- by Jonathon Jackson

My wife and I returned to my home area, Grey and Bruce counties, on Thanksgiving weekend earlier this month. Part of the visit involved a trip into Owen Sound, my birthplace and the largest community in either county. I’m proud of being from Owen Sound and I like to come home for various reasons every few weeks.

We had our grandson, Briar, with us. Briar is five years old and, like me, he was born in Owen Sound, but he has not lived there since shortly after his first birthday. Because he does not remember living in Owen Sound, his father and I make a point of sharing our knowledge and our memories with him.

On this particular occasion, I wanted to share a lesson in public history, but I was the one who ended up learning something. (Not a good thing.)
It was a beautiful autumn weekend and I thought it would be fun to take Briar up to a local landmark, the Centennial Tower. Located at the south entrance to Owen Sound along Highway 6 and 10, it is a medieval-style lookout tower that rises 10 metres above the Niagara Escarpment and, from a platform on the top, provides a tremendous panoramic view of the city. It was completed in 1969 on the site of a former lime kiln, and it was the culmination of a project by high school students to commemorate Canada’s Centennial two years earlier.

A 31-step winding interior staircase takes visitors to the platform. I could not wait to show Briar why Owen Sound, nestled in a valley below the escarpment, more than deserves its nickname, the Scenic City

I’ve posted about the tower before, a blog entry from 2012 which was actually just a repurposing of a newspaper article I had written in August 2000. The article marked the reopening of the tower after it had been closed for several years and threatened with demolition. When I posted that blog entry, I noted with some discouragement that the tower seemed to be closed to the public more often than it was open.

But even that knowledge did not prepare me for the disappointment and bewilderment I felt when we showed up on Thanksgiving weekend, hiked a short distance from the parking lot to the tower, and found the tower gate bolted shut. Not locked – bolted. There was no indication of how long this had been the case, but there was a real sense of permanence to this choice, I thought. Was this a sign that the tower was closed for good? (Again?)

The Parks and Facilities section of the city’s website states that the tower has been closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That may well be true – the Owen Sound Sun Times newspaper has published no recent articles about the tower, so clarity is not easily found. But another city website, operated by Owen Sound Tourism, makes no mention of the pandemic or the closure in its listing of the Centennial Tower as one of Owen Sound’s Scenic Lookouts. It does note that the tower is located on the popular Bruce Trail, and this reminded me that when the tower reopened in 2000, pronouncements were made about ensuring that the tower would become and remain a notable attraction for tourists and locals alike.

In reality, very little was done to bring the tower to wider public attention, although one good thing that was done was the creation and installation of an interpretive heritage plaque at the site. This was an excellent example of local public history, and it also serves as evidence that the tower deserves to be recognized as a heritage property. It and the lime kiln on which it is based would qualify as built heritage, and the Bruce Trail setting and the view from the top connect the tower to Owen Sound’s natural heritage.

But I was even more dismayed by the heritage plaque when I saw it during our recent visit. Whether due to harsh weather or other factors, the plaque has deteriorated to the point where it is almost unreadable. It should be replaced if it cannot be refurbished.

I was and am dismayed by the condition of the plaque because even if the tower itself is inaccessible to the public, its heritage has still been recognized and the expression of that recognition should be maintained. But I am not convinced that the city has taken the tower or its heritage seriously. The text on the plaque states that the tower’s restoration took place in 2001, but keep in mind that I wrote the article (linked above in my old blog post) about it having reopened in August 2000. I and my colleagues wrote other articles about the project starting in 1999, when the city council decided to save the tower from demolition. The reference to 2001, therefore, is incorrect.

This might not seem like a big deal to anyone other than a historian, but I take my field seriously, and I would rather see no interpretive plaque at all at that site if those who are responsible for the city’s heritage – and particularly its interpretive programs – do not care enough to ensure that all of the basic facts are correct.

I mentioned at the outset that I had learned something, and what I learned is that heritage and expressions of public history are only as effective as they are allowed to be. Owen Sound almost lost the Centennial Tower more than 20 years ago due to apathy and neglect, but if the tower is in fact closed permanently and if the heritage plaque on the site continues to deteriorate through further neglect, what did the city and its residents actually gain?
Our visit to the Centennial Tower will not have been a waste of time if I can bring some awareness to the situation, but I do have to acknowledge that it was a disappointment. I will continue to share scenes and stories of my hometown with my grandson, though, and we will probably try the tower again at some point. But I have realized that contributing to his historical knowledge is not just a privilege for me – it is a responsibility. I promise to take that responsibility seriously.

What Jonathon wanted to show Briar – the view looking north from the top of the Centennial Tower toward Owen Sound Bay.

(Photo by Grey County)

Jonathon Jackson is a historian, a journalist, and a storyteller. This piece was originally published  (with more photos) on Jonathon Jackson - For the Record and is re-published here with his kind permission.