Saturday April 30, 2016

The former town of Britannia is represented by a few buildings, including a church and a one room school house.  These remain tucked in among the modern buildings that line Hurontario Street near the 401.  The local survey was completed in 1819 under the guidance of Timothy Street who would go on to found Streetsville.  In the 1877 County Atlas below, Hurontario Street was called Centre Road  and McLaughlin Road was 1st line west.  There is parking on the street in the subdivision that has been built on the former property of Joseph Mathews, including on Navigator Drive.  The first part of this hike follows Fletcher’s Creek (blue) through lots 9 and 10 starting with the half lot belonging to William J. Oliver whom we will return to later.

 The property of William Oliver has been flooded to create a large flood control pond that is divided into two sections.  The strip of land that separates the two sections is re-enforced with interlocking stone.  A large section of this near the far shore has had it’s soil washed away.  Fletcher’s Creek has the reputation for being the most polluted sub-watershed in the Credit River watershed.  In spite of this, both a great blue heron and a double crested cormorant were fishing here until they were disturbed.

Following the creek north will bring you to the second half lot which belonged to Josiah Oliver.  This property has the remnants of an old roadway and bridge on it.  The picture below shows part of a road deck that has been washed onto the shore of Fletcher’s Creek. It has stayed there long enough that large trees have started to grow through the sections. The cover photo shows a foot bridge that has been placed on one side of the creek and left until it is fully overgrown.

It is nice to see the trees turning green again.  The undergrowth through this ravine is full of raspberry bushes.  The corner of Derry Road and Hurontario Street was once home to the community of Derry West. This ghost town may be the subject of a future exploration.

Heading south on Hurontario Street brings you toward the community of Britannia. William Oliver, on whose property this hike began, built the house pictured below around 1880.  It has become known as Hansa House and is home to the German Heritage Museum.

The first settlers arrived in Britannia around 1821 and named the community Gardner’s Clearing after two prominent and early families.  The house in the picture below originally stood on the southwest corner of Britannia and Hurontario on the lot that is marked as the estate of Robert Gardner on the county atlas. This Georgian Style home is known as the Gardner-Dunton home and was likely built around 1840.  It was moved a kilometer down the road onto the school property in 1989.

The community of Gardner’s Clearing built a log frame church the first year of the settlement.  As the town grew there was a need for a larger church.  Joseph Garner donated land for a church and cemetery in 1830.  The new church wasn’t built until 1843 and it was made from locally made bricks.  It has been modified several times over the years.  By 1869 the town had grown large enough that more room was needed and the church was expanded to add a Sunday School room.  In 1897 the church basement was excavated and a furnace was added.  Church union occurred in 1925 and the name of the church was changed to Britannia United Church.  Two years later the first electric lights were added, replacing the oil lamps in the church.  Finally, in 1957 a small kitchen was added.

The first recorded burial in the Weslyan Methodist church cemetery took place in 1837.  Joseph and Catherine Gardner lost two infant daughters, both of whom were named Catherine.  The first one perished in 1837 and was buried on the corner of the family farm.  Later both Joseph and his wife, Catherine, would be buried in the cemetery that surrounded the church.  The gates for the cemetery read Britannia 1843 although they are clearly a later addition.  The community of Gardner’s Clearing didn’t become known as Britannia until 1863 when the post office was opened.

When the post office opened in 1863 the town chose the name of Britannia to celebrate British Imperial rule.  The first post master was Joseph Muir who was followed by Joseph Gardner.  Prior to 1915 the local farmers used to come into the town to collect their mail from the post office.  In 1915 Canada Post began rural delivery and the post office was closed down.   The building was erected in 1862 and stood on the north east corner of Hurontario and Britannia.  The archive picture below was taken in 1958 when the building was in service as a private residence.  It has since been demolished.

William IV was the king of England from 1830 until his death in 1837.  King William IV was ahead of his time in setting aside various land grants as school reserves.  Free mandatory public education for everyone wouldn’t come to Ontario until the School Act of 1871.  The 1877 county atlas shows the school as sitting on lot 3 which is marked as School Reserve.  This property still belongs to the Peel Board of Education.  The community of Gardner’s Clearing erected a log school house which they used until 1852 when a new brick building was completed.  The one room brick school was used until 1959 when it was closed.  After sitting empty until 1982 it was restored and is now listed as a heritage building.

