A Brief History

In 1840 John Gillies obtained a hundred acre plot of land on the Clyde River, and there he built a home and a sawmill. Gillies dammed the river to provide power to his saw and eventually he added a grist and oat mill and a carding mill to process sheep’s wool. In 1871, Gillies, who had soured on the Lanark area, sold his operations to a pair of Scottish immigrant brothers, James and John Herron. The Herron brothers’ enthusiasm for the long-term prospects of the area led them to add more industries and accommodations to the hundred-acre property. But it was the Herron brothers’ community spirit that really set the tone for the area. They hosted skating parties on the millpond followed by bonfires and hot meals. They introduced a schoolhouse to the area for local families and in 1891 they established a post office that John and his wife ran for many years.

Herron Mills was a successful mill town until the Depression hit and by the early 1940s most of the industrial operations, except for the sawmill, were closed down. In 1951 the sawmill closed as well, and from that point on Herron Mills began its decline. By the 1980s the mill buildings were in ruins.

Enter Ed

A few years ago, Ed Weaver and his family were looking for property in the area and came across the Herron Mills site. A walk around the property convinced them that they had found something special. Now that the family home has been renovated Ed and Deb have set their sights on an ambitious goal. They would like to restore the heritage buildings on the property, rebuild the dam, and install a small-scale hydroelectric turbine so that they can sell electricity to Ontario Hydro.

“The Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) affirms our right to dam and flood the river as per our deeds,” Ed says. “We don’t have to go through their water power site release and development review stage which takes about a year and a half. We can go directly to the environmental assessment and the approval process to plan, construct and operate a water power facility. I’ve been in touch with Ontario Hydro and they’ve done their assessment. There are no issues as far as hooking up to the grid. I’ve had three sets of engineers out here to confirm the output. Now the architects have come out to do the drawings and the renderings.”

A preliminary rendering of the two mills and the dam envisioned by Ed and Deb Weaver for their Herron Mills property

A large section of the criteria for approval actually focuses on the heritage of the site, which Ed sees as a big bonus to his proposal. The entire area that he hopes to redevelop has only been out of commission for fifty to sixty years. By damming the river again and putting the mills back in he is actually acting as a caretaker for the area’s heritage. And apparently, he’s not alone in thinking this way. A recent letter from Hon. David Ramsay, Ontario’s Minister of Natural Resources, concludes: “I commend you for your efforts to contribute to Ontario’s energy supply and for your commitment to preserving Ontario’s cultural heritage. As the mill on your property may be historical, I have forwarded your letter to my colleague, the Honorable Caroline DiCocco, Minister of Culture, to see if there are opportunities available to assist additional efforts on your part to restore or preserve Ontario’s cultural heritage.” This letter was also sent to Premier Dalton McGuinty and Norm Sterling, MPP, Lanark-Carleton as well as Sarah MacHardy, MNR.

Official assistance for this project has actually been quite forthcoming. “We’re going through MNR’s new Coordinated Approval Process,” explains Ed. “They act as project leaders and get representatives from the Ministry of the Environment, Fisheries and Oceans, my neighbours, and me, and they coordinate the communication towards getting the final approval. If things go well, it could take ninety days and we’d be able to begin construction, but it could take up to two years.” As far as the neighbours are concerned, many are of the opinion that restoring the dam would be one of the best things that could happen to the area.

Reviving the Ghost

Ed’s taking care of the permitting process and has invested a great deal of time and energy into the project already. He estimates that it is going to take $600-700 thousand to complete the project. The price is relatively low because the Weavers already own the land and have the headway and tailway in place. “In terms of dollars and sense,” Ed explains, “someone could come in and just put the turbine in the middle of the dam and start generating electricity to sell to the grid. You’d generate the same income and you’d save a lot of money. But it’s not about that — it’s about putting something here that the community will have for the next hundred years and that people will come out to see.”

The Weavers want to appeal to area archivists and amateur historians for assistance. “We’re looking for as many old pictures as we can find to get the look of the outside of the buildings. We’ve got some, but we’d like more. The Gillies mill was a shingle mill and all of the original equipment is still there. We want to put it back the way it was — all of the pulleys up above and all of the equipment inside working. Hopefully we’ll be able to open the doors up to the public.”

It’s important to Ed and Deb to show both parts of the project — the heritage side and the power generation side. “Phase one is to get the dam working because that generates the income in order to fund the heritage restoration. We want to show how an 1880 mill can be revamped to today’s technology and generate enough hydroelectricity for a thousand homes. At the same time, we want to be able to bring children to the site and show them what this piece of equipment was and how it works. Eventually we’d like to have volunteers working the equipment so people could actually watch boards being cut and see how it was done back then. There might even be a business for someone running the shingle mill on the weekends to actually make shingles for barns and cottages.”

Community Spirit

Of course, a project of this scale needs a lot of person power. There are piles of equipment and old timber to be moved out so that the foundations can be restored and the site can be secured for restoration. There are already a few volunteers coming out to help with the work, but more are certainly welcome. “As far as this site goes, if we don’t save it right now, we’ll lose it. But I can’t do it all myself. Now it’s time to see if there are people out there with some time and energy and maybe even expertise that they can bring to the site. It’s not about personal gain — this will be around longer than any of us.”

If you would like to be involved in this exciting project and help bring life back to a ghost town, contact Ed and Deb Weaver by email or visit their website.