The Ottawa Citizen from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • 19

BEST AVAILABLE COPY THE OTTAWA CITIZEN SUNDAY, AUGUST 13, 1989 C3 CITY FOG Rock found off Hwy. 1 7 -g2ClP may carry message from lost explorer; 1L -1. 1'S Cuthbert, right, thinks it might be. in London. The expert attested to the authenticity of the lettering in the engraving; it resembled lettering from 17th-century English maps.

Then there was the historical evidence. Although last seen June 22, 1611, set adrift from his ship Discovery in James Bay with his teenaged son and five sick sailors, Hudson may well have survived. The account given by the mutineers, who were subsequently tried and acquitted on the charge of murdering their captain, was the last to place Hudson in the realm of the living. But Hudson was a resourceful man. He had sailed on four voyages in search of the Northwest Passage to the Pacific Ocean; Hudson Strait, Hudson Bay and the Hudson River in New York State are named after him.

He would have known about English and French settlements to the south of James Bay, and could have made his way to safety by navigating the rivers and lakes south of the bay in his shallop. There is other evidence. The ruins of a shelter, possibly made by Hudson and his men, were found on the shores of James Bay in 1631. And one of Champlain's men, Nicolas de Vignau, claimed to have seen the wreck of an English boat on James Bay in 1612, as well as the scalps of several white men murdered by Algonkin Indians. Champlain did not believe his story, but historians have since given it credence.

Vignau would have had no way of knowing Hudson had been abandoned in James Bay. Whatever Hudson's fate, there are some who believe he made it as far as Deep River, on the shores of the Ottawa. The rock, if it is authentic, would prove it, if only rocks could speak. "If you look on the map," says Lamb, "that spot on the Ottawa River is almost directly south of James Bay. And if poor old Hudson was cast ashore there, trying to make overland to settlement, it's exactly where he would land up." By Jeff Heinrich Citizen Staff writer PRESCOTT hat may be the last will and testament of 17th-century explorer Henry Hudson rests in peace here, etched in the underbelly of a half-buried boulder in an insurance agent's back yard.

The message is a simple one, just two initials, one date, one word: HH 1612 CAPTIVE. Whether FROM THE7ALLEY A SUMMER CITIZEN SERIES Hudson himself was the author is the big question. Heeould have been. Last seen alive in l6ll, set adrift in James Bay by muti-neersrihe English explorer may have survived, may even have made it down to Deep River in the upper Ottawa Valley. was near that small town that the rock was found 30 years ago.

A road crew-had taken a lunch break from re-paving Hwy. 17 just east of the town, and the men were lifting boulders to see who was the strongest. What they discovered could rival the uncovering of Samuel de Champlain's astrolabe. was a fluke, says Earl Reckzin, one of the work gang, now a demolitions expert in North Bay. We, were just young lads then, fooling around, lifting rocks at lunchtime," says Reckzin, 48.

"I lifted one up and dropped it, and when it turned over you could tell there was something on the bottom. It was a clean surface, and there was dirt in the lettering." Reckzin rubbed the inscription clear with a handkerchief. The men read the letters and numbers, but nobody really knew what it all meant. Then Reckzin called over another member of the crew, Glenn Cuthbert, a student who knew something of Canadian history and geography. f'l said to (Reckzin) 'That could be Henry Hudson'," recalls Cuthbert, 50, now an insurance agent in Prescott.

"But that was the end of it. I didn't think anything more about it." Unaware of the importance of their find, the men went back to work. The boulder stayed where it was for another two years. Then Cuthbert, who had had some time to do some thinking, came back to look for it. He went back to the site with an amateur archeologist from Chalk River, Barry Mitchell.

They found the rock. Cuthbert took it home to Chalk River; then he called the Geological Survey of Canada, in Ottawa to arrange for an appointment. He wanted his rock analysed. The Survey examination, which included boring a hole through the second to analyse the rock crust, was far from encouraging. While acknowledging that the 150-pound rock appeared to have been buried for most of its life (thus dis- lAf TAIL i TAlESj, Vi v--t T'" uU -Jetl Heinrich, Citizen Stone now lies in his yard That explains the initials (HH) and the date (1612).

But what about the other word, CAPTIVE? Who would have held Hudson prisoner? Indians loyal to the French, of course. "My preferred story," says Cuthbert, "is that Hudson made it down somehow and stumbled into some Indian encamp; ment." There, sensing his days were num- bered, he may have carved his name for posterity on the bottom of a rock. Says Cuthbert: "Maybe he came to the end of his rope and said 'Well, I'll leave a message'." Cuthbert can't help comparing Hudson to modern-day explorers like the moonwalkers of Apollo 11, who left be-, hind a plaque attesting to their historic visit. "Neil Armstrong and those guys left a message up there, didn't they? If you break uncharted ground, don't you want to leave some message for posterity. Why not Hudson?" Cuthbert has been asking the same question for the last 20 years, but only among friends.

Discouraged by the findings of the Geological Survey, disheartened by the knowledge his rock could never be dated, he packed it up and a went back to Chalk River. Ten years ago, after moving to Prescott, Cuthbert buried the rock in his back yard, face down like it had been found. And that's where it has remained. The question of its authenticity has no definite answer. "It could be perfectly genuine, and I don't see any motive for forgery," says Lamb.

"All of these things are intriguing, but without Hud--son's bones, what can you do?" says Mitchell. For his part, Cuthbert is philosophical. It really doesn't make much difference, he says. "If it is a hoax, fine I'll keep it. If it isn't a hoax, fine I'll still keep it.

