History or heritage story?

One of Guelph's pre-eminent historians was Ross Irwin. He loved to research HISTORY, and did not like to hear me tell "stories". He spent a long time researching the exact site of the tree that Galt cut down to found our city, and felt the black plaque on the railway bridge support was entirely in the wrong place.

Another story/myth is about the way Galt planned the city. The story is that Galt (or another of the group with him for the tree cutting) put his hand on the trunk of the fallen tree and said this will be the city plan, with the five fingers being the streets and the spaces between the fingers being the squares (St. George's, Trafalgar, etc.).

This image is etched on the Copper Wall sculpture in the RiverRun lobby.

According to Gil Stelter, the real planning document is in (I think) a museum in Buffalo, and that Galt based Guelph's plan on that one. There is also the story of the mix up with Goderich's wheel plan.

Great stories! who cares about the facts??