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Message started by rosswood on 08/04/9 at 15:46:12

Title: BANK ROBBERS LANE
Post by rosswood on 08/04/9 at 15:46:12

This interesting story appeared in this week's Bancroft Times.

Those of you who ever participated in or worked the Ontario Winter Rally will be very familiar with Wollaston Lake Rd., aka in later years as 'The South Rd.' one of the best roads used annually in the OWR and always at pretty 'brisk' speed.

Follow with me as I take you from south to north. You start off going by a clump of houses then the odd house here and there. We pass over a concrete bridge going over the Crowe River then through the steep downhill hairpin at The Gut (Conservation Area). Jim Kenzie knows this spot intimately - seems he parked a borrowed Legacy on a weird angle there once upon a time. Frequently for the OWR we put a CP just at the base of that hairpin. Then on to a forced left at a dead end trail and northbound on the best part of the road.

Well it seems that way back in 1961 this exact route was the scene of a wild car chase with OPP chasing five bank robbers, who had just robbed the TD Bank in Havelock. Many shots were exchanged at the Crowe River bridge. As the robbers were from the Montreal area, they were in very unfamiliar territory. As the police chased them in their 1961 Buick getaway car (clearly perfect vehicle for a chase on the Wollaston Lake Rd.), when they reached the forced left, they took the road straight ahead, which is a dead end trail that deteriorates into a 4 x 4 path very quickly. They soon had to abandon their car and a 96 hour manhunt ensued before the OPP, aided by many local residents (must have been all eight of them), rounded up all five suspects.

So the robbers were all captured but to this day the $230,000 loot stolen from the bank has never been recovered. Talk about a geocache, eh!!

Anyway now 48 years later, the Wollaston Township Roads Superintendent, Kirk McCaw, has erected a new road sign naming the trail of the bank robbers' demise 'Bank Robber's Lane'.

Kirk McCaw is my newest hero. Have to meet that man.

Great excuse to go for a drive on one of Ontario's best and yet unspoiled roads.

Title: Re: BANK ROBBERS LANE
Post by Robert Roaldi on 08/05/9 at 09:52:58

Wow, neat story. If you're going to rob a bank in an out of the way place like Havelock, be sure to get good maps of the area roads.

Do you remember when the OPP arrested that escaped murderer at the Holiday Inn HQ for the 92 (maybe 93) Pines? Mark de Sousa was checking in when they took the guy out in handcuffs. About 6 months after that episode, I was at a party during which I met someone whose family had a cottage somewhere near Eel's lake. They had received warnings from the OPP the previous summer to be on the lookout for the convict. Poor guy probably just wanted to spectate the rally.

Title: Re: BANK ROBBERS LANE
Post by dtompsett on 08/05/9 at 09:59:29

Heck, 'The Gut' is another great reason to drive that road. We have a family cottage on Wollaston Lake, and I love taking trips down to the Gut. (ok... part of the fun is getting to drive the road ;) )

Title: Re: BANK ROBBERS LANE
Post by dtompsett on 09/16/9 at 07:07:16

Well, seems there is no honour among thieves... The sign has been stolen!

http://coehill.wordpress.com/2009/09/15/no-honour-among-thieves-bank-robbers-lane-sign-stolen/