| Sunset Trail |
This is a beautiful footpath that goes from Indian Point to the Meadows.
 It was built in the late 1930s by Bill and Isa Ashworth, the managers of the Royal Savary Hotel. The idea was to create a nice waterfront walk for the Hotel's patrons.  According to Ian Kennedy: "On April 3, 1937, George Ashworth, the chief promoter and founder of the Royal Savary Hotel, died .... His son Bill, who had recently married, took over running it. On taking over the hotel, one of the early projects for him and his new wife Isa was the cutting and clearing of the famed Sunset Trail. It leads from Indian Point along the south side of the west end of the island, edges along the seashore through maple and arbutus trees to the goose pasture, and along the sand dunes below the Big Meandows where the first golf course was located. The Ashworths cut and thinned the brush and leveled and smoothed the trail to permit single-file passage. When complete, it lured hotel guests on after-dinner perambulations around the south-west side to admire the spectacular evening sunsets." (Sunny Sandy Savary, p130) Notes 1. Bruce Macleod: "Sunset Trail …. I remember when the Royal Savary Hotel had a small social building called The Coffee Shop where hotel guests would gather for a pre-barbecue cocktail, and the kids would have a soda pop. There was a trail that was called the Coffee-Shop Trail that would lead people to a sign near what is now Johnson Lane where the Sunset Trail would begin its shore-side winding way to the Meadows. The trail was a popular after-dinner walk for hotel guests for obvious reasons, the spectacular sunsets were visible for the entire walk.  Canal-clearing between the rocks: The idea was to create easier boat access As you walk along the trail today, you will notice further along there appears to be what looks like 14-foot-wide canal clearings between the rocks. There are approximately 20 of them strategically located about every 50 feet. During the mid-1960s, Al Taylor was having some difficulty selling lots due to the rocky shoreline and beach, so he contracted a fellow named Gary Carter, who had being doing lot cleaning with a Tree Farmer, a heavy piece of equipment to move logs . Al believed that if potential buyers had better boat access to the water he may have solved the problem. Gary spent most of 2 summers doing the work." (Source: Bruce MacLoed, Facebook) |
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