Tales of a Splendid Tavern in a Deep Gully
Just east of Bellamy Road once stood another favourite way station for travellers along Kingston Road, Gates Inn and Tavern. Jonathan Gates settled here in 1815 and built the inn in about 1820. The inn rose to prominence as a rallying point for the Scarborough militia preparing to defend Toronto from William Lyon Mackenzie's rebels in the Upper Canada Rebellion. In 1849 an English travel-writer named William Brown was very impressed: "One of the best farms to be seen in this neighbourhood is in the township of Scarborough, belonging to Mr. Gates. He keeps a splendid tavern just ten miles from the City Hall, upon the plank road on Kingston Street, and his house is surrounded on both sides of the street with his farm, which contains about three hundred acres, some of which extend to the borders of the lake. He takes care that every portion of it is well manured, having a large supply made in his stables, and he grows everything upon his own farm that is consumed in his house except groceries. He catches as much fish as serves his table all year round, and makes as much sugar from his own maple grove as he wants, and kills his own mutton, beef and pork." Gates Gully Behind the Gates Inn, extending down to Lake Ontario was a ravine that is full of dramatic stories. Its historic name is Gates Gully, although today it is known as Bellamy Ravine. Here the local McCowan family discovered aboriginal spear-points that are 10,000 years old.
There may be other treasures yet unfound in Gates Gully. During the War of 1812 a group of American soldiers were said to have buried money in the ravine that they had looted in the Battle of York. This is a story passed down by Levi Annis, the scion of an early family. He claimed that the soldiers billeted with his ancestors, and that the money was never recovered by the Americans or by any of his family, and may still be there somewhere. More reliably, the ravine provided an unguarded harbour for smugglers bringing contraband from the United States during the 1830s. The remote location and relatively gradual incline to Kingston Road allowed importers to avoid taxes of three pence a pound on tea, tobacco and other valuable merchandise
On August 3, 1915, a wooden steamship called the Alexandria, sailing out of Port Hope, encountered terrible winds and ran aground off the Scarborough Bluffs near Gates Gully. The captain jettisoned about three hundred tonnes of cargo in an effort to stay clear of the shore, but to no avail. The crew were forced to abandon the ship, but then their lifeboat capsized, and they were still over one hundred yards offshore.
|
Business Directory
The Wreck of the Alexandria