We are owners of a seasonal cottage on Borden Drive. It faces south towards the lake. In July last year we wrote about vandalism to our name sign on the signage frame at the corner of Borden and Dorcas Bay Road. It was removed from its slot and thrown into the forest. We finally moved the sign to a different location on the frame and have not had a repeat incident.
However, the vandalism continues. In 2018 we obtained a survey of our property to confirm the boundaries. The surveyors found a survey marker on the southeast corner of the properties that had been buried in rocks due to water and ice movement. The surveyors placed a stake in a rock cairn at the site of the pin. During the high-water period peaking in 2020 the pin was submerged, and the stake moved by the action of ice and water. In 2023 when the water receded, we found the pin again buried under rocks. We rebuilt the cairn and replaced the stake. We did the same to the marker on the southwest corner.
Late last summer we noticed that the southeast cairn had been disturbed and the stake removed. The southwest cairn and stake were not disturbed. We rebuilt the cairn and reset the stake, but a few weeks later we found that the cairn and stake were disturbed again. We then built a new cairn that was on our property and placed a stake on our property a few centimeters east of the pin, so that we were not intruding on our neighbor’s lot. We sprayed both the stake and cairn in red.
On our first two trips to the cottage this year the cairn and stake were untouched. But when we arrived at our cottage earlier this week, we found that the stake had been broken and removed from the cairn (see photo). We reinserted the stake.
We do not know who is responsible for this vandalism, which may seem petty or harmless, but it is not. Disturbing a survey marker is in fact a serious offence under both federal and provincial law (see www.aols.org/site_files/content/pages/resources/monument-protection/orcga-article.pdf).
We hope the perpetrators of this vandalism take note.
Patrick and Mary O’Rourke
