Places of Interest
Lower Beverley Lake Canoeshuk
"The coming of the 75th anniversary of the L.B.L.A. got me thinking about a monument for the lake. I have traveled to Alaska and experienced the Indian art forms. I also have erected a few small inukshuks on our point at the mouth of the narrows. Lower Beverley Lake has a long history of native Americans and early settlers establishing a canoe route to the St. Lawrence River.
One of my first Inukshuk designs was much larger and would have spanned two islands of the same group of rock islands where it now stands, with a miniaturization concept to theThousand Islands Bridge – US and Canadian unity, etc. I realized that my bridge concept between islands was beyond my scope of ability because of the distance between islands.
By this time, the talk on the lake was the canoe route so I turned my efforts to the canoeshuk. The base of the canoeshuk depicts the earth, with the larger top stone being the lake. The canoe marks the way for the ancient canoe route through the lake.
I presented my idea to the LBLA for consideration and approval, which was granted. Construction of the canoe was the next hurdle to overcome. Through the lake grapevine I heard that a barge and backhoe were coming on the lake. I lined up a good friend from the lake, Ken Jeffries, who loves to work with stone. Ken and I went to Jackson’s Stone Quarry and picked out stones (5500lbs.) and they were delivered to the dock in Lyndhurst and loaded onto the barge. About 6 hours later on July 10th, 2007 the inukshuk was in place on the island.
The canoe I designed was also carved at Jackson’s quarry and the lettering was inscribed by Leeder Monuments, Gananoque – HONOUR THE PATH, LOWER BEVERLEY LAKE ASSOC. 2007. On September 6, 2008, Ken and I picked it up at Leeder’s, transported it to the lake and loaded it into a small boat and out to the island. It was placed on the base with the assistance of Bob Faust and Nick Neiley and there it stands today, a tribute to the past and present."
– Ed VanVoorhis
Charles Broley Eagle Platform
Many prominent people have resided on Lower Beverley Lake, and Charles Broley was one of them. It can actually be said that he “soared with the eagles”! The Broley family lived at one end of Whiskey Island where we can still see the white cottage Charles Broley acquired in 1913 when he was a banker in Delta. Following his retirement in 1939, Charles Broley became widely known in Canada and the United States as the “Eagle Man” when he began to band and study bald eagles: by the age of 80 he had banded over 1000 of these birds, climbing by rope ladder up lofty trees to reach their nests.
It was he who first sounded the alarm about DDT, realizing that this widely used pesticide was responsible for the increasing sterility of the mature birds. Most of his work was done in Florida, but he also dealt with several eyries in the Lower Beverley Lake area. Life Magazine ran a full photo feature on Charles Broley and the National Geographic produced a documentary on his impressive work with eagles. His wife, Myrtle, was a well-known author and his daughter, Jeanne Broley Patric, still summers on the lake and publishes stories and poems.
Eagle Platform Installation & Dedication
On August 6, 2011 the Lower Beverley Lake Association dedicated its first eagle platform to the memory of Charles Broley. It is only fitting that we encourage eagles to nest where the Eagle Man once soared! The Eagle platform is located near Blue Heron Point (#26 in the Self-guided tour brochure).
– From the Biographical Dictionary of American and Canadian Naturalists and Environmentalists.
