Just outside of St. Andrew is a small island called Ministers Island because a minister built a home on it and then struggled to meet the needs of his parish because he couldn’t always get off of the island due to tidal changes. Then William Van Horne built his summer home on the island but it was still known as Ministers Island.
We crossed during low tide and rode our bikes on the sand/gravel tidal road along the ocean floor onto the island with the warning that we had to be back across before 2:30 or we would be stuck there until the next low tide tonight.
William Van Horne was the owner and builder of the Canadian Pacific Railroad and the many buildings, train stations, hotels, inns an lodges all across Canada along his railroad. He is quoted as saying “If we can’t export the scenery, then we’ll have to import the tourists.” The huge hotel we saw in Quebec and the lodge in Banff are just two examples.
His summer home has 50 rooms, he had two dozen servants and many, many visitors. Mr. Van Horne was a corpulent man and his taste in furnishings reflected that. Everything was huge. The billiards table, the dinning room fireplace, the board room on the second floor and the many bedrooms and sitting rooms. Out buildings included a round bath house on the shore, a huge barn where they raised cows, horse, pigs and more, a windmill to run the water pump and a carriage house with living quarters for the horse master.
The trails were more for hiking than biking so I pushed my bike along most of the trail but it was pretty. We crossed the sand/gravel road before the tide covered it.
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