The School reserve was a full settler’s lot of land set aside for school purposes.  The reserve was leased out to tenant farmers to raise money to help pay for teachers.  On the county atlas above it shows that William Jordan was the lessee of the reserve.  A house was built on the reserve around 1850 and it is still on site.  It was restored around 1990 and belongs to the Peel Board of Education.

Britannia has more surviving buildings than many of the lost villages in Mississauga.  Both Palestine and Mt. Charles are reduced to just one old house while Dixie has a house and a couple of churches.

Google Maps Link: Britannia

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Apr. 27, 2016

Fourteen American warships were sighted east of York (Toronto) on the evening of April 26th, 1813.  The invasion of York was about to begin.  The first year of the war of 1812-1814 had gone badly for the Americans as they lost all the major battles.  After waiting out the winter they needed a quick victory to boost moral and set the tone for the coming season of war.  It was known that York was poorly defended with only 750 men and 12 canons and therefore it made a suitable target.  April 22nd was set for the attack and 1750 men and 85 canons were gathered at Sacketts Harbour on the American side of the lake.  April weather is unpredictable and the fleet didn’t set sail until the 25th.

On the morning of April 27th the fleet moved to the west of town and it was believed that the landing would take place at a clearing where the old French Fort Rouille had stood. The wind blew the fleet past the planned landing site and they were forced to come ashore at a clearing near where the Palais Royale stands today, 2 kilometers west of the fort.  The first to encounter the Americans when they landed around 8:00 am were the Mississauga and Ojibway natives, about 100 in total, who were able to pick off some invaders while still in their rowboats. They were trained to fight in the woods but soon were over powered and had to fall back. The picture below shows the staff of Fort York wearing the military uniforms of 1813. Interesting among the typical red coats of the British military are the green coats of the Glengarry Light Infantry Fencibles.  This Canadian unit was present at the fort and was second to encounter the landing, temporarily forcing the Americans off the beach.

As the landing continued in strength, British General Roger Hale Sheaffe’s option was to fall back through the site of the modern CNE to the Western Battery where 2 of his canon were stationed.  The battery was likely located under the present Automotive Building in the CNE but was taken out of the battle by an explosion just as the Americans were advancing on it.  A spark fell in a barrel of gun powder which blew up killing or wounding 30.  It also knocked out one of the canons, similar to the one featured in the cover photo. In the archive map below I have coloured in Garrison Creek which ran along the north and east side of the fort as well as the historic shoreline.  The fact that the fort was surrounded on three sides with water made it easier to predict the landing and advance of the Americans.

The troops continued to harass the advancing forces as they retreated across the garrison common at the west end of Fort York.  The picture below is taken from Strachan Avenue and shows the site of one of the downtown Military Burying Grounds.  Fort York is between here and the condos that now dominate the background in all directions.

The final place of retreat for the soldier when the fort is breached was the block house. These structures were the first to be built when the War of 1812 broke out and were made of thick square timber walls with weather boards on the outside. They provided shelter from bullets, shells and small artillery fire.  Soldiers inside could fire back at invaders through the slits on two floors.

The battle was lost and General Sheaffe decided that he should save his regulars to fight another day and ordered them to retreat to help protect Kingston. The Americans were building war ships at Sacketts Harbour and it had been decided to build a warship in York. The Sir Isaac Brock was to be the second largest ship on Lake Ontario with 200 men and 24 guns.  It was intended to give Britain naval supremacy on the lake but it could do the same for the Americans if it fell into their hands.  The British made the tactical decision to destroy the nearly completed warship and the powder magazine.  The Sir Isaac Brock was set fire near the harbour and the government stores kept there were also destroyed.

The grand magazine was located near the waterfront, just below Government House.  The underground storage contained at least 200 barrels of gun powder, and some say up to 500, plus all the cartridges, round shot and shells the British had in reserve.  The magazine was dug under the bluff along the shore  of the lake and when it exploded it blew out toward the Americans as they marched in from the Western Battery.  The shock wave knocked at least 200 soldiers down and then they were pelted with stone and all the shot from the magazine.  American General Zebulon Pike was among those struck with flying debris and mortally wounded.  The print below is from 1815 and depicts the wounding of General Pike.

The grand magazine was located just outside of the present fort walls.  The tree in the middle of the picture is on the inside of the wall approximately where the explosion took place.  The site was excavated recently and signs of its past were uncovered in the form of mortar and stonework.  In 1813 the water came up where the Gardner runs just south of Fort York.  (The city actually proposed moving Fort York down to the modern waterfront to allow the Gardner to be built where this National Historic Site stands.)

