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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Saturday March 12, 2016

Rattlesnake Point is located on a mesa-like outlier where the Niagara Escarpment makes a rise in elevation from about 240 meters to 440 meters.  A glacial ravine divides it from the vertical rock faces of the escarpment to the west.  This ravine, known as Nassagaweya Canyon, is partially filled in with glacial stream deposits.

On the 1877 County Atlas map below the escarpment is marked by a series of scalloped lines that indicate a quick change in elevation.  Just west of Milton the shape of the escarpment reminded the surveyors of the shape of a rattlesnake’s tail.  The southern promontory of this geological formation was known as Rattlesnake Point at least 140 years ago when the map was drawn.  Timber Rattlesnakes were seen here by the hundreds sunning themselves on the rocks but they have been gone for over 60 years.  The land is rugged and covered with rocks but the map shows that it has all been granted as homesteads to settlers.  Joseph Dice owned the property with Rattlesnake Point on it while his father, Matthew owned the one just below it.  The little square of small dots beside the larger one on Joseph’s property indicate an apple orchard planted near the house.  In a twist of the macabre, Joseph died on Aug. 1, 1917 when the wagon load of hay he was harvesting rolled over.  He jumped clear from the wagon but the horses bolted and they dragged the wagon wheel over his abdomen, fatally wounding him.

Joseph Dice never opened the road allowance up the side of Rattlesnake Point and it is shown as a dashed line on the map above.  It has since been opened and now features a tight hairpin curve as you climb the escarpment.  Whereas the land on top of the escarpment was predominantly open in the 1870’s it has now been largely reforested. Some of the new tree cover was planted in straight rows while other areas have been reclaimed naturally over the years.

Eastern White Cedar trees can live to be hundreds of years old.  Starting in 1998 the Niagara Escarpment Ancient Tree Atlas Project began identifying trees that are between 500 and 700 years old.  These cedar trees cling to the cliff face where their ecosystem has remained undisturbed during the clearing of the table land for farming.  They also tend to be small in size making them less desirable than the trees that the farmers harvested for fence posts and other building materials.  Prior to opening the park to sport rock climbing it was necessary to conduct a study to make sure that none of these ancient trees were disturbed. At Rattlesnake Point one cedar, for instance, was identified at 588 years old but only 3.2 meters tall.  The cedar tree clinging to the rock face in the picture below is not that specific tree but demonstrates how they can find a way to survive almost anywhere.

The Trafalgar Lookout is seen in the cover photo and is near to one of the rock climbing areas.  in 2006 a series of bolts were installed on the top of the cliff face in areas where the vertical face was clear of vegetation.  These bolts are inspected regularly to provide a safe anchor for top-roping.  Once the rope has been run through the anchor it is dropped over the side.  At this location there is a set of stairs to provide access to the cliff bottom.  Top-roping is usually how most rock climbers get started.  We saw a licensed  instructor teaching first timers how to rope off at the top of the cliff.  A second type of climbing, known as lead climbing, is done near the same location on a tall thin fragment of rock that stands a few feet out from the cliff face.  In lead climbing a rope is clipped to the rock wall every few feet to limit the amount of a potential fall.  The climber removes the clips as they ascend and fixes them to their belt.  On the way back down they replace them for the next climber.  We watched the guy in the picture below as he made his way up onto that thin sliver of rock.  Notice the collection of clips on his belt.

The picture below is taken from beside the rock face that the individual above was climbing.  Looking up you can see some small cedars clinging to the rock face on the side where climbing is not allowed.

The hackberry tree is a member of the hemp family and can live up to 200 years.  It has a light grey bark which has extensive ridges and warts on it.  It will bloom between late April and early May and produces both male and female flowers on the same tree making it a monoecious plant.  The natives used hackberry bark to treat sore throats, sexual diseases and menstrual cramps.  They also ate the fruit in a form of a porridge.  Today, the fruit is eaten fresh or in the form of jam.  Leaves from the tree provide food for deer and small mammals and birds eat the fruit.  The hackberry tree does not grow farther north than Halton and is part of the Carolinian Forest, the richest vegetation zone in Canada.

