Centennial Crescent, Corbeil, Ontario

2,483 miles

 After my adventure in Yellek yesterday, I certainly appreciate a C-store with clear signage!  It is certainly conveniently located here at the crossroad, and the parking lot seems to be massively graveled for long-distance truckers, as well.

The road going north from here is named “Centennial Crescent Road”.   It leads up to Trout Lake, curves back to Highway 17.  Exploring via Google Street Views, I can see that it is paved, and the land on both sides is either boggy or rocky.  There are houses along the way, most of them looking fairly recent (since the 1990s, anyway).  None of the houses near the road look like farms or hunting cabins.  Almost all look like suburban residences.  The houses right on Trout Lake may be more luxurious.  Although many family homes are listed on realty websites, none were found with waterfront access, so I don’t know what to speculate about them. 

So now I wonder what this Centennial Crescent is and why there are so many new houses and vacant lots around here?

I’m surprised to learn that there are many “Centennial Crescent” roads in sparsely populated Canadian townships.

1967 Canadian Centennial coins

The Canadian Centennial was a yearlong celebration held in 1967 when Canada celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Canadian Confederation.  Unique coins were designed & minted for this commemorative year.   The reverse of each coin showed an iconic Canadian animal: dove, hare, mackerel, bobcat, wolf, & Canada goose (ascending from cent to dollar).  

Centennial logo
designed by Stuart Ash

A Centennial Train traversed the country and schoolchildren were able to see exhibits raising their understanding of Canadian history and nationalism and rousing their enthusiasm to visit Expo 67 in Montreal that summer. Children born in 1967 were declared Centennial babies.  Communities and organizations across Canada were encouraged to engage in Centennial projects to celebrate the anniversary. The projects ranged from special one-time events to local improvement projects, such as the construction of municipal arenas and parks.

Aha!  “Local improvement projects”!  Could it be that many rural areas that had been depopulating since the 1920s decided that a road arcing away from the through-traffic highway would bring more year-round residents, citizens, small business employers, & taxpayers?  If that’s correct, it doesn’t seem to have worked well here.  Most of the houses appear to be much more recent than 1970, landscaping is sparse or nonexistent, and realtors advertise many newly-built houses.  Something must have happened to the local economy, perhaps in the 1990s, but then faded away again.

info: Wickipedia.com

images: Google Image Search & Google Maps