A Place with No Name?


Some have called it a hidden lake. At some point in time, this wetland received the name Lake Jojo, likely named by the developer who built the surrounding neighbourhood. There's something about the name Jojo that just makes me feel sorry for a place saddled with that pronoun. Maybe it relates to teen singer JoJo, who my kids used to listen to:


Regardless of the name, there is a feature of hiddenness to this body of water, tucked away out of view from major roads except for glimpses from York Road. At one edge a steep ravine drops from the road to the marsh. Hydro towers connect parallel to the north shore. 

For some it is behind the Community Recycling Centre, or accessed by a trail through Martino Memorial Park. Others have access from the Sleepy Hollow subdivision. 

It's a tight spot with the roads and ravines eating at the edges and leaving little space for paths. The existing unofficial trails aren't strictly coherent in a way that an official trail would be. That is, the trail starts strong at the Martino Park, and then gets lost in a small maze of bike tracks and deer paths. There isn't enough space to have a path that would allow for a path around the entire body of water. 

The small wetland area connects to the larger Cootes Paradise and includes the Delsey Wetland, the soon to be improved/naturalized Desjardin's Canal lands now controlled by the Hamilton Conservation Authority, and Volunteer Marsh. It's a beautiful spot, even with the ugly CRC, and a lowprofile waste water treatment plant.

As we scrounged through the scrub, having started on a deer path, we came across a burrow, still in use, with a small animal skull atop the dug out entrance hole. It wasn't until later, further along the trail that we saw a coyote bolt up a hill about 30 metres from us that we figured out it was a coyote den.

Hidden "lakes" - hidden wildlife homes, this is the complexity of urban nature. 

Comments

Jim said…
My father, Harold Yates, built all of the houses except one on Sleepy Hollow. He was not responsible for the name Lake Jojo. Dad died in the eighties and the name came much later.
It was certainly not a place with no name. Dad always called it "The Marsh", as did most Dundas residents. I have only very recently heard the names "Lake Gogo" and "Lake Jojo" applied to The Marsh. Ask any kid who grew up in Dundas before the turn of the century where The Marsh is and he/she will direct you to this body of water.
Randy said…
Hi Jim - thanks for the update, it's good to get closer to the naming truth, the generic "the marsh" is infinitely better than JoJo in my opinion. Maybe we should short list some place names or have a naming contest!?
Jim said…
Two years later, I'm re-reading this, hoping that someone had found the origin of the "Lake Jojo" name.
One small correction Randy. Rather than "the marsh", we called it "The Marsh". It wasn't a generic name, rather the name of this place.