Digging the Music to my Ears

 

There is rightly a renewed interest in indigenous affairs in Kingston and throughout Canada. Knowledge of our history can inform our future, be it indigenous or post-contact. This interesting Cataraqui Archeological Research Foundation website explores many sites and phases of Kingston's unique archeology.

The slow-moving Cataraqui River was a natural nexus of transportation, travel and trade. The top photo (Queen's University Archives Kingston Whig-Standard fonds, call number V142.2 Envelope 27, labelled November, 1964) shows twentieth-century trade underway - Music Boats at the eastern end of Elliott Avenue! Two of the more northerly archeological sites surveyed are the Outer Station and Music sites:

Located on the western bank of the Cataraqui River some 200 to 300 meters north of John Counter Boulevard, the Kingston Outer Station Site comprises two significant archaeological sites. These two sites are an aboriginal fishing village dating to approximately 1200AD, and the Music Site which was an early settlement site on the lands south and west of the Kingston Outer Station Site. The area of the site is approximately 235 square meters, and is situated on a narrow plateau (50-60m in width) that is approximately 2 meters above the summer low water mark, and bordered on the north by a marsh, and on the south by a marina and boat building establishment. It has also been monitored on a casual basis for the past 40 year by an avocational archaeologist and the materials collected being held by the Cataraqui Archaeological Research Foundation. The finds form the early 1950s excavations are held at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Ottawa.

The Kingston Outer Station, along with Belle Island and Fort Frontenac represent the only known Native sites within the city. Late Woodland pottery found during excavations at Fort Frontenac indicates the presence of a native population at the site prior to the arrival of the French. On the site of Belle Island, there are indications of an extensive camp site from the Middle to Late Woodland transitional phase (1000-1400 year old site), and is one of the best preserved sites of its time in Eastern Ontario. The Kingston Outer Station, although it was discovered by a local collector some 60 years ago, and tested in 1952 and 1953 by archaeologist Dr. James Pendergast, relatively little is known about the site. The nature and distribution of material recovered from the site indicates that it had been used on a sporadic basis from the Late Middle Woodland Period (700 AD) to the present day. The more recent activities being fishing and riding dirt bikes. The most significant use of the area however, appears to have taken place during the late pre-contact period (700-1500 AD).

-CARF 

Posting to the Vintage Kingston Facebook group revealed some interesting information about Peter Music and his boat business: working on wooden boats, his story of fleeing from his native Yugoslavia by rowing to Italy! Even his daughter Maryann Music-Jansen joined the discussion,  "It was nice to stumble across this article with a picture of my Father that I had never seen before. Growing up at Elliott Avenue was like a little hide-away. We were surrounded by trees, an open field and water and so close to the city. My sister and I grew up at the marina playing in old boats and meeting some incredible people who were friends of my Dad."