The Lost Villages - Norbert Paul - Bog

In 1958, the Government of Canada, with joint co-operation with the United States government, flooded over a 30 mile stretch of land in Eastern Ontario along the St Lawrence River in order to create a newly formed body of water, Lake St. Lawrence. The flooding was necessary in order to allow large ocean going vessels access through the previously difficult to navigate waters from Cornwall to Morrisburg along the St. Lawrence River in through to inland cities such as Toronto, Detroit and Chicago. The massive project involved the displacement of over 6500+ people including 7 villages, 3 hamlets and numerous farms in a stretch of communities that had been established in the early development of Ontario's history. While swimming in the Lake St. Lawrence in in the present day, a precocious 10 year old boy named Art discovers the foundation of an old home on the bottom of the lake. He notices a trap door set into the top of the foundation and forces it open. Strangely, he is able to see through the trap door into a well lit, dry room below. As he tries to get a better view down through the trap door, he loses his grip and falls to the floor in the basement. He has landed through a temporal doorway into 1958 though that is only revealed to him as the adventure develops. The discovery of the doorway leads Art to a journey through time as he meets the inventor of the doorway, a physicist named Roger Haines, and a couple of other children that he befriends in 1958 and shares a magical three days with. The story then takes us back to 1935 and the life of Roger Haines and a detailed history of Roger's experiences as he attends Princeton University and meets with many storied individuals including Albert Einstein, Nikola Tesla and many more prominent scientist including several that go on to win Nobel Prizes and help form the nucleus of the Manhattan Project, the US government's atomic weapons project created in the 1940's. Roger Haines ultimately creates the temporal doorway that he builds into the foundation of his house to be discovered sometime in the future which it is by Art, 60 years after it is built The story goes back to the present day, now altered by changing conditions set into motion by Art's trip to the past and ultimately culminates with the resolution of the story in the in a stunning turnabout that propels the story forward into the future.