Ancient Glacial Shorelines Here in Meaford

The last post I'm going to do in this short series is one I've been thinking of for a long time, and that is the ancient glacial shorelines that run through Meaford, one of them passing  just a couple of blocks from where we live.   These are just things that fascinate me, hills that I see as we drive or I ride around town that intrigue me.

The first is the Nipissing shoreline, dating from about 4000 years ago, when glacial lake levels rose again following the very low Lake Stanley episode.  This shoreline is found around much of Lake Huron and Georgian Bay, if you know what you're looking for.  The waves on lakes abutting a gentle hill will cut into that hill, carrying sediment away and leaving a relatively steeper bluff behind.

This is my crude attempt at drawing the Nipissing shoreline as it passes through Meaford, with apologies to my readers from out of town.  It starts in the east end forming the north edge of Lakeview Cemetery, as anyone who has been there will recognize.  It wiggles a bit where the Georgian Trail cuts through, and forms the long hill up Sykes Street.  If you take the back road it's behind houses on the south side of Edwin Street. and curves around to hit the Bighead River.

Shortly up the Bighead it's represented by the rapids where the river has cut through, and then it curves around forming the south side of the bluff where the hospital sits - Hospital Hill they call it.  Then the old shoreline curves around west of the Community Centre and Arena, the fairgrounds and continues north.  In so doing it crosses Collingwood St., the hill I ride down when I ride downtown.

Last spring, before the leaves were out I stopped at the short dead end of Berry Street, just north of the river and south of the hospital.  This view is looking directly west at the dead end, up that steep hill.

Slightly to my right was this view, the forested slope across someone's lawn, a corner of the hosital visible at the top.

Partway back out that short street you can look up to where the water tower and helicopter landing pad for the hospital sit.  I left the garage in for scale and perspective.

The ancient Algonquin shoreline is another story.  It isn't visible passing through town, but rather wraps around town, extending in a confusion of slopes up into the Bighead Valley.  This was the level  established about 9000 years ago as the glaciers first retreated, the same age as those hunting structures on the Alpena-Amberley Ridge, deep under Lake Huron.

Perhaps the easiest place to see the Algonquin shoreline is on Grey Road 7 when you're heading south at the east end of town.  The hill at this point is certainly big enough that you can't miss it.  It's much larger than the hills associated with the Nipissing shoreline.

And of course you see that hill again when you drive back down it into Meaford, one of our beautiful views over the bay.  So there you have it, ancient glacial shorelines at a very local scale here in my hometown.  Having put this together I can think of several other photos I'd like to get, and more information I'd like to find, especially about the Algonquin lake level.  Perhaps then I'll write a more comprehensive post about this.