"The first year-round residents of the Marsh arrived in the late autumn of 1934 and took up residence in the row of houses shown in the above picture. They were families from Holland and they named their village Ansnorveld. Members of the Christian Reformed Church, after selling their first crops, built the first church on the Marsh, also shown above, in the spring of 1936. Today there are two beautiful Christian Reformed churches on the Holland Marsh."
"Professor W.H. Day is the original father of the Holland Marsh but for the past 36 years, that role has fallen to Art Janse. On April 30th, Janse retired from his role and it is now up to the new Holland Marsh Governance body to make the new Marsh relocation scheme a reality..." Article continues on to highlight Art Janse's contributions to the marsh, and upcoming projects and renovations.
Breaking up land (3000 acres) on the Colbar Marsh north Bradford in the New Marsh around 1950 with a one-furrow plow. Lou Neilly (a World War II fighter pilot from Gilford) is driving the tractor and Jack Armstrong is on the plow.
Photo was taken near the Bradford Pump House at the junction of the canal and the Holland River near Hwy. 11. The pumps were flown in from Western Canada by the Armed Forces, arranged by Mr. Stoddart. A tractor was used to run the pump. Water was pumped from the flooded land over the dyke and into the canal from where it flowed along the Holland River and into Cook's Bay.
A proposed drainage scheme to relocate the drainage canals in the Holland Marsh will cost an estimated $8.7 million. This sum is too great for the Marsh farmers alone so they are attempting to extend the assessment area to 65,000 acres of upland property in Bradford West Gwillimbury, King Township, New Tecumseth, Newmarket, East Gwillimbury, and Caledon but this idea has been met with legal challenges. Due to the legal fees surrounding this the Holland Marsh Drainage Committee has asked the province for $2 million in extraordinary funding for the scheme. After being completed in 1930 the 17.5 miles of canals that ring the Holland Marsh have been dredged several times, and after Hurricane Hazel were even widened and deepened. Although, recent studies show that the canal is almost filled in at certain points. Studies have also shown that due to south canal being filled in so much the north canal is handling four times the flow of the south canal. Relocation of the canal is the preferred solution to this problem.
