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Aerial view of Springdale Reformed Church in the flood after Hurricane Hazel

The hamlet of Springdale taken prior to the flood caused by Hurricane Hazel (Oct. 15, 1954) Photo is taken facing north.

Robert Saunders (left) and numerous other companies came to the aid of the Holland Marsh, offering their equipment free of charge to pump out the flood water. The Marsh was dry again by November 13th.

Letter regarding constructing roads and highways that afford property owners the ability to come and go from their lands, particularly if their land is part of the drainage scheme. Includes list of land owners that would be affected, 1920s.

"Life ended suddenly on Monday afternoon for a 12-year-old Holland Marsh girl who went swimming in the Holland River. Betty Lowder, R.R.2, Newmarket, was swimming under the bridge at the intersection of No. 3 Concession and the Graham sideroad with her brothers and sisters, when she submerged in the middle of the murky river in about eight feet of water. There were no adults present..."

Art Janse has been involved in the Holland Marsh all of his life, as a resident, a farmer, a Town employee for 45 years, and drainage superintendent for Bradford West Gwillimbury and King Township. Janse is retiring due to the response from many of the farmers to his ideas for the Holland Marsh Drainage Scheme improvements that would also improve the safety for motorists. The project has a high price tag of bout $17 million but Janse has won the right to assess upland residents a share of the cost, and has made the case for contributions from municipalities, OMAFRA, Transportation, Natural Resources and Environmental Ministries, and Conservation Authorities.

Description : "Reginald Kuzyk was 30 years old, and an employee of the department of Highways, back on October 15th, 1954, when Hurricane Hazel hit.
The storm brought torrential rains and flooding. Dams burst, and homes were swept away in the floods. A total of 81 people lost their lives in Ontario. The floodwaters had washed onions from Holland Marsh fields and heaped them on the highway in "gobs.... I never seen so many onions in one place. They were all over the ground, and everywhere." He also remembers seeing two homes, which had drifted on the floodwaters until they washed up next to the highway. By the time Hazel blew itself out, more than seven thousand acres of farmland on both sides of the 400 were under water, covered by a lake more than 7' deep in places.
George Sadovchuk's described the Marsh after Hurricane Hazel as "it was just a lake. It was very impressive to see all that water where once was viable land... I was just amazed at the destruction that took place."
Relief efforts brought the homeless into Bradford, to the Town Hall, where they were clothed and fed by volunteers. A total of 25 pumps took about 4 weeks to drain the fields, at a peak pumping 220,000 gallons per minute. But it would take months to clear the debris and repair the damage. Seventy families - 350 men, women and children - spent the winter that followed in a trailer park, set up by the Rotary Club on the site of the Bradford Arena.
The sky was appropriately grey, for Sunday's historic tour of the Holland Marsh. The tour not only commemorated the 200th Anniversary of Yonge Street, but also the 42nd anniversary of Hurricane Hazel."

"Visitors from as far away as Idaho came to the open house at the Muck Research Station in the Holland Marsh last Friday. A steady stream of farmers, growers, salesmen and students toured the nine-acre site loaded with exhibits and test crops. The research station has served the area since the late 1940's, testing various crops, fertilizers, and chemicals used on muck crops. The station is headed by senior muck crops specialist Matt Valk, with Edo Knibbe as the agricultural technician, and staff members Fred Weening, Dave Walton, Eleanor Wall and Maureen Evans. The annual open house was blessed with warm, sunny weather."

Profile of dredge cuttings in the construction of part of the south part of the Holland River marsh drainage system in Village of Bradford. Blueprint, dated July 7, 1925.