With the British in retreat a surrender treaty was drafted that required all arms and public stores to be surrendered.  The militia were sent home and not allowed to fight again for the rest of the war unless they were released in an exchange.  All the captured officers were taken prisoner.  John Strachan, the first Anglican Bishop of Toronto, assumed leadership on behalf of the 700 citizens of York.  He later went on to be one of the leaders of the Family Compact who ruled the colony.  Rebellion in 1837 against this conservative control helped lead to government reforms.  The Bank of Upper Canada was a target for William Lyon Mackenzie and the government hid it’s money under the officer’s quarters at Fort York.  The little windowless room is known as the “money room”.

The Americans occupied the town of York until May 8th when they retreated.  Holding onto York had never been part of the plan and with British territory on the east and west it would have presented too great of a strain on resources.  The Americans reported 55 killed and 265 wounded, mostly in the explosion of the magazine.  The British totals are debated but including the militia and natives it is thought to be 82 killed and another 393 wounded, captured or missing.

The barracks at Fort York were built in 1815 when the fort was rebuilt and expanded. Originally the room shown below was home to 32 soldiers, soldiers wives and children.  As time went on the numbers were reduced until it was split into several separate rooms for each family.

After the war was over a new powder magazine was built not far from where the previous one had been detonated.  The date stone has been replaced with a replica while the original is preserved in the museum at the fort. The initials stand for Georgius Rex III (King George 3rd) and the 54th year of his reign (25 Oct. 1813 to 24 Oct. 1814).

It’s been 203 years, as of 2016, since this battle but we should pause and reflect on those who gave everything to defend our town.  It’s also 200 years since Fort York completed it’s restorations after the war, taking on it’s current form.

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Saturday April 17, 2016

The Leslie Street Spit technically isn’t a spit at all because it isn’t natural.  The entire spit was created from landfill and dredging from the harbour in Toronto, starting in 1959 and continuing today.  When the St. Lawrence Seaway was completed in 1959 it was thought that Toronto would see a large increase in shipping and more harbour facilities would be required.  An outer harbour was to be created by building an east headland extending into Lake Ontario.  Construction continued but by 1973 it was obvious there would never be a need for more harbour space.  It was decided to use the spit to create a park named Tommy Thompson Park.  The park is only open on weekends and holidays because it is an active construction site with dump trucks passing in both directions.  Tommy Thompson will be remembered as Metropolitan Toronto’s first Commissioner of Parks.  He is responsible for removing the houses and turning Toronto Islands into a park.

The map below is taken from the Tommy Thompson Park Master Plan and shows the growth and structure of the spit.  Some filling was completed on the shore of the outer harbour in 1956-1958 before construction of the headland began in 1959.  The long thin outer harbour east headland was constructed in sections each year until 1975 when it reached it’s current length.  In 1973 and 1974 the land mass was greatly increased when the outer harbour and the Keating Channel were dredged.  From 1979 through 1985 an endikement was built on the lakeside of the spit to create three new controlled cells for dumping material dredged from the harbour.  Between 1956 and 1991 there were 4,366,469 truck loads of material dumped here to create the spit as it existed at that time.  The spit was built to protect the harbour and islands from deposits of sand that originate from the Scarborough Bluffs.

Much of the landfill came from demolished buildings as can be seen in the picture below. This shot is taken from the water’s edge looking at a cross section of the spit which is all old bricks and broken concrete.  The waves quickly break down the old concrete and bricks and create the gravel beaches that are seen in places along the lake side of the spit.  Along the 1965 and 1966 sections of the lake side beach there is extensive twisted metal rebar that has been left as the concrete eroded away.

One of the long term goals of the park project has been to create sustainable wildlife habitats.  Many of the species that are found here have been planted naturally.  Pets are banned from the park so that the plants and wild animals can survive without undue competition.  Two snake hibernaculums have been created on the spit for snakes to be able to survive the winter.  The picture below shows a stretch of old road bed which has been brought to the spit and dumped in a strategic manner to create relief, cover and an irregular outline.  Snakes and other wild life have moved in and begun to breed on the spit. There are, for instance, six species of snakes that have been identified in the park. The most common of these is the eastern garter snake while the eastern milk snake can often be seen as well.  The northern and midland brown snakes, the northern water snake and the northern red-bellied snake are much less common and spend very little time out in the open.

