Councillors and local history buffs in East Gwillimbury, a town north of Toronto, are scrambling to protect a historic log cabin and First Nations settlement from the threat of demolition — but they may be running out of time.

"I'm terrified," said Andrew Lenkov, one of the residents who uncovered the site's history. "This is a Canadian historic treasure."

At issue is a 20-hectare site on the banks of the Holland River, near Newmarket— a site that Pentacore Development bought in 2023 for $6.8 million, property records show.

The company is planning a 161-unit townhouse development for the property. And in June 2024, the town issued a demolition permit for the handful of abandoned, derelict buildings on the site, not realizing it contained a log cabin that Lenkov and neighbour Geoff Brown

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