Holleford, Ontario by Meg Freer

The tiny village of Holleford, Ontario, just north of Kingston, was named by its first postmaster after the Irish village Hollyfort where his family had originally lived. A meteorite perhaps 90 metres in diameter crashed into the earth here during the early or late pre-Cambrian period, leaving a crater 244 metres deep and 2.5 kilometres wide, identified as such from aerial photographs taken in 1955. First it filled with water, becoming a circular lake. Then Paleozoic seas pushed in sediment that filled it in to its present depth of 30 metres. The crater itself, located on private farm property established in 1803, is now buried and consists of hundreds of feet of shattered rock below the surface. It still has the remnant of a rim, but there is not much else left except picturesque scenery and a pond in the field of “Crater Farm”.

There is no sign indicating the name of this whitewashed building but it stood out in the bleak March landscape.

This whitewashed building with faded red trim has a date of 1874, a water pump out front, and a sign indicating it was a school.

Crater Farm is currently a dairy farm run by the relatives of John Babcock, who was born in a barn on the farm and was the last surviving Canadian WWI veteran. He died in 2010.

The countryside in this part of Ontario has many split-rail fences.

Looking north across this wooded bog, you get a sense that you are in the middle of a little valley carved by natural forces.

BIO:  Meg Freer grew up in Missoula, Montana and now lives in Ontario. She teaches piano, writes poetry, and enjoys taking photos and being outdoors year-round.

#crater #Crater Farm, #Holleford, #Meg Freer, #meteorite, #Ontario, #schoolhouse, #split-rail fence, #wanderlust journal, #windmill

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