The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
There truly are no limits to children's imaginations. Take the large, prominent boulder easily visible amid the rock ridges and bushes behind Parkdale School. For years, this large mass of white stone Ð dubbed "Dead Man's Rock" or "White Rock" Ð has been the subject of many a tall tale among kids growing up in the Birchview area. One well-known story, passed down from sibling to sibling, insists that beneath the rock are the remains of an unfortunate bystander. Many years ago during a hot summer afternoon, the legend goes, a man was sitting in a lawn chair atop the rock ridges, watching a blasting crew several yards away. After growing bored, he made the fatal mistake of pulling out a pocket book from his pack-sack. As he became gripped by his choice of literature, the nearby crew unintentionally applied an excessive amount of explosives to a particularly bulky rock segment. With a loud boom that echoed for blocks away, a massive boulder was sent hurling through the air. Before the man had time to react, the colossal stone landed squarely on top of him. Hence the name "Dead Man's Rock." A separate account also claims the boulder is a grave marker, though the means by which it got there involve supernatural forces. Still another myth maintains the rock was placed by early prospectors who had found gold, though there's no clear consensus on how they moved such a heavy mass. "Every generation of kids probably had their own little story about that rock," local historian Gerry Clark once noted. As a new generation of youngsters come of age in the Birchview area, the legend of Dead Man's Rock Ð or White Rock, whichever you prefer Ð is bound to live on. Why? Because there truly are no limits to children's imaginations.