The park is one of the best places in the city to view birds.  There are reported sightings of 290 species of birds on the spit with 40 of them breeding here.  The Double Crested Cormorant first arrived in the park in 1990.  The Star reported in May 2009 that the colony had reached 30,000 birds and that they were stripping trees to build their nests.  As seen below the nests are made up of anything, including pieces of plastic bags.  The cover photo shows part of one of the nesting colonies and reveals hundreds of birds in just a few trees.  A careful look in the water in the foreground of the cover photo will reveal a pair of white swans.

Many of the trees on the spit have been damaged by beaver who are one of twenty-two mammals that call it home.  Volunteers have begun to wrap the base of surviving trees in the area of the ponds with wire mesh to keep the beavers from destroying them.  A beaver lodge, like the one below, is designed to make it almost impossible for predators to get in. The animals swim into their homes through an entrance below the water line.  Inside there are usually two chambers or dens.  In the first one they dry off while the second one is the living quarters.

Special habitats were created for fish and birds by bringing in stumps and posts and sinking them in ponds and marshes.

Along with the main paved trail, which is an extension of Leslie Street, the park features several kilometers of other trails like this one which winds through the horsetails and dogwoods.

In 1977 Gijsbertus Adrianus Panhuise of the Netherlands was granted a patent on the first kitesurfing equipment.  Kitesurfing allows the participant to reach speeds of up to 55 knots (over 100 km/hr) and part of the thrill of the sport is in jumping.  The man in the picture below was racing between the spit and the Toronto Islands and leaping in the air.  He is in the middle of a 360 degree flip and his kite is just out of site above the picture.

The point of the spit that reaches farthest into the lake is known as Vicki Keith Point. Vicki is a Canadian athlete who used her swimming skills to raise over $800,000 for children’s charities.  In the summer of 1988 she swam all 5 Great Lakes.  During her career she swam the 52 kilometers across Lake Ontario 5 times.  The tip of the spit was her usual point of departure or arrival.  This lighthouse stands on Vicki Keith Point.

One of the bricks that is laying on the beach near the lighthouse has the letters TPB on it. This stands for Toronto Pressed Brick and it was manufactured at the Don Valley Brick Works between 1882 and 1909.

The view from the Leslie Street Spit looking back toward Toronto makes it appear that the city has a shoreline which is covered with trees.  These trees are actually on the Toronto Islands.

The Spit has an enormous amount of flora and fauna that has settled there since the artificial strip of land was created.  Checklists are available for all types of enthusiasts on the Tommy Thompson Park website including an inclusive list of birds that have been identified here.

Google Maps link: Leslie Street Spit

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Saturday April, 9, 2016

Borer’s Falls is where Borer’s Creek plunges over the side of the Niagara Escarpment but the creek also boasts a lower falls that is one third as high as well as two extensive sets of cascade falls.  The main water falls is also sometimes known as Rock Chapel Falls.

The Borer’s Rock Chapel heritage lands are one of 6 sets of lands in the “Cootes to Escarpment” Park System.  This set of properties represent the only wild life corridor between the Niagara Escarpment and Lake Ontario that isn’t cut by a 400 series highway which restricts land migration of animals.  These properties have been registered as having 1852 species of flora and fauna and are also known as Environmentally Sensitive Areas because surveys have identified over 50 species that are at risk, threatened or of special concern.  The view below looks across the valley toward Hamilton with the heritage lands in the foreground.  The Royal Botanical Gardens and Cootes Paradise are along the shore of Hamilton Bay.

The park system also includes a 10 kilometer section of the escarpment which includes a property to the east of Borer’s Creek called the Berry Tract after the land owner.  Between the Rock Chapel Trail and the Bruce Trail near the cliff face is an unused field which is returning to a forested condition.  The undergrowth is a massive tangle of raspberry vines as can be seen below. In a few months this section of woods could be renamed the berry tract.

The map below is part of the interpretive display in the park.  The red line marks the approximate route of the hike that leads to the bottom of Borer’s Creek and back up to the bottom of Borer’s Falls.

There are two lookout points as you hike along the Bruce Trail heading away from Borer’s Creek and the falls.  Part way down the side of the ravine an old trail makes it’s way to the bottom as it leads back toward the creek.

