By Carl Maiolani
Jane’s Walk is an annual festival of free, community-led walking conversations inspired by Jane Jacobs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Jacobs ). On or about the first weekend of May every year, Jane’s Walk festivals take place in hundreds of cities around the world. Jane’s Walks encourage people to share stories about their neighbourhoods, discover unseen aspects of their communities, and use walking as a way to connect with their neighbours. This year the Windsor-Essex Jane’s Walk Festival took place over two weekends. On the last weekend of April twelve walks took place in Essex County and on the first weekend of May sixteen walks took place in Windsor and Tecumseh. The Membership Committee of our club approached two current or former members of our club and asked them to lead walks. We sincerely thank them both for their contributions.
On Sunday April 30th, Grant Munroe led a walk in Kingsville entitled “How Mill Creek Shaped Kingsville”. Grant was joined by over 50 people for the one hour walk through some streets of Kingsville near Mill Creek. He stopped four times along the walk route to share lots of history concerning the impact of the creek on the development of business and industry in the town. The participants learned about the manufacture of clay tiles, about who earned the nickname “one-hand Pete”, about the tannery where leather belts were made for use in machines, about the woolen mills, and about the natural gas boom in 1885 that led to the town providing free gas to existing and new businesses that came to town.
As more businesses were established, more wastewater entered the creek which led to spikes in cases of dysentery and cholera during the summertime. Some townspeople pushed back at the threat of these urban diseases by promoting nature-related responses. In 1907 Lakeside Park was established and to this day is a focal point for many outdoor gatherings and activities. At one point the town turned down a proposal from the H.J. Heinz Company which wanted to build a tomato processing plant. The plant was eventually built in Leamington. The early 1900’s continued to see an emphasis on a clean, healthy, and wholesome profile of the town as various polluting businesses closed down and the creek was cleaned up.
On Sunday May 7th, Mike Evans led over 30 people on a Windsor walk through Oakwood Park. That park is the eastern tip of what has come to be known as the Ojibway Prairie Complex. During the Covid-19 Pandemic of 2020-23, Mike spent a year observing the seasonal flow of nature in the park and documented what he saw with photos and video footage. He used his work to make a nature documentary that became a fan favourite of the 2022 Windsor International Film Festival. During the walk Mike included many personal stories drawn from his childhood experiences in the park. He also shared many of his special observations during his year in the park. The people on the walk learned that his natural curiosity as a child has continued to develop into what could be called a focused appreciation of nature as an adult. I’m sure many of Mike’s childhood friends and other residents from the nearby neighbourhood have had their lives impacted in a similar way. We look forward to a screening of his film at the June 14th meeting of the Club at the Ojibway Nature Centre.