As I stood among a group last Thursday that included one Ontario Provincial

Police officer, one Nottawasaga Conservation Authority officer and one Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) engineer, among others, I reflected on how things used to be on the River Road and the Pine River.

There was the long-ago time when I made some interesting discoveries while swimming in the old mill pond too many years ago, and the weekends when the provincial fishing area downstream was almost too crowded for comfortable bait casting.

The mill pond, as a collector of sediment from farm runoffs - and thus a guardian of the purity of the Pine - isn't appealing as a swimming spot any more. Nor is the public fishing area a lure to anglers these days: The roadway has fallen into disrepair, and the stream is no longer stocked.

Nonetheless, there are countless reasons, well beyond my personal memories, why the integrity of these sites should be safeguarded.

So, at the end of several hours observing the threatened removal of the old mill dam Thursday, I rejoiced when Regional Engineer Les Pataky and site owner Tom Boer reached a compromise that will preserve the pond.

And I would like to think that I helped. You see, I had written about the threat for the April 20 edition of this paper. When several people asked if I'd been published, I obtained a copy of the Free Press and Economist, and took it to the site.

The story was read with evident interest, including that of the MNR's senior project engineer, who promptly shot a digital photo of the page and, I believe, relayed it to the ministry's offices. I hope the story, as evidence of public interest, helped achieve a solution.

Of course, I cannot take full credit. There were lawyers and engineers involved from both sides, and I have no idea how much money Mr. Boer and taxpayers expended. I do know that our local MPP, John Tory, took an interest in the situation and discussed it with whomever the leader of the Opposition discusses things.

As a longtime journalist, onetime private investigator, and a few other things, I'm accustomed to accusations of being out in left field from time to time. I expect to be so-accused because of my published statement that the MNR was imperiling the pond.

When the resolution was reached, the MNR official said there had been a misunderstanding about what his ministry was demanding. The ministry simply would have the dam reconstructed in such a way as to reduce "hydrostatic pressure," and not to have it removed entirely.

Okay. It matters not a whit to me that I might be included in "the misunderstanding." It's gratifying that the ancient, historic site is to be maintained in a manner that saves face for everyone directly involved.

In a broad sense, the story of the mill pond pales into insignificance in the shadow of aboriginal protests at Caledonia and elsewhere. Locally, it is of equal importance.

However, I can't avoid saying that I gained a better understanding of historical Indian rights and claims when I covered deportation hearings for Samilander (Lapplander) Nils Somby in Alberta a couple of decades or so ago. Somby had been adopted by the Nukalk First Nation at Bella Coola, had lived there for several years close to an RCMP detachment, and had been set up for an arrest at Pincher Creek in a test case of the aboriginal claim to sovereignty. What I learned from that plus other research astounded and disgusted me about our lack of respect for agreements established by King George III and never extinguished.

At Horning's Mills I got a glimpse of something that could have wound up as disrespectful of property rights, and to a degree as unprincipled, as things I discovered about native treatment in the Canadian West.

At Horning's Mills, the Province appeared to be demanding a move that would dry up several long-established ponds in addition to the main one, and release sediment that would surely have destroyed the spawning grounds of rainbow trout downstream.

The perils went beyond individual property rights and history.

Thankfully, common sense prevailed. Not so in the Somby case.