‘Layers In Time: The Crawford Lake Story’ – A Tagona Press First

Tiny Crawford Lake sits nestled into the Niagara Escarpment 75 km northwest of Toronto, just 4 km south of Highway 401, Canada’s busiest roadway. In 1881, the George Curran Crawford family acquired the Lake and its adjacent timber lots. Wood was cut; a sawmill was built, but after 1900 the Lake became the Crawford idyllic private retreat – a beloved family treasure.

After the Lake was sold to the Halton Conservation Authority in 1969, successive scientific investigations made of the Lake’s sediment layers revealed remarkable secrets. The first was proof that Wendat (Iroquois) people had settled near the Lake’s edge between 1350 and 1550 AD – a beautiful settlement reconstruction is now featured at the Lake site. The second secret has profound international geological and climate science implications – Crawford Lake’s unique chemistry means its 800+ years of bottom sediments have never been disturbed – a perfectly preserved time capsule unlike any other found anywhere in the world. Little Crawford Lake is now famous …

… and Tagona’s Bryan Davies (George Curran Crawford’s great-great grandson) leads a dynamic creative team telling a series of compelling stories that each intersect at this marvelous place … its indigenous settlement history … geological sediment science making a powerful case for designating Crawford Lake as a new Anthropocene Epoch’s ‘golden spike’ (circa 1950, when human influence exerted over the Earth’s environment and ecosystems had definitively overcome natural climate cycles) … the Crawfords’ proud 1000-year Scottish clan history, one neatly complemented by the Mahon family’s deep Irish (County Tyrone) roots (two pre-WWI Crawford – Mahon family intermarriages reshaped present day ‘Crawford’ genealogy) … Beautiful Lake inspired poetry from James J (Seamus) Lafferty … acclaimed Toronto, Canada based visual artist Elizabeth Greisman’s Lake impressionism interpretations…

The Royal Ontario Museum ‘Layers In Time’ Crawford Lake exhibit (September 2025 – January 2027) inspires our book title

Crawford Lake has many stories to tell – we are proud to take them to the world!