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mm, HISTORY OF KEARNEY (cont'd) Park was located, as well as claims in Bethune, Proudfoot and Mc- Craney. But all is quiet now, and only the location stakes remind one of the gold scare. There is also the lost lead mine, known to the Indians and to at least two of the early settlers. It is somewhere in Bethune Township, _ and legend has it that the Indians came all the way from the Lake of Bays district for their lead. It is certain that Arthur Dodds and a man named Fry knew of its location and visited it as often as they ' needed lead for their bullets. As late as 1922, a lost hunter found the spot, and said it was very rich. But he had not the slightest idea how to return to it; in fact, after a long day wandering in a wet bush had no desire to. But he brought out a sample and it was pure lead. There have been many efforts to find the spot, but so far, it is still a lost mine. Kearney can claim to having had a small part in the great silver rush at Elk Lake. Four Kearney men,‘Bob'and Charlie Mann, Bill Ryan and Pat Murphy, made one of the first big finds of silver, andie- ceived what was then quite a sum of money for their good'luck. There are still a few odd things that people like to talk about at tunes. "The early settlers. found evidet1ce.tl.oat the Indians had a sugar bush on the top of what IS known as Craig's Hill. It was and still is, covered with maple trees, and must have made a fine spot to make syrup. There were many sap troughs made of cedar and other light wood. On the site of one of the McIvor farms, where the river comes into the bay called East Lake, and partly withinAhe town limits, was an old Indian camping ground. Many relics were picked up by the McIvors It is easily understood why the Indians would travel the Magnetawan as it is navigable almost all the way to the Georgian Bay, and an ideal way for the early hunters to reach the rich hunting grounds of what is now Algonquin Park. On the SP9} where Fred Whitt's house stands there was once what IS known as a flying post”. A cabin where traders met Indians coming to and from the“: tra.ppyyr grounds. The writer once found an arroy-htad, while digging in his garden and often has wondered if it was shot in hunting or in war. There is an account of one of the early explorers who travelled up the Magnetawan to a "lake with great sandy shoresyand an island in the l centre." This can only be Sand Lake, as navigation for large canoes ends there. A man who hunted east of Ravensworth nearly sixty years ago, ' told the writer that once he had found the remains of a stone fort. He too, was lost when he found whatever it was. he did find, but he described it in such detail that he was not romancing. Why some hunters or lumbermen have not found it, we cannot understand, as by his account it is quite large. After asking questions for years, we found one old resident who could remember a story told the early settlers of a Jesuit Priest who had lived somewhere in that same area, all alone. But it does add a bit of romance, and makes a good tale. Quite a bit of excitement was caused when Fry (he of the lead mine) shot and killed a man named Shaw in a dispute over a pulpwood