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- Upper Canada 🇨🇦
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- XP Deus, Lesche Piranha 35 Shovel & 'Garrett Carrot'
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- Relic Hunting
I knew this farm well as a kid growing up in Scarborough, as it was just down the street from me. I used to feed the horses apples in the orchard and dig bottles out of the old farm dump in the woods behind the property. When I was 14, I actually went to see the owner Mrs. Campbell to ask her permission to ride my dirt bike in her field to the west of the farm. This 'field' now has a community/rec centre on the site. Each year I remember Mrs. Campbell held an annual 'garden party' to help raise funds for the local Horticultural Society. Campbell descendants lived in this farm until 3 years ago when it was sold to The City of Scarborough as a 'farm in the city'. The house has been restored and is currently being used by 'Parks Canada' for office space.
Oh, there were lots of targets here alright, but mostly all modern coins, except for a couple of pennies that dated to the 1950's - 60's. Most of which I would assume were lost by school kids running around the front yard. All yesterdays finds came from an 80' x 120' area in the front yard.
I'm sure this property has already been detected, so I feel fortunate to have at least found a silver dime and the 'junk' ring!
The Cornell Campbell Farm - Scarborough, Ontario
One of Scarborough's earliest European era pioneers was William Cornell, who settled here from Rhode Island in 1799. His family first 'squatted' at this location in about 1800, Cornell purchased the property in about 1809. He built the farmhouse in 1836; the bricks for the home were made on the farm at an early period. It was here he planted Scarborough's first orchard in about 1802. In 1801, in cooperation with others, he cut the original alignment of Kingston Road along this portion of the lakefront below the Lake Iroquois shoreline. He helped construct the Kings Road, which is present day Kingston Road, Highway 2. Many of his descendants were important to the history of town of Scarborough. In the early 1900's the farm transferred a female descendent, the family of Helen and Albert Campbell. Already deemed a historic property by the City of Scarborough at the time of the Borough's amalgamation into to City of Toronto, the amalgamation complicated and delayed its purchase.
Original 19 acres that was bound by Eglinton Avenue, Kingston Road and Markham Rd, after Albert Campbell's death in 1973 the property was slowly parceled out and a Civic Centre malls and Condominium now occupy what was once the property farmland. The city of Toronto has recently secured its purchase along with the 3-acre wood lot that boasts a variety of mature trees including elm, poplar, black cherry and oak.
The City of Scarborough has restored the buildings and has created a horticultural / agricultural learning centre to educate schoolchildren on field trips to this now intercity farm.
I hope to get back again this weekend to work the rest of the front yard, as well as, the side and backyard!
Thanks for looking,
Dave
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I was thinking the exact same thing about the yard likely having been leveled and resurfaced possibly sometime in the 1960's or 70's. I found the dime under a tree at the far edge of the yard, so it likely wasn't affected by the 'update' to the landscape. This weekend I'll detect the areas that are less likely to have seen any changes over the past 175+ years!