The Borer’s creek gorge has been cut through the escarpment by rushing water as the ice retreated about 12,000 years ago.  The ravine has steep sides but also makes a steep descent down the side of the escarpment.  This causes the creek to have a series of cascade waterfalls that stretches all the way from the ravine floor back up to the base of Borer’s Falls.

Lower Borer’s Falls is not visible from any of the look out points but is well worth the excursion to reach it.  When the creek is in full flow there is a 5 meter wide curtain waterfall here that is 3 meters tall.  Adjacent to the waterfall is an exposed section of red Queenston Shale. This is the bedrock of the Niagara Escarpment and it sits just below the harder Whirlpool Formation.  At the lower falls the softer Queenston Shale is eroded away leaving the Whirlpool Formation overhanging.  The layer of lighter Queenston Shale at the top of this formation is due to an oxidation process when the escarpment was beginning to form.

Life is tenacious and the pine tree on the side of the ravine in the picture below has fully enveloped the large rock in it’s root system.  When the tree eventually falls it will pull this rock down into Borer’s Creek.  The Niagara Escarpment Ancient Tree Atlas Project began in 1998 to survey the ravines and cliff faces of the escarpment to identify trees that had survived the clear-cutting practices of the early lumber industry.  Cedar trees were recorded in the Borer’s Creek ravine that were 400 years old.  Unlike this tree, they tend to be small in spite of their age.  The creek is named after the Borer family who operated the local saw mill for a century.  The small size of these ancient cedars likely kept them from being fed through this mill which supported the community of Rock Chapel.

Above the lower falls the creek has another extensive section of cascade falls. Throughout here the creek bed is littered with broken chunks of dolomite stone.

Borer’s Falls turned out to be a big disappointment as can be seen in the picture below. Just kidding, but there is a small water fall near Rock Chapel Road that looks like it is usually dry but might contain a significant flow during storms.

The view as you approach Borer’s Falls includes a cross section of the layers that form the escarpment.  These are described in greater detail in the story on The Devil’s Punch Bowl. Ascending the cliff face at the falls is impossible because of the alternating layers of hard dolostone and softer shale which have been under cut.  The cliff face is stepped outward as it goes upward.  This waterfall is classified as a ribbon plunge because of the width of 5 meters compared to the height of 15 meters and the deep plunge pool at the bottom.

This picture is looking down into the plunge pool of Borer’s Falls and it’s cold enough this morning that the mist from the falls has frosted the lower formations of the escarpment and the talus around the bottom.  Be careful if you choose to climb on the talus as it is made of loose rock that has fallen from the cliff face.  It can shift suddenly, contains hidden holes and may be slippery with moss. From this point your only option is to turn back.  There is a spot just beside the falls where it may be possible to climb when the rock face is dry.  A solid rope tied at the top at this point would make for easy access to the base of the falls and back up to the road.

After retracing the route back to the Rock Chapel Road the trail rejoins the Bruce Trail. The bridge over Borer’s Creek provides a nice view of the crest of the falls.  You can also get right to the edge of the falls where you can look down the 15 meters to the creek flowing into the distance.

The bridge contains a date stone from 1868.  The shape of this stone marks it as a keystone which would have been used to lock the apex of an arch.  An arch cannot be self supporting until the keystone is added as it applies force to lock all the other stones in place.

This is the most common view of the falls and often adorns old post cards.  This photo is taken from the viewing platform near the falls.

Borer’s Falls was a really enjoyable hike through the ravine and along the creek.  Also in the same area are Websters and Tews Falls as well as the Great Falls in Smokey Hollow.

Google Maps Link: Borer’s Falls

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Saturday Apr. 2, 2016

Given Road in Mississauga is an example of a public road that was created on private property and then given over to the community for general use.  Until 1971 it extended across the former Credit Valley Railway (now Canadian Pacific Railway) tracks to serve an orchard of over 700 trees that spread along both sides of Cooksville Creek.  Central Parkway and Mississauga Valley Boulevard were built between 1971 and 1973 through this orchard and the surrounding farmland.  A new residential community was created north of the CPR tracks and the road was closed just south of them.

When the county was surveyed it was laid out in a series of 1000 acre rectangles that contained five 200 acre lots or ten 100 acre half-lots each.  Road allowances or concessions were required around the four sides of the rectangle.  Land owners occasionally built a road other than those required by the survey and these often were called given roads.  There is a given road running north off of Dundas Street near Cooksville which is marked in red on the county atlas below.  Given Road was later extended north of the railway tracks.  The lot of land on the west of the given road was owned by Gardner and has the Cooksville Creek flowing through it.  Today part of this lot is known as R. Jones Park.  The little church shown on the extreme right along Dundas is the Union Church in the ghost town of Dixie.

