This cache replaces one that went missing last year.
It is the size of a child's fist and well hidden near the base of a tree.
The Outlet has a very impressive history for such a short river.
Local legend states that in 1615 Samuel de Champlain sailed to what is now Picton. On foot, he left from Glenwood cemetery portaging to the foot of Markland Hill on the East Lake Road. He paddled the stream that passes through the back of Beaver Meadow into the head of East Lake. With him were 200 Huron warriors. They paddled into East Lake, down the outlet river onto Lake Ontario and followed the eastern shore of Prince Edward County back to the mainland. Samuel de Champlain reported no aboriginal villages in the area at that time.
A story said to be history, but perhaps legend, states that during the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763) a French naval captain was carrying a barrel of gold to be delivered to the French Fort Frontenac (now Kingston). The vessel was being pursued by a British vessel and was chased thirty miles. To escape captivity the Captain ran the ship into Little Sandy Bay and Outlet Beach and then burned the ship. He had instructed his crew to carry and bury a barrel of gold to prevent it from falling into the hands of the British. It was said that the gold was buried halfway between the bay and East Lake on the shore of the Outlet River, but it was never found. Legend has it that eighty years later a man by the name of M. de Pontleroy, a descendent of the French Captain, rounded Salmon Point with documents indicating the location of the gold. As he was making preparations to dig the gold he fell in love with a woman who was engaged to another young man. Pontleroy made a deal with the young man; the woman in exchange for the gold. The gold was never found. Some are convinced that the gold is still buried and yet to be found under the ever-changing sands of the outlet.
In 1783, Colonel Henry Young, the very first United Empire Loyalist, settled in the County. Young, born in 1737, was from Nottingham England, and came to America at an early age. He joined the British army and served for six years. He retired from the army at half-pay with a grant of 3,000 acres of land. In 1783 it is said he and one other went out in a canoe, entered Picton Bay, then left their canoes and crossed Hallowel and Athol townships exploring East and West Lakes. That year he claimed the north shore of East Lake and around the lake head down to what is now known as lots 4, 5 and 6 on the south side of East Lake. He left his two sons on East Lake late that year and returned with four of his daughters the following spring. At this time the land was densely forested and water was the highway. Land was slowly being cleared to create fields for farming. Trees were cut and the stumps were burned and in some cases removed and used to create fences. As the fields were created wheat was then planted. Flour mills sprang up on the fast flowing streams as the wheat market grew in demand.
By 1800 East Lake was settled by 34 families; 19 on the south side and 15 on the north side.
In 1812 Cherry Valley was given its name by Alva Stephens who came from a village of the same name in New York State. There were a large number of wild cherry trees in the vicinity of East Lake at that time
http://www.friendsofsandbanks.org/sandbanks_2015/history_merrill_gold.pdf
http://www.friendsofsandbanks.org/sandbanks_2017/East_Lake_report_2009.pdf