The Comfort Maple, Pelham, Ontario, Canada
Located on the Niagara Peninsula on the south side of Lake Ontario and the north side of Lake Erie, this peninsula is mostly farming country with beautiful vineyards for miles and miles. There are over 100 winerys in this area, and in the middle of those farms and vineyards is the Comfort Maple. In the small, rural community of Pelham, this sugar maple tree began its growth in the 1500’s, making the tree about 500 years old. It is believed to be the oldest maple tree in Canada.
The sugar maple is in the middle of a farm just off Metler Road in North Pelham and is protected as a conservation area. A narrow dirt road leads to the maple where it can be enjoyed by the public.
The tree has issues. It’s been struck by lighting which created splits in the trunk, and long, extended branches are held up with wire to keep them from breaking off. There is a large broken limb still held in the center of the tree. It has signs of disease that seem to indicate its lifespan is nearing an end. But locals say that each year, when it looks like the tree has seen its last green leaf, new growth appears on the branches.
To me, the fascination with this old tree is a matter of perspective. For some, it’s simply one of millions of similar trees that has survived longer than most. But from another perspective, this tree has witnessed peaceful encampments of First Nations people, the Neutrals, who held land between the Iroquois and the Hurons. The tree may have heard about visits from the early French explorers Jacques Cartier in the mid-1500’s and Samuel de Champlain in the early 1600’s. It probably saw British Loyalists who fled north from the colonies during the American Revolution and began to settle on the peninsula. It certainly witnessed the expansion and settlement of the peninsula with the building of the Welland Canal in 1829, allowing a navigable channel to bypass Niagara Falls and connect Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. The Welland Canal is still used for freighter traffic on the Great Lakes.
The Comfort Maple saw the rise in visitors to the area with the growth in the tourism industry of Niagara Falls. It saw massive changes in transportation and communication through the 20th century, and it even saw a visit by two wandering sojourners in 2019 who love stumbling across the little-known places of interest on this great continent.
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