The name Walterhouse appears on the east side of Given Road and represents an early and prominent name in the Cooksville area.  William Walterhouse arrived around 1809 and by 1877 the county atlas shows several properties owned by various family members.  Lewis and then Frank Walterhouse operated the Cooksville blacksmith shop.  The Gardner family, which owned the property on the west side of Given Road, were also prominent in the area.  Until 1862 the crossroad community at Britannia Road and Hurontario Street was known as Gardner’s Clearing.

Where the road is now closed there is parking and an entrance to the park.  This entrance is the lane way to a house that was removed around the same time as the road was closed. Today the site can be identified by a series of yucca plants that are growing in the woods. Yucca plants don’t grow wild in Ontario and are indications of former gardens.  The dried leaves of the plant have a low ignition temperature and are ideal for starting fires if using just friction.

The foundations for the house remain on the embankment looking out over the creek. Along with the house foundations are several old railway ties and this makeshift looking artifact.  It is made of old railway rails, bricks, concrete blocks, stone, old pipes and a steel wheel.

The house can be seen at the lower right in this 1969 aerial photograph.

The row of trees in the cover photograph ran between the first and second house south of the railway tracks.  There was a set of semi-circular drive ways that stood in front of the house.  Today only the pavement and the curbs remain while the site of the house is now a field.

The aerial photo below shows the house and the curved lane ways on the lower left.

It was a day for snakes to be out looking for sunshine to warm them.  Garter snakes hibernate in dens that can house up to 8,000 snakes.  They are also known to travel extended distances to reach one of these dens for the winter.  It is common for other snake species to join them in the den.  Given the large number of snakes encountered in this small park it is likely that there is a den along Cooksville Creek.  Garter snakes range in size from about 55-137 centimeters.

The Dekay’s Brown Snake is one of the species that is known to hibernate with garter snakes.  Dekay’s are somewhat smaller than garter snakes ranging from about 25 to 50 centimeters long.  This one is well disguised as it is laying in the leaves hoping for some sunshine to warm it up.  Snakes are ectothermic which means that they get heat from their environment rather than being endothermic and generating it internally like we do. This specimen was lying dormant waiting for the sun to come out so it could bask in it and heat itself up.  Ectothermic creatures are vulnerable while sunning or, in this case, while conserving energy waiting for the sun to come out.

Cooksville Creek is a small stream that runs for about 16 kilometers from near Bristol Road and Hurontario Street to where it flows into Lake Ontario.

South along Cooksville Creek are the remains of a third house.  Along with the foundations for this house are the remains of several out buildings.  One unique remnant of this former home is the rare double wells.  A close look at the picture below reveals that there are two filled in wells which stood side by side.  The concrete cover to one of these wells is laying in the woods near here.

A lamp post for a former set of athletic fields lies decaying in the woods.  This post has been cut off with a chain saw but a second one nearby remains intact.

The Credit Valley Railroad arrived in Cooksville in 1871 with a station in town.  The rail line crossed Cooksville Creek on a trestle with stone piers.  The original pier was repaired with concrete at the top when the rail corridor was double tracked and a new concrete pier built beside the cut stone original.

Given Road has seen a lot of changes over the years and the remnants of past uses are scattered throughout the woods but the secret of who built the road and why they gave it in the first place remains hidden.

Google Maps link: Given Road

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Sunday Mar. 27, 2016

The piece of land that we call Glendon Forest was, in fact, cleared and used for farming between 1816 and 1920.  It has also been home to a quarry and a millionaire’s estate.  Today it belongs to York University.

Lot 5, first line east was first owned by John and Nancy Blewett who were the original settlers.  In 1818 they made arrangements with Francis Brock who operated a stone quarry known as Brock’s Quarry for close to 60 years.  Large boulders were left in the Don River Valley during the retreat of the last ice age and these were collected from along the lower lands of the flood plains.  By the 1860’s  the farm had been sold to John Burk but the 1878 atlas below shows it was owned by the Russell family by that time.  When the Russells sold it to Edward Rogers Wood in 1920 there were only two small areas of the original woodland that had not been cut down.  The area along the east valley slope and the west woodlot adjacent to Bayview Avenue.  This second woodlot is known as Lawrence’s Bush in honour of the neighbouring farms which belonged to Peter and John Lawrence after whom Lawrence Avenue is named.

