History

Rithet’s bog is named after Robert Patterson Rithet, a prominent Victoria businessman and politician who owned this and surrounding property in the latter part of the 19 th C. and early 20 th C. and raised thoroughbreds (the most famous was ‘Broadmead’) on his farm. What was originally a cranberry swamp was drained with the help of his draft horses, outfitted with large flat wooden shoes to prevent them from sinking into the muck. After his death various farming practices continued on the wetlands and uplands surrounding the central domed bog. The land was seasonally drained and ditches were dug to enable crop planting, and weed species were introduced. Water levels fluctuated throughout the year adversely affecting the health of bog plants in the central pine forest, soils were depleted and the wetlands degraded until 1994 when all agricultural activity ceased.