The Township of Leeds and the Thousand Islands (TLTI) has very interesting topography. The Frontenac Arch Biosphere, including the beautiful Thousand Islands, covers a large part of the township. Reasonably small, family-run farms still survive in this township.
TLTI is home to one Casino and many pits and quarries. By my count, from a government website (MNR), there are currently 29 licensed pits and quarries in TLTI and one mine. The road you drove on to this Cache was most probably built from local aggregate deposits, trucked from one of the many local pits or quarries.
pit definition: large deep opening in the ground
quarry definition: place where stone is dug from the surface of the ground (definitions from Collins Canadian Dictonary)
Geology:
About 20,000 years ago, much of eastern Canada and northeast U.S.A. was covered by the great Laurentide Ice Sheet. It was several kilometers thick. When the ice retreated, ocean water rushed in from the St. Lawrence River, creating the Champlain Sea by flooding most of the area of the present Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Ottawa and St. Lawrence River valleys, and Lake Champlain.
During this period, marine clays and silts of the Champlain Sea were deposited on top of earlier glacial sediments. Eventually, as the sea retreated, these deposits (glacial sediments and marine clays) were reworked by wave action in shallow waters, resulting in a mixture of deposits.
By about 9,000 years ago, the Champlain Sea had disappeared and by about 6,000 years ago, the present Great Lakes, Ottawa River drainage and St. Lawrence River drainage patterns had been established.
Left behind are many areas of sand, gravel and rock deposits, commonly called aggregates.
Pits and Quarries:
Class ‘A’ licence is to remove more than 20,000 tonnes of aggregate annually
Class ‘B’ licence is to remove 20,000 tonnes or less of aggregate annually
This cache overlooks 3 pits, all owned by G. Tackaberry and Sons Construction Ltd.:
- Leadbeater 1 Pit, Class “A”, 8.9 ha, on the east side of the road, not obviously in production at this time
- Leadbeater 2 Pit, Class “A”, 7.8 ha, on the west side of the road.
- Roantree Pit, Class “A”, 7.8 ha, on the east side of the road, not obviously in production at this time
The cache is on the road side of the fence.
Do not climb the fence or trespass on the pit property.