2000. Another atlas by Paul Vandal (Wayne State Press) may have references to such issues of survey also. I have not accessed either reference.
I give up! Folklore... fact... who knows?
JBM - Thanks for the update, and for the leg work on that local mystery...
That is wierd I'm not going there