Logs from corduroy road at King and Northfield to be given away Thursday
Hundreds lined up for their piece of history when logs were given away in May
If you didn't get a piece of history the first time around, Thursday will be your chance to try again as the region offers logs from the second corduroy road found during LRT construction.
- LRT construction unearths more corduroy road at King and Northfield
- People flood Erb Street landfill wanting a piece of the corduroy road
The second section was found on King Street between Conestoga Road and Northfield Drive on May 5.
Work was stopped on the site while archaeologists were brought in to examine the historic road. They determined the logs are made of cedar and elm, and date back to the 1800s.
Second historic find
It is the second time a corduroy road was discovered under King Street in Waterloo during light rail transit construction.
A corduroy road was discovered in uptown Waterloo on March 11. Construction was halted there as well.
But the site became a tourist destination for those wanting to check out a piece of the region's history.
Charlton Carscallen, a senior archaeologist with the province, said the uptown Waterloo corduroy road was likely one of the first ever roads built by Euro-Canadian settlers in the region.
"This particular corduroy road we believe was built somewhere between the late 1790s and 1816," Carscallen said in April. "King Street has been a commercial thoroughfare for 200 years."
Logs will need to be preserved
A corduroy road is made up of logs, which are laid side-by-side often in a low or swampy area to help carriages and wagons get across wet areas of roads.
"Residents are reminded that the corduroy road logs are more than 200 years old and not likely to last longer than a few years without conservation now that they've been unearthed and exposed to the elements," the region said in a release about Thursday's giveaway.
100 pieces available
There will be 100 two-foot sections of corduroy road available to the public starting at 7 a.m. Thursday at the Region of Waterloo's Emergency Training Facility but residents will have to enter Gate 3, which is west of Wilmot Line.
When pieces of the uptown Waterloo corduroy road were given away on May 6, hundreds of cars lined up outside the landfill with people eager to get a piece of history. Staff at the landfill ran out of pieces of the road within 30 minutes.