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	story Alex Eberspaecher   photographs Judy Eberspaecher On days when the water is high and the winds blow in from the north, the rock is barely visible over the choppy waters of the lake. A few generations ago it probably was closer to shore, close enough that one could walk out on it. But now it has been worn down by time and ice; few even know it’s there. Sitting quietly, especially on a breezy day when the sun is setting like a fiery ball over the waters to the west, you may hear the occasional wave lapping up onto the bare rock. If you listen carefully, you find it is not a familiar sound but a hollow one that whispers, sometimes woefully, in the now fast approaching darkness. At this moment you are no longer part of today, you become part of the summer of 1783. The rock in front of you is Huldah’s Rock, a memorial to our past, on Pelee Island in Lake Erie. A legend suggests that it was on this rock that the beautiful Indian maiden, Huldah, plunged to her death, in sorrow and disappointment over her English husband’s broken promise to return to her. Huldah’s rock is now much smaller, but the surging waves and the foam will whisper her name for eternity. Pelee Island is Canada’s most southerly inhabited land mass. In fact, it is so far south that approximately 4000 hectares are on the same latitude as Northern California and Rome, Italy. Yet its fauna and flora is not Mediterranean in nature but much more unique and increasingly rare; it is part of the Carolinian Forest. It is here that the Flowering Dogwood, Shagbark Hickory and Kentucky Coffee Tree grow naturally. Nowhere else in Canada can one meander through an oak or Red Cedar savanna or marvel at one of Canada’s few remaining alvars, an unusual flat limestone formation that is covered by scarcely an inch of soil, but is mostly bare. These alvars are the home of an unusual assortment of flowers, orchids, plants, rare reptiles and colourful birds. The fifty or so families that made a living from farming mostly corn, wheat and soybeans on the island half a century ago, have now shrunk to less than a dozen. Even Lewis and Ruth Garno have followed their children and have moved to the mainland after four generations of farming on the Island. Last year, as we walked though one of his bean fields looking for Indian artifacts, Lewis looked rather sad and his mind seemed to be elsewhere. Then he confided to me that he was thinking of giving up. After all, the little money he made on a bushel of soybeans barely covered his cost. “It is time to go,” he said, “when I am more depressed about the future of farming on Pelee than the world market in beans.” Shorty, his lifelong friend had given up fishing for catfish long ago; there was just no way he could compete with his long lines against the modern fishing fleets that worked out of the mainland, sweeping the area clear of his livelihood. Until last year he was helping his brother Clyde in running one of the few remaining family farms. He was one of the few lucky ones, Lewis told me, he never had to leave the Island and now he is resting there forever. As dim as the future may look in farming soybeans, the sun still comes up each morning in the east, and on Pelee Island the sun shines more often than most other places in Ontario. That is perfect for Walter Schmoranz and Bruno Friesen of Pelee Island Winery. Bean fields have been replanted with Pinot Noir and Merlot and cornfields produce some of the best Riesling and Chardonnay grapes in Ontario. A four-hour drive from the well-publicized vineyards of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Pelee Island wines are still a mystery to many of us, yet it is the largest estate winery in Ontario. One morning as I walked through rows of newly planted Cabernet grapes, I asked Walter about the rather familiar smell in the air. It was manure, fresh manure, he told me. However, to my question of whether he is trying to be organically certified, he told me that he is not interested in certification, only in growing all his grapes as organically as possible. How long would that take, I asked him and he told me he is just about there. That is great news for the entire island, not just wine drinkers. In farming beans and corn, large amounts of herbicides were used and that was not very compatible with a healthy environment, especially on an island that is actually largely under water… Well, sort of. Pelee Island is in reality higher and dryer than it ever was. In the past, the Island was below the level of Lake Erie and most of the higher areas were quite swampy. Today dikes surround the Island and a network of continuous canals pumps the water back into the lake. Today only a small part of the Island is still Carolinian forest, but it is growing in size, not just because some fields are now being reclaimed by nature, but also because we have now become more conscientious toward our future. Some of the larger corporations, such as the winery, are actively replanting the natural fauna faster than destroying it. With a healthier environment comes not only a healthier lifestyle for those who remain behind yearround – there are now fewer than three hundred residents – but also for the several hundred seasonal residents, it recreates a more diverse environment. Birdwatchers and other naturalists are discovering the Island’s incredible variety of birds, butterflies and flowers seldom seen elsewhere, especially during the spring and fall migrations. They visit Pelee Island if for nothing else but to get away from the many visitors that frequent the nearby Point Pelee National Park, just a few kilometres outside of Leamington. Commercialism will probably never again be compatible with the Island. Indeed one of the two grocery stores closed last year and it is hard to find much that you need in the one that remains. When the store closed, a few newcomers to the island opened an organic garden vegetable market. When we visited them late last fall, they were busy concocting some wonderful salsa and jams from local organically-grown produce. Some of the remaining farming families have converted the once thriving farmhouses to B&Bs. The old hotel is still open not only to the hungry but also to those weary enough from exploring the island on foot, car or bicycle who wish to stay behind for another day but have neglected to reserve one of the many privately owned cottages or cabins that are scattered about the Island. What has changed recently is the ferry dock. Back a few years ago, the smaller ferries that connected the Island with Leamington or Kingsville, depending on the weather, arrived at the north dock, not far from the ruins of Vin Villa, Canada’s oldest commercial winery. Today a new and larger ferry still leaves Kingsville or Leamington, depending on the season and weather, but it now docks at the new ferry terminal on the west side, not far from a wonderful museum, the hotel, a small restaurant or two, a craft shop and of course the wine store at the winery centre. The curious, those who would like to experience Ontario in one day as it was about fifty years ago, can walk on the ferry in the morning and return to the mainland in the afternoon without reservation, but those who bring their car need to arrange for reservations well ahead. Advance accommodations must be made if you plan to stay more than one day. A list of accommodations and other information can be obtained by mail or at any time on the internet. There is nothing exciting to see, there is no theme park nor is it laden with fast food restaurants, but then again, rural Ontario never was. If you like peace and serenity, it is here. You might find yourself on the beach on the east side near the lighthouse. Here, you probably will be all alone at one of the best, cleanest and warmest beaches in all of Canada. Pelee Island is a land in transition, but unlike most other parts of our world, this transition is probably for the good. Perhaps not so for the farmers and commercial fishermen of days gone by, but for the land itself. Nature has a way of healing itself if we give it a chance and perhaps this will turn out to be a good example to the rest of the world. Conceivably butterflies in a field and birds in a tree, even a tree strange and unfamiliar to us, can co-exist after all with modern farming practices. What has not changed on Pelee Island, and hopefully never will, is the peculiar ritual of the islanders, complete strangers, who wave and smile at you each time they pass by in their cars. From that, the rest of us could learn something as well. GL	Monarch Butterfly Field of soya beans Pelee Island lighthouse