badinfluence63 wrote:( I too walked to school in the 60's. It was over a mile too. Unlike my parents i was able to wear shoes)
I see that we are from similar backgrounds & age brackets. My dad walked to school also - in the snow and with cardboard soles in his shoes.
...... the kid is going to walk to school in the snow! Did I learn something from this? Well, yes....it is freaking cold in N.S. in the winter!!!
Those with depression-era parents understand the mentality well. I take it that your folks didn't even have shoes? How far did they have to walk?
WRT the placement of the MP.....there has to be a reason why it was constructed there. The original shaft is almost directly atop the predominant drumlin. Were the constructors aware of the subsurface geology? If they understood the stratigraphy, did they anticipate naturally existing limestone caverns and benefit from the location?
Vincent makes a good point as well. After the excavation of the MP, equipment was used to explore the cave-in pit. To this day, folks have been at a loss to understand why RDI would spend so much time and effort
there. It has been described as "grasping at straws" among other unfortunate things. From what I understand, there was an opportunity to discover horizontal shafts and other anthropomorphic features. A shaft entrance was indeed found down in the cave-in pit, but it was never proven to be from the originators. Other data has yet to be interpreted. In short, we don't know if they knew of the area of subsidence that ultimately became the cave-in pit.
Chances are, if the originators were uncertain of what they would find at various depths, they would alter their original engineering to suit their needs. If huge boulders were encountered while driving a shaft, they probably went around them. If caverns were discovered in the process, they likely incorporated them in the overall scheme.
I believe that they had a basic knowledge of the island and the stratigraphy
before they began. Circumstancial evidence is being gathered to support this idea. If it can be proven, we may have a better idea of who these people were.
RDII