"Sky is the limit" proclaims an Anglo-Saxon saying. It was confirmed in the biography of Kazimierz Gzowski. From a nobleman educated at the Krzemieniec Lyceum to Queen Victoria's adjutant. From a tsarist sapper to a metallurgical tycoon building a canal at the foot of Niagara Falls. And only the sky was the limit for a Pole changing the face of North America.

Casimir Gzowski Park in Toronto
In Toronto, at the mouth of the Humber River into Lake Ontario, Sir Casimir Gzowski Park stretches. Its facilities include a sports and recreation area with a children's playground and a beautifully landscaped dog area, as well as a picnic area and an extensive, inviting beach. The stroll is made more pleasant by the world's heaviest flying birds, mute swans.

Although the entire park is dedicated to Gzowski, there is also a statue of Queen Elizabeth and a historic 1930s petrol station. By far the most interesting sculptural and architectural work, however, is the monument dedicated to Kazimierz Stanislaw Gzowski. It was unveiled on 5 May 1968 by Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, incidentally the father of the country's current ruler Justin Trudeau.

Who was the Pole to whom the monument was dedicated, after whom many streets and schools are also named, and who was the subject of stamps issued by post offices in both Poland and Canada?

From Polish soil to overseas
Kazimierz Stanisław Gzowski was born in St Petersburg into a noble family of the Junosza coat of arms. His mother was Helena, née Pacewicz, and his father was Stanisław Gzowski, a diplomat and officer in the Tsarist Guard. His parents, taking care of their son's best education, sent him to the famous high school in Krzemieniec, founded by Hugo Kołłątaj, where Juliusz Słowacki himself had studied before.

At his father's insistence, the teenage Gzowski then joined the Corps of Engineers in St Petersburg and became a sapper. However, when the November Uprising broke out, he deserted from the Russian army and joined Józef Dwernicki's volunteer corps. After winning the Battle of Stoczek, he participated in the lost struggle in Volhynia, at which time he was captured by the Austrians and imprisoned, and in 1834, together with other insurgents, deported to the United States.

During his first years abroad, Gzowski completed his law studies. The engineering experience he had gained earlier, however, enabled him to choose a profession related to the construction of railways, then undergoing a period of rapid development on the American continent. The education he had received in the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and his innate propensity for innovation meant that, as "Casimir", Gzowski conquered the New World.

Kazimierz Gzowski - a pioneer in many fields
Jacek Kaczmarski wrote in one of his works: "I am a waterfall - / So first a stream. / I tear up the earth's layers, / I scatter the stones / [...] Of my sparks each / A different world reflects / And each is important, / [...] And then I change / Into a transparent depth / Full of dear stones [...]".

And in these poetic lines lies the secret of Kazimierz Gzowski. He was, firstly, an engineer, but perhaps above all - an innovator. When reading his biography, one is struck by the recurring phrase - "as the first". And so: Gzowski was the first to explore for copper, nickel and iron ore deposits in the south-eastern part of the state of Ontario, Canada; he built hundreds of kilometres of roads and railways in North America' connected the US to Canada with the first ever bridge, the so-called Railway Bridge; he became the first commissioner of the Niagara Parks Commission; he was one of the founders of the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers. Gzowski also 'tamed' Niagara Falls by overseeing the construction of the Second Welland Canal, allowing navigation on the Great Lakes and thus providing free access by water to the Atlantic Ocean.

Engineer Gzowski also founded the first Canadian volunteer army in Toronto, established the first Canadian horse races, incidentally, still held today, and his companies, Gzowski & Co. and Toronto Rolling Mills, were at one time the largest companies in all of Canada. The Polish émigré, also the first resident of a British colony (Canada was then part of the British crown), was bestowed by Queen Victoria with the title of her honorary aide-de-camp.

Monument to Kazimierz Gzowski in Canada
By far the most interesting form of commemoration, however, and undoubtedly an important Polonium in all of North America, is the Sir Casimir Gzowski Monument. Here, on a flat paved area, stands a large tripod - made of concrete slabs in the shape of tapering trapezoids, with holes in the base, forming a pyramid-like shape. The whole is topped with a metal spike, formed from two types of steel, joined together by profiles, further reinforced with metal rivets. The spike also takes the shape of a pyramid. Underneath, five large I-beams, or structural sections made of steel, presumably similar to those made by Gzowski in his factory, are hammered into the vertical planes. All the edges of the pyramid, meanwhile, are finished with metal profiles. In the centre of the obelisk is a bronze cast bust of Gzowski and plaques detailing the achievements of the engineer and inventor. Around the monument, instead of traditional steps, railway sleepers have been laid out, emphasising the industrial character of the object and symbolically - the relationship of the Pole with the railways.

The duo responsible for this interesting and original design were Frederick Dunbar and Richard D'wonnik. Attention is particularly drawn to the latter's name, which turns out to be the pseudonym of a participant in the Warsaw Uprising - Ryszard Dzwonnik, alias 'Kazan'. Born in Warsaw in 1924, he fought in the Rising as a scout, was taken prisoner by the Germans and deported to the Reich for labour. After the war, he was probably educated in Rome and then moved to Canada in the 1950s. While there are no details available to reconstruct his biography, it is certain that it could not have been a coincidence that it was a Pole who co-founded a monument to his great compatriot.

Gzowski - last memory
Kazimierz Stanisław "Casimir" Gzowski died after an illness of several months on 24 August 1898, and one of the local newspapers wrote at the time:

"Yesterday morning, as the terrible thunderstorm subsided and the morning sun peeked over the eastern horizon, the spirit of one of Toronto's most illustrious citizens took to the air."

And elsewhere added:

"An exile found a home; a soldier became a knight; an engineer died a gentleman."