Missing commemorative plaque prompts GRCA investigation

The Grand River Conservation Authority says it is investigating after a commemorative plaque was reported missing from a trail in the Dryden Tract, just west of Cambridge.

Clyde resident Howie Hill reported the plaque missing Thursday, prompting the GRCA to confirm it had not been removed for maintenance. 

“We can confirm that the plaque has not been removed for cleaning by GRCA staff, but have no additional information available to share at this time,” wrote supervisor of strategic communications for the conservation authority in an email response to CambridgeToday.

The bronze plaque was installed on a rock cairn in 1982 to commemorate the family that donated the land for the conservation area.

It reads: “The Dryden Tract is part of the original 900 acres purchased by Andrew Dryden, wife Janet Cairns and family in 1834, when they emigrated from Hawick, Rocksburghshire, Scotland. The family were Ann (Dryden) Rae-Thomas-John-Robert-Jane (Dryden) Brown-Andrew-William-James and Walter.

ERECTED 1982”

“I have direct blood line to the Drydens. My mother was there the day it was dedicated. Been taking my family out there for years and we as stop for photo at Cairn,” wrote Hill in a Facebook post asking if anyone knew anything about the missing plaque.

Located on Alps Road, the Dryden Tract is popular with hikers and bird watchers. The 34-hectare kame moraine is designated by the Regional Municipality of Waterloo as an Environmentally Significant Policy Area.

"I just hope it is not hanging in someone's private collection," Hill wrote in response to one of the comments, some of which suggested the plaque must have been stolen for scrap. 

"This is a big part of history in our area and there are thousands of people who have blood line to the Drydens in Cambridge, Ayr, Kitchener Etc. Would be nice to have back on the Cairn."

Jim Kelly, who owns Millennium Recycling in Cambridge, said he, like any dealer he knows, requires people bringing scrap metal to his Main Street yard to show identification. Anyone bringing in something like that for scrap, he said, is "a huge red flag." 

"We wouldn't buy anything like that. It would be like accepting something from a graveyard," he said. "I don't want people bringing stuff like that here."

Catalytic converters and copper wire have been the recent targets of scrap metal thieves in Waterloo region, but it's rare to see historical plaques on the list of crimes reported to Waterloo regional police.

"It's just a heinous sort of act. It's theft and it's vandalism but it almost seems worse in some ways," Kelly said.

Price per pound for bronze is between $2.50 and $3, so, depending on the weight of the plaque, it might fetch upwards of $30 from an unscrupulous scrap dealer. 

But even though it's not a particularly lucrative crime, it doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

"Sadly it's for the money," Kelly said. "And it doesn't amount to much money for the effort that goes into something like that."

"To buy something like that, you'd have to be morally off."