Historic marker for ‘Fording Place’ gets refurbished at Oak Orchard

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 6 March 2024 at 8:22 am

Provided photos

CARLTON – Albion eighth-graders Anakin Bowman and Brayden Lindke stand by a repainted “Fording Place” historic marker on the pole at the corner of Oak Orchard Road and Clark’s Mills Road in Carlton. Bowman and Lindke are in the eighth grade enrichment class.

The marker from 1932 was recently restored by Melissa Ierlan of Clarendon, who has scraped and refurbished about 40 of the markers.

The Fording Place marker is north of a shallow part of the Oak Orchard River where Native Americans and early pioneers would cross. “The Oak Orchard Trail from Batavia to Ontario crossed the creek here.”

Here is how the marker looked before it was cleaned up and repainted.