Old Indian Trail

Forterie0706 Earl Plato
Historical research! Ten years could be spent by me at Fort Erie Centennial library and I still wouldn’t exhaust Fort Erie historian Louis McDermott’s massive collection. So I look at various topics that I might have knowledge of for an article. I found one by Audrey (Miller) Laurie about the Old Indian Trail. I quote from her article written many years ago. Laurie stated, “ There is no more historic or romantic trail than that of the Old Indian Trail between the Niagara River and Lake Erie.” I most agree. The late Bert Miller introduced the Trail to me as a youth. We explored the flora along the limestone ridge and I was lowered into the split-in-the- Rock as a ten year old. As a boy scout I rode the Trail on bicycle from Fort Erie and spent many nights at Split Rock Boy Scout camp. Yes, as a writer of local historical fiction I eulogized the Trail and the Split in my novel, Our People Live. The actual map of the Trail used in the book is a version of Bert Miller’s original drawing. “Historic and romantic!” Read my novel and I think you will appreciate the Old Indian Trail more as Fort Erieans. What are the town’s future plan for this “historical road“? Preservation, I hope, so even with historical plaques if nothing else. Suggestions: Change or add to the Ridge Road North designation - Old Indian Trail or Split Rock Road.
***
Do you remember the “Split-in-the-Rock? It is an anomaly on the west side of the Old Indian Trail. Audrey Miller Laurie wrote the following about the “Split.” “… one place near the top of the Split is a large slab of rock perhaps four feet thick that spans the opening. One end lies on the main limestone and the other end on the part that separated and forms a natural bridge.”
Writer’s note: I have stood on that limestone slab and wondered how it could have formed. In my novel I use it as sacred altar for the local native people, the Attiwandarons. Thank you Audrey MillerLaurie for the reminder of a special place on the Old Indian Trail.