By Michael Bennett
Local Journalism Initiative, The Ridgetown Independent

A local group is seeking donations from residents in the Highgate and East Kent area to cover the additional cost of erecting a historical plaque by the Chatham-Kent Heritage Network.

The unveiling of a plaque commemorating the Highgate Mastodon is tentatively scheduled for Oct. 5 at the farm east of the village where a skeleton was unearthed close to 140 years ago.

The Highgate Mastodon plaque will be the ninth historical marker installed by the Chatham-Kent Heritage Network.

Local historians Lisa and Jim Gilbert founded the CKHN to connect with organizations in communities across Chatham-Kent for input to determine a significant historical period to be recognized with a plaque.

The Heritage Network’s plaque project is mainly financed through the Hydro One Community Fund, which Mayor Darrin Canniff and councillors administer for projects in their wards. Each community, however, must come up with additional money to help cover expenses. Jean Gillard and Marg Eberle are conducting the fundraising for the Highgate Mastodon plaque.

Some of the communities where plaques have already been placed were able to secure one or two major donors to cover the additional cost. Gillard and Eberle, however, would prefer to see several local residents make smaller donations rather than seek one or two major donors.

“We’d like to get as many people as possible to make a donation, anywhere from $25 to $100, whatever they can afford,” Gillard said. “By getting smaller donations from a lot of people, they will feel like they have more ownership in the project.”

Lisa Gilbert said the plaque is almost complete and ready for installation.

The plaque would tell the story of the Highgate Mastodon, complete with text and photos to inform local people and tourists about an event in local history.

The ceremony will take place at the site just out of Highgate on Goodbrand Line, where, in the spring of 1886, William Reycraft uncovered some odd, large bones while digging a drainage ditch on his uncle’s farm.

“It created a minor, local sensation that they found these bones,” Gilbert said. The bones sat in a barn on the farm until 1890 when John Jelly and William Hillhouse, from the Orangeville area, heard about the discovery.

Get the full story at The Chatham Voice

The Highgate Mastadon sits on display in North Dakota. (Image courtesy the State Historical Society of North Dakota)