E. R. Wood converted the open fields of the farm into an estate and woodland in just a few years.  The story of Glendon Estate is included in the post on Bayview Estates.  The park can be accessed from Sunnybrook Farms where there is parking near the stables. There is also parking on the east side of the river that can be reached from the back of Sunnybrook Hospital.  From here the trail starts near the closed bridge and follows the twisting West Don River.  It was a beautiful spring day with the sunlight dancing on the river.

Common Snowdrops bloom in the early spring from perennial bulbs.  Each bulb produces one flower which, when closed, resembles a drop of snow hanging from the pedicel.  Some countries have approved the use of an alkaloid from the plant to treat Alzheimer’s disease. There is a large patch of Common Snowdrops along the trail as it makes its way out of Sunnybrook Park.  Snowdrops were also seen the previous day in Jack Darling Park, this picture can be seen on our Facebook page.

Mallard ducks form into pairs before the mating season begins.  Mallards are generally monogamous with the females making the familiar quacking sound.  The males make a quieter, raspy sound when they can fit a word in.

Glendon Forest was replanted during the 1920’s by the Woods and today is home to a surprising array of plants and wildlife.  There are at least 37 species of rare flora and at least 100 species of fauna that call the forests, ravine slopes and wetlands home.  The picture below shows the marsh which is quiet today.  In a few weeks it will be alive with thousands of tadpoles and all the creatures that find them tasty.

Along the trail between Sunnybrook Park and Glendon Forest there are three bridges, the first two abandoned.  These bridges have been closed, in part, as an effort to keep people from using the trails on the east side of the river.  There is a plan to let the east part of the forest naturalize because the trails on that side have eroded badly in many places.  The trail from the other side of this bridge leads to the old access road for the Brock Quarry.  It can be seen in the cover photo.

Quietly rotting in the trees along the side of the west trail are the remains of this wagon.

After passing the second closed bridge you come to the only one that is still open.  It leads to a campus parking lot which contains the trail-head for the eastern trails.  Adjacent to the modern bridge are the old abutments for the previous bridge.

Like the Common Snowdrops featured above, Coltsfoot is another sure sign of spring. This year they are a week ahead of their first appearance a year ago when we found them while investigating Churchville.

The picture below shows the second closed bridge, as seen from the east side of the river. Notice the major crack on the concrete at the left hand side of the bridge.  The quarry was located close the the site of this bridge, which is a replacement for an earlier one.

The 1947 aerial view below shows the east side of the Glendon Forest as it was in 1947. Closed bridge number 2 is located on the upper left with closed bridge number 1 on the lower left.  The old gravel quarry laneway runs along the wooded eastern slope of the ravine and is mostly hidden in the dark strip of trees.  The leading end is marked near the first bridge and the tail end can be seen where it meets the roadway between the second bridge and Lawrence Avenue, which runs along the top of the picture.  The slope above the roadway had collapsed at some time in the past and was reinforced with a stone wall.  As can be seen in the cover photo, this wall is now collapsing as well.

A tree was used to cross Limestone Creek in Nassagaweya Canyon last weekend that was half the size of this tree.  Limestone Creek is small and would have provided wet feet if one slipped off of the tree.  The Don River is high, moving fast and very cold.  This tree could be crossed in the summer, but not when the Don River is raging as it is right now.

Along the eastern trail as it approaches Sunnybrook Park are four concrete platforms standing in the woods beside the river.

In the distance of this picture is another closed bridge.  This one crosses the Don River between Sunnybrook Park and Sunnybrook Hospital and I was parked just to the right of it.  This bridge was closed after the park was donated to the city by Alice Kilgour. Alice requested that the park be free for the use of everyone and that there not be any road passing through from Bayview Avenue to Leslie Street.  Having completed the loop around the forest I was almost back to the car.  However, a large chunk of the trail has been eroded away and you can’t get to the bridge along this path.  The options here are to turn around and go back to the bridge or attempt go up the side of the ravine.  I recommend you go back, or don’t come this far, because sliding down the hill would drop you in the river.

Glendon Forest will need to be visited again when all that rare flora and fauna is around to be observed.

Google Maps link: Glendon Forest

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