Pretty and dangerous
Local landmark claims life of Stellarton man, 19
It is a picturesque spot in a small part of Pictou County.
Behind its beauty, however, there is an inherent danger.
“It’s always been considered a dangerous place,” Thorburn resident Lincoln MacLeod said of Park Falls, where a 19-year-old Pictou County man drowned on Friday afternoon. His wife Karen grew up in Thorburn and the earliest fatality at Park Falls that she can remember took place when she was a teenager, when a local boy drowned there.
“I think I was 10 or 12, but I can’t remember for sure,” she said.
While RCMP won’t release the name of the deceased, it is widely known in the community that the victim was Kale Mason, a Stellarton resident and 2016 graduate of North Nova Education Centre.
MacLeod recalls a handful of other accidents there over the years – deaths or injuries – and she questions whether signs warning of its danger would do any good, if they were posted there.
She also remembers her parents warning her as a young child about the perils of Park Falls.
“We were not allowed to go there. We learned that early on,” she said on Saturday. “Going there was an absolute no-no in our house.”
On Saturday, the steady rumbling of the falls rose up to Park Falls Road, as Kyle Henderson and his 10-year-old daughter Baileigh looked down at the water below.
“It’s a tragedy, right?” said Henderson, who grew up close by.
The rocks that surround the three churning pools of water are ominous-looking; according to Henderson, the highest rock is 64 feet above the surface, and he can remember jumping off of it a couple of times when he was younger. It’s something he wouldn’t consider now.
“It’s dangerous, when the water is rushing really bad after a big rain. People think they can just jump right in, but they don’t know the area.”
At NNEC, Mason was a member of provincial championship teams in 2016 in both rugby and hockey, and played this past season with the Pictou County Junior Scotians’ hockey club.
He left the team for personal reasons in the midst of the Scotians’ run to a league championship this spring, but Scotians’ governor Walter Smith said on Saturday,
“We still considered Kale a part of our team, and we always will.”