All I know is Hudson might have been. -able to do this, and here we are talking: about the guy 350 years later." Pat McGrath, Citizen 'Dracula' loved corn roast Keith's adopted mother lost her own fight with cancer. The chemotherapy makes Keith tired and nauseous but at Saturday's corn roast he was a ball of energy. "He can really enjoy himself here when he's with other patients and people from the clinic," said Part, now his legal guardian. "Here people don't stare at his leg or his (balding) hair." "It's overwhelming when you see the smaller communities coming out and supporting this the way they do," said CIIEO spokesman Catherine Cavanagh.

"Most of the volunteers have been touched somehow by the clinic, either they've used the facilities or they know someone who has." One of those who has touched many is '1 Is HH 1612 CAPTIVE a message Drawing of Hudson adrift with son, counting the possibility it was planted by a prankster), the Survey concluded there was no way to tell when the carving was made. The fault lay with Reckzin. In cleaning up the inscription, he had removed an accumulation of moss and dirt and organic matter. If he had left it intact, scientists could have calculated the date of the inscription from the age and thickness of the stuff covering it. Kaye Lamb, in charge of the Domin ,1 3 1 jL.

to from explorer Henry Hudson? Glenn other sailors in James Bay ion Archives at the time, was particularly disappointed. Cuthbert had first come him with the rock. "I told him, I said 'Oh, good gracious, why didn't you just leave it alone'?" recalls Lamb, 85, now retired and living in Vancouver. "He had destroyed the evidence that it was not a forgery." There was some good news, however. Lamb had shown a photograph of the rock to an expert at the British Museum 4 1 "I accept him more as a father than as a landlord, and Edith's like a mother," says Tom Lamont, 41, who spent his youth in an institution for the mentally handicapped and first moved to the home seven years ago.

He says his epilepsy and mild retardation at first made him nervous of living away from the institution. "Jim gave me the confidence to live my own life. If I'm alone, I'm always at a bar, but I'm not alone anymore like I used to be." Lamont's on the other side of the bar now, helping stock the supplies 1 and bartending for the YMCA weekly Y's Guys and Gals dance. Keith enjoys life day by day: Father' knows less is best for some By Alana Kainz Citizen staff writer When Keith Larue goes to the cancer clinic at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, you'll often find him playing the Game of Life board game. It's a game where players take on the role of professionals and accumulate money as they move around the board.

Keith often plays as a doctor. In the real game of life, the 10-year-old is the patient. Keith was diagnosed with a brain tumor eight months ago. The stocky boy and his cousin, Chris Part, travel to Ottawa from Fort Coulonge, about 85 kilometres northwest of Hull, so Keith can undergo chemotherapy at the clinic three days a week. "Don't be afraid of cancer," he said Saturday in Osgoode.

"Treatment (chemotherapy) will make you sick, but it's going to make you better." "We enjoy each day we have together," said Part, whose mother had taken care of Keith since infancy. "Memories are to be treasured and we're enjoying every second." There was no doubt Keith was making the most of the Osgoode Corn Roast. He was one of 2,000 people who dropped by to soak up the entertainment, watch firefighter demonstrations and, of course, eat corn. In the end, $8,000 was collected to help pay for a new microscope for the lab at CHEO's cancer clinic. This is the second year for the event organized by Jolan Musclow, whose son, Brian, 5, died of a rare form of cancer two years ago.

Keith was first found to have cancer when he was three months old. A tumor was removed from his chest. His mother died weeks later a cancer victim. He lived eight healthy years with his cousins in Quebec before cancer showed up in an X-ray. He lost his right leg.

Last Christmas, Keith had a seizure. Soon afterward, it was discovered the cancer had spread to his brain. The news came just five months after By Mark Richardson Citizen staff writer Jim Dashney has never had any children, but at least four men in Ottawa call him "Father." "Actually, sometimes they call me otner things, too," chuckles the 67-year-old retired public servant, leaning back in his chair and lighting another ciga rette. "I call myself an advocate. Don't call me a counsellor I hate that." Dashney hates anything that sounds like bureaucracy, which is why he helped open a home for mentally handicapped men that allows them almost unlimited independence.

"We more or less threw them to the wolves," he says. "I told them we'll organize the rent and buy the groceries, but you do the rest yourselves." Ten years after the home opened, its four residents agree Dashney and his sister Edith, 73, have given them a chance to make the most of their lives "I like the freedom to come In and go out when I want," says Paul Dcsmarais, 44, who works as a cleaner and general assistant at Ronald McDonald House, "When I first came to the house (in 1979), there was no one at home. So I phoned Edith and asked her what to do. She told me to check the (kitchen) cupboards and make localJJ HERO III Wayne Hiebert, Citizen Standing together: From left, Dashney, Richard Char-bonneau, Edith Dashney, Paul Desmarais, Tom Lamont, Bob Blais something to eat, so I did. "I'd never done that before." The home, a comfortable three-bedroom house on Kilborn Avenue, is a non-profit housing unit.

It's intended as a place to live until residents are ready to move out on their own. Dashney and friend David Hall, both volunteers with the YMCA's Y's Men's Club, were given permission from the Ministry of Community and Social Services to open the home in 1978. They paid the first month's rent for the house and furnished the rooms with a $2,000 grant from the Rideau Kiwanis Club. the smiling boy racing around on crutches with his face painted like Dracula. The doctors at the clinic have told Keith his chemotherapy is working and 1 the tumor is shrinking..