Month: June 2025

By Jazmine Aldrich

I hope that our dedicated readership will afford me a terrible pun by way of introduction to this topic. The truth is that I recently noticed a pattern of geological formations in the Eastern Townships with unique and interesting histories.

If you are a regular reader of my monthly columns, you will already know about Potton Rock – a petroglyph within Jones archaeological site on the west side of chemin du Lac, in Vale Perkins. Though the rock’s etchings are now illegible due to its longstanding contact with the natural environment, Leonard Auger of Magog believed that they were traces of an Indigenous presence in the area. Whatever its significance, Potton Rock is a fascinating example of our history carved in stone.

In this article, I wish to focus on two natural, geological formations that attest to human history in the Townships. The first is called Mena’sen; it is a rocky islet located in the Saint-Francis River near the Terrill Street bridge, in Sherbrooke. The name Mena’sen comes from the Abenaki words “menahan” and “sen”, which roughly translate to “island” and “rock”, respectively. The rocky islet was formally designated Mena’sen in 1983, but was commonly referred to as Lone Pine Rock or Lone Pine Island due to the pine tree which stood on the islet until 1913.

Jody Robinson – former Archivist and Executive Director of the Eastern Townships Resource Centre – contributed an article about the Lone Pine to The Record in 2014. Jody nicely summarized the history and lore surrounding the Lone Pine. She traced references to this natural wonder back as early as 1815, to the notes of surveyor Joseph Bouchette, and its legendary significance even farther back, still. Besides the best-known legend of Lone Pine Rock, Jody also recounted the plot of Oscar Massé’s 1922 novel entitled Mena’sen, which weaves a tale of two lovers on the run – the heroine perishing on the rock; the heartbroken hero, burying her there and planting a pine tree to honour her memory.

The best-known legend of the Mena’sen, however, is set in 1692 when the Abenaki presence on the land was dominant and indeed, long before the Eastern Townships even existed as a territorial division. The story goes that an Abenaki warrior and an Iroquoian warrior met on the islet and chased each other around in combat until the Iroquoian warrior succumbed to exhaustion, and the Abenaki warrior triumphed.

I would be remiss if I did not mention that on May 22, the Musée d’histoire de Sherbrooke opened a new temporary exhibition entitled “Pin Solitaire” (Lone Pine) which will run until June 22 of this year. On June 4, they will host a roundtable discussion about the legend and significance of the Lone Pine and Mena’sen. You can contact the Musée d’histoire de Sherbrooke for more information.

My final ode to Townships rocks is Scout Rock, in Lennoxville. A colleague recently mentioned Scout Rock to me and, though I had heard tell of it before, I was never certain of the story’s veracity. Fortunately, Didi Gorman wrote an article for The Record in 2018 which lends credence to the legend by citing other sources! According to Gorman: “A favorite hike for the Lennoxville Scouts at the time [circa 1930s] was a huge rock at the modern-day intersection of Vaudry and College streets, fittingly dubbed ‘Scout Rock’ by 1st Lennoxville members.” I am told that Scout Rock is, in fact, the large rock in front of the apartment building located at 3069 College. It seems that Scout Rock was a local hangout for Lennoxville’s young people in the 1930s, as attested to by one of the accompanying photographs. I hope that this article has inspired you to take a second look at the natural world around you – especially those longstanding geological elements that now find themselves surrounded by an urban sprawl. If you would like to learn more about our history (it rocks!), please contact the ETRC Archives.