Living beside a rock quarry is not typically considered desirable. And for the twenty or so years of its heaviest operations, the Pickard Quarry (as its now known) was probably not the best of neighbours. But these days, after many decades of being left alone, the old stone quarry is a re-naturalized gem, located at the end of Quarry Lane, between York and Charlotte streets in Sackville.

Richard Elliot has been a neighbour of the Pickard Quarry since moving to Sackville in the 1990s, and he knows more than most the value of this pocket of wilderness in the middle of residential Sackville.

“We’ve always considered it part of our backyard,” says Elliot. “Our son walked to Salem School through the quarry every day and back, and learned to like wildlife… It’s not just us. Lots of people think of it as their private backyard.”

Elliot has spent many days cutting and pruning the trails in and around the quarry, to keep the dreaded invasive multiflora rose bushes at bay. And now he is heading up an effort to make some slightly more impactful trail improvements, with backing from the Tantramar Outdoor Club, South East Regional Service Commission, and hopefully, Tantramar council.

Elliot is hoping that council will choose to fund some improvements to make the Quarry trail safer and a bit more accessible. He’s working with Regional Trails Coordinator for Plan 360 Marc Leger on how best to do that. “We’re developing a conceptual plan right now,” says Elliot, to determine where along the trails might call for extra work. Two other local groups, the Chignecto Naturalists Club and the Tantramar Heritage Trust are also on board to lend a hand for the project.

The Heritage Trust is “very interested in the idea of interpreting what happened here from a cultural and industrial history point of view,” says Elliot. The long term plan for the trail includes interpretive signs at key points, such as where the Intercolonial Railway spur came in to the quarry, and spots where to this day, large blocks of sandstone remain with drill markings from active quarry days.

A large sandstone block featuring drilled holes where explosives would be inserted to help split the stone. Photo: Erica Butler

Elliot is positive that the partnership between the local groups, the town, and Plan 360 can make it “all come together to something that really should work, and should be a really good asset for the town.”

The idea to formalize the quarry land and trails into a park has been floated for decades, but the possibility became more realistic last year when the town of Sackville formally acquired the land from its previous owner, Mount Allison University. Mount A purchased the quarry from the Sackville Freestone Company in the 1930, when the operation had pretty much petered out.

Sackville’s purchase last year was strategic. After a water control structure was installed at the outlet of the ponds this summer, they will now serve to store water during heavy rain events when tides won’t allow quick drainage of the town’s freshwater supply.

Pickard Quarry Water Control Structure, aerial view from the east. Photo by AN Media for Municipality of Tantramar.

In the decades that Mount Allison owned it, people in Sackville routinely explored the quarry, and it was known as a meeting spot for young people. These days, it’s not necessarily a romantic hotspot, but there’s still plenty of evidence of life. Elliot and his wife Kate Bredin have documented the wildlife in the area. “I think we’re up to 17 species of mammals either seen or seen tracks of,” says Elliot. “I saw a beaver here once. We see otter signs almost every time we’re in here, all through the winter. Muskrats, rabbits, deer… Peter Manchester once saw a moose coming out of here, crossing over towards the graveyard. So there’s a lot going on in this little pocket.”

Google Maps satelitte image of Pickard Quarry, taken before construction of a water control structure at the end of Quarry Lane (bottom right).

The quarry is already used by those who have discovered it for various activities, as a getaway, as a more pleasant route towards downtown, as a place to sketch or paint. “I found a woman who lives on the south side, in one of the retirement homes, who would pick up her mail and come in here and sit beside the quarry and read her mail,” says Elliot. “It’s already used quite a bit, and I think it would be a lot more.”

Elliot says the ponds are not great for swimming, but local families do skate on them during the winter, one of the few outdoor skating spots in Sackville that is protected from marsh winds.

It’s easy to forget as you walk down the roughly 60 feet to the quarry ponds that the whole area was once filled with earth and red sandstone that was blasted out and hauled away. At the height of its success in the 1900s, the Sackville Freestone Company hauled out 800 tons of stone per day from the quarry, according to the Tantramar Heritage Trust. The area was simply a farm field when Charles Pickard, the owner, first noticed outcroppings of valuable sandstone in the late 1800s.

These days, wandering through the narrow and sometimes steep trails, it’s easy to think that you have discovered something secret or unknown. “I find that a lot of people think this is theirs,” says Elliot. “I think it’s mine,” he says with a laugh.

During a guided tour with Elliot in late October, CIDI News came across another trail user, Mount Allison physics professor Ralph Brüning. “Once in a while, when it gets a little bit too much, I love to come here and walk around,” says Brüning. The quarry is especially close to the Mount Allison campus. “I’m probably literally 300 meters from my desk,” says Brüning. “It’s a great break–close by, and a little bit wild, which is nice.”

Elliot is hoping that the trails will stay as wild as possible. He’s not planning for major interventions, but rather strategically placed benches, rails, and hopefully a bridge overlooking Bulmer Creek as it spills into the quarry ponds.

“My job is going to be to keep people from trying to do too much,” says Elliot. “Everybody I’ve talked to who lives here really wants to have it be a very low impact sort of trail.”

The trade off for keeping it wild is accessibility. But Elliot says there are plans for some strategically placed accessible sections, such as a reasonably straight path in from Charlotte Street that may one day lead to the bridge over Bulmer Creek. He also has hopes for an accessible path or boardwalk leading to a look-off spot off Pickard Place. But accessibility to the rest of the trail system is challenging, says Elliot, due to the rugged terrain.

“We’re trying to make sure that everybody can get into at least a portion of this,” says Elliot. “But we’re not going to try to make all these trails multi-user, multi-access, because it would be a huge task and it would sort of make it work against the idea of having it maintained as a natural place.”

In order to see the plan come to fruition, Elliot is counting on some financial commitment from the town of Tantramar, and then some work on outside funding sources as well. Elliot says he believes town staff have included requests for the Quarry project in their upcoming budget proposal, which will be presented to town council this Wednesday, November 1.