Kidston Lake
Encyclopedia
Kidston Lake is a lake in the Spryfield area of Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia
, Canada
. An area along its eastern shore has been made into a municipal park, with artificial sand beaches and a lifeguard in the summer months. It is a popular swimming destination and offers a good swim from the beach to two rock formations called Breadloaf and the Whale's Back. There are trails all around the lake, and going to Leblin Park and other places such as the Greystone and Green Acres subdivisions. The granite barrens south of the lake are an excellent place to find blueberries, which foxes and porcupines share with the more adventurous of the local children. The most famous portion of the park is the Rocking Stone, a 90+ ton glacial erratic
boulder which can still be rocked with a lever, but which used to move quite easily, before a band of sailors from the nearby Halifax garrison rocked it into a more stable configuration in the 1890s, and before its base was worn down by excessive rocking in the 1980s and 90s when the park was first developed. A lesser known but equally interesting large glacially-deposited granite monolith called Table Rock, can be found NW of the narrow passage at the northern end of the lake, where it empties into a boggy area: it is a flat, approximately 30 ton rock firmly balanced upon three rocks, the smallest of which is about the size of a volleyball.
granite
, which is part of a major igneous intrusion into the local Silurian
slate of the "Meguma" group, which has been used to support the theory that the eastern part of Nova Scotia was once joined to NW Africa. The thin acidic soil supports relatively scrubby mixed forests dominated by spruce, fir, red maple and birch, extensive bogs and rocky barrens. The lake itself is fed mostly by underground springs and a small stream coming in at its south end. It drains at its north end, into a stream which runs into Kidston Pond, beside the old Kidston farm and estate. The south end is quite shallow and weedy, while the middle is up to 20 feet deep and provides good swimming. An earthen dam at the north end helps keep water levels up: it was built by loggers in the early part of the 1900s. The lake's water was polluted by fine sawdust until the 1990s, which reduced the amount of wildlife, but it has since cleared and fish can be found there now, as well as many frogs and invertebrate species. The lake is quite acidic, since its watershed is dominated by bogs and granite. Beavers live on the lake periodically, and currently (2011), there is an active beaver lodge in the northern end of the lake, on the NW shore.
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. An area along its eastern shore has been made into a municipal park, with artificial sand beaches and a lifeguard in the summer months. It is a popular swimming destination and offers a good swim from the beach to two rock formations called Breadloaf and the Whale's Back. There are trails all around the lake, and going to Leblin Park and other places such as the Greystone and Green Acres subdivisions. The granite barrens south of the lake are an excellent place to find blueberries, which foxes and porcupines share with the more adventurous of the local children. The most famous portion of the park is the Rocking Stone, a 90+ ton glacial erratic
Glacial erratic
A glacial erratic is a piece of rock that differs from the size and type of rock native to the area in which it rests. "Erratics" take their name from the Latin word errare, and are carried by glacial ice, often over distances of hundreds of kilometres...
boulder which can still be rocked with a lever, but which used to move quite easily, before a band of sailors from the nearby Halifax garrison rocked it into a more stable configuration in the 1890s, and before its base was worn down by excessive rocking in the 1980s and 90s when the park was first developed. A lesser known but equally interesting large glacially-deposited granite monolith called Table Rock, can be found NW of the narrow passage at the northern end of the lake, where it empties into a boggy area: it is a flat, approximately 30 ton rock firmly balanced upon three rocks, the smallest of which is about the size of a volleyball.
History
The area has been repeatedly logged, mostly in the 20th century. Until about 1963, a small logging operation with a mill was situated on the lake, and a large pile of sawdust accumulated. The Rocking Stone there used to be a popular picnic destination in Victorian times: people would travel from Halifax, climb upon it and spread their lunches while enjoying the sensation of rocking gently while seated upon the huge rock. The most popular swimming spot in the Spryfield area of HRM, its eastern shore was made into a municipal park and an artificial sandy beach was constructed. A subdivision was built nearby in the same time-frame (is still being added to, as of 2010), between the lake and the nearby subdivision of Thornhill Park, and further developments threaten the western shore of the lake.Geology, biology and hydrology
Kidston Lake is situated on DevonianDevonian
The Devonian is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic Era spanning from the end of the Silurian Period, about 416.0 ± 2.8 Mya , to the beginning of the Carboniferous Period, about 359.2 ± 2.5 Mya...
granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
, which is part of a major igneous intrusion into the local Silurian
Silurian
The Silurian is a geologic period and system that extends from the end of the Ordovician Period, about 443.7 ± 1.5 Mya , to the beginning of the Devonian Period, about 416.0 ± 2.8 Mya . As with other geologic periods, the rock beds that define the period's start and end are well identified, but the...
slate of the "Meguma" group, which has been used to support the theory that the eastern part of Nova Scotia was once joined to NW Africa. The thin acidic soil supports relatively scrubby mixed forests dominated by spruce, fir, red maple and birch, extensive bogs and rocky barrens. The lake itself is fed mostly by underground springs and a small stream coming in at its south end. It drains at its north end, into a stream which runs into Kidston Pond, beside the old Kidston farm and estate. The south end is quite shallow and weedy, while the middle is up to 20 feet deep and provides good swimming. An earthen dam at the north end helps keep water levels up: it was built by loggers in the early part of the 1900s. The lake's water was polluted by fine sawdust until the 1990s, which reduced the amount of wildlife, but it has since cleared and fish can be found there now, as well as many frogs and invertebrate species. The lake is quite acidic, since its watershed is dominated by bogs and granite. Beavers live on the lake periodically, and currently (2011), there is an active beaver lodge in the northern end of the lake, on the NW shore.