This national historic site is a bit of a mystery — but that could soon change

Marilyn Lebrun fondly remembers rowing out to the old stone cairn on the St. Lawrence River with her friends, more than five decades ago.

"The goal was to swim to the cairn and back — that was everybody's goal!" recalled Lebrun, now 69 and living in nearby Lancaster, Ont. "I was too chicken. [But] we used to go there for picnics, any kind of a celebration. The local hockey team would go there for a fish fry.

"It was always there. It was always a part of our growing up."

The roughly 12-metre cairn — more specifically, the Glengarry Cairn National Historic Site — has stood guard on a small island, about 120 kilometres southeast of downtown Ottawa, for nearly two centuries. It was built by local soldiers, including many Scottish immigrants, who in the late 1830s fought to keep the British colony of Upper Canada out of the hands of republican rebels.

It's also been blocked off to the public since the early 2000s, more than a decade after it was placed under the stewardship of the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne (MCA), to whose traditional territory the island belongs.

And while the cairn is well-known to local history lovers like Lebrun, who retired a few years ago as clerk for the Township of South Glengarry, for those from away it remains a bit of a mystery. That's because there's nothing explaining what the large conical structure, shrouded by a grove of trees, is doing way out there.

But now, plans are underway to clear that mystery up by making both its Indigenous and settler histories accessible from the mainland — even if it appears that, for the foreseeable future, the island itself will remain off limits.

Earlier this summer, Parks Canada, the MCA and the township agreed to collaborate on a plan to share the cairn's history with the public.

Still in its early stages, the plan will eventually involve some sort of shoreline interpretation that both expands on the established military heritage and tells the Indigenous history of the island, said Hugh Ostrom, cultural resource manager for Parks Canada's eastern and central Ontario field unit.

"It's a place of sacred significance to the Mohawks of Akwesasne, who have cultural ties to the island. As a result, there's two different histories," Ostrom said.

The most well-known story about the cairn — one found on a plaque that still stands there — is that it was erected by local Glengarry militia to commemorate Sir John Colborne, the commander of the British forces in Canada during the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837.

But the other, mostly untold history of the island — or Tsikatsinakwahere, as it's known in Kanienʼkéha, the Mohawk language — involves that centuries-long connection with Akwesasne.

According to Tim Thompson, a district chief with the MCA, archaeologists have unearthed pieces of what could be arrowhead shards on the small island.

In a statement to CBC News, the MCA said pieces of bowls and stone flakes have also been discovered, although that could be because for many years the island was a popular stopover for fishermen and picnickers.