Dry stone structure hides a wall of mud behind it

Dean McLellan just wrapped up the construction of a 300-foot long dry stone wall on a lot owned by Niagara-on-the-Lake business owner and developer Rainer Hummel across from the Old Winery Restaurant, this one quite different from the one at the foot of Mississagua Street that’s getting all the attention.

“Years ago Rainer was a major contributor to two dry stone festivals I had at Willowbank,” says McLellan. “He contacted me originally for a wall out front, but he changed the idea to the retaining wall along the back, which was originally supposed to be an armour stone wall.”

Because it is a retaining wall McLellan says a lot more material was used than on most of his projects. 

“The back doesn’t have to be pretty,” he explains, “but where it reaches eight feet high, the base is about five feet wide. It tapers up at the front and back so that once it reaches the top it’s only about two feet wide. It should hold up longer than any building in Niagara–on-the-Lake, actually.”

Large flat stones weighing between 700 and 1,000 pounds were used for the base of the wall. Those were installed with the help of two of Hummel’s employees. As well, more fill stone was used to shore up the strength of the wall. 

McLellan was joined on the project by two Indigenous dry stone wallers. Dale Kewageshig and James Besito were part of his crew. Both originally took up the trade through a project that ran for about ten years out of the Saugeen First Nation.

“I got called in 2010,” says McLellan. “It was the restoration of a massive stone amphitheatre up there. It was a great program that allowed a number of Indigenous men to learn the craft. Eventually our funding ran out and the program ended.”

Originally built in 1972, the amphitheatre overlooks the Saugeen River to the south. The restoration of the local landmark in the Bruce Peninsula community northwest of Toronto was one of the largest dry stone projects in North America.

Besito began learning the trade there alongside McLellan about seven years ago. 

“I thought it would be a good trade to get into,” says Besito, an Ojibway. “I took it on, and I began moving up levels. There’s so much creativity in it. You create and build your own thing, it’s your own project in a way.”

Besito says the biggest challenge he faced in working with McLellan in NOTL was the travel. It was hard for him to be away from home for so long. 

Besito has earned his level two or intermediate certification and has his eye on moving up to the next step in the process, the advanced designation. 

“They are both such hard workers,” says McLellan of Besito and Kewageshig. “Both are level two certified. I have another guy who has been working for me for about 13 years now, too. It’s encouraging to see others interested in taking up this trade.”

McLellan is a master craftsman, the highest level of certification through the Dry Stone Walling Association of Great Britain program. He has taught dry stone wallers from Japan, Spain, France and all across the world. That makes him an excellent mentor for Besito and others who are learning the trade. 

Though dry stone walling is often considered to have its roots in the UK, McLellan insists the craft was used centuries earlier by Canada’s First Nations peoples. 

“There are 10,000-year-old stone structures under Lake Huron,” he claims. “They used to use the stones to funnel caribou. And there’s all kinds of Indigenous religious stonework all across North America. They used dry stone to create fox traps in the arctic, too.”

The Mississagua Street project took about four months of work for the crew, though they did complete a couple of other smaller projects around the same time. 

Up next for McLellan’s crew is a small job in Mount Forest. 

“It’s some stairs and a retaining wall,” says McLellan, who resides in nearby Holstein, Ontario, just a ten minute drive away. “It’s pretty rare that I get a chance to work so close to home.” 

And he may be back in the future with his crew to tackle that wall at the front of that same lot. He has submitted an estimate for another more decorative dry stone wall closer to the walking path.