Around 12,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age, glacial melt and raging rivers carved out sections of the escarpment.  The Nassagaweya  Canyon is one of these meltwater channels.  The canyon runs between the Milton Outlier which contains Rattlesnake Point and Crawford Lake with it’s historic village of Longhouses.  The mouth of the canyon is filled with glacial outwash till and is home to sand and gravel quarries like the one in the picture below.

Lowville Valley extends 5 kilometers between Rattlesnake Point and Mount Nemo.  It is drained by Bronte Creek which was a powerful river when the glaciers were melting.  Lake Ontario can be seen in the distance.

Eastern chipmunks hibernate in the winter and are a sign of the return of spring.  They live in solitary except during mating season which happens in early spring and again in early summer.  We saw several pairs of them playing their little chipmunk games.  A litter of four or five will emerge from the den about six weeks after they are born.  Within two weeks the newborns will set off to build their own dens.  Those that don’t end up as prey to hawks, snakes or a wide variety of predatory mammals will live for three years or possibly longer.

Looking to the east you can see the towers of Mississauga and on a clear day, the CN tower.

Rattlesnake Point contains several trails including the Bruce Trail, the Vista Adventure trail and Buffalo Crag trail.  The Nassagaweya Canyon trail also connects at Rattlesnake Point.

Google Maps link: Rattlesnake Point

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Sunday Mar. 6, 2016

Mount Charles is a lost town at the corner of Dixie and Derry Road.  In the 1870’s it was a small community of about 50 people but they had two wagon making shops to serve the needs of local farmers.  The Second Purchase, or Treaty 19, was signed in 1818 in which the First Nations surrendered most of what is now Peel County.   In 1819 it was surveyed and our modern Derry Road was simply a narrow trail cut through dense forest by the surveyors.  Charles King Sr. arrived 1819 and took the 100 acre land grant on the north east corner of Dixie and Derry.  Seven years later his son, Charles Jr., received the adjoining land grant.  The community started to grow under the name of Kings Crossing or King’s Corners.  Charles Jr. opened a post office in 1862 in his store on the south east corner (where the gas station is today).  To avoid confusion with other communities they decided to drop King in favour of Charles.  There are no hills, let alone mountains, in the area so the name Mount Charles may contain a bit of jest as well.  By the time of the county atlas in 1877 the Kings had sold their homestead and it was owned by James Jackson.  The pioneer cemetery is located on this lot.  Also shown on the atlas are the two homes featured in the story below.

One of two surviving houses in Mount Charles is the former farmhouse of the Dale family. John Dale was a farmer and may also have been the Justice of the Peace.  This three bay house also features an odd off-centre doorway.  In Georgian styled homes the doorway is almost always centrally located in a well balanced layout.  This home has recently been restored and is in use.

The Dale family farm is now home to the Ontario Khalsa Darbar which is one of the largest Sikh temples in Canada. Formally known as a gurdwara, or doorway to the Guru, this is the place of worship and celebration for the Sikh faith.  This temple can attract up to 10,000 people for special days and in spite of it’s size can be over-crowded.

By the 1870’s the town was typical of rural Ontario with it’s own blacksmith shop, a carpenter shop in addition to the wagon makers.  Being on a well traveled road, they also had need of an inn for travelers to rest their horses and wet their dry throats.  The Primitive Methodists had a church in town until around 1859 when they appear to have joined with the congregation in the town of Palestine at the next crossroads.  The community had already been sharing a school with Palestine.

Built in 1860 the Hornby House went through several owners and so is listed on the heritage register as the Hornby-Scarlett Ambler-Courtney House.  It is shown on the atlas at the end of a long lane way on the estate of William Hornby.  Hornby also owned a corner lot in down town Mt. Charles.  The house was moved from its original location on the lot so that it could be saved during the development of the farm as a subdivision.  The five bay, one and a half story house has ornate brickwork with highly decorative wooden trim.

It now serves as the Old Scarlett House Restaurant and is located near the corner of Dixie Road and Courtney Park Drive East.

Charles Irvin and his wife Jane were both born in the 1790’s when the colony of Upper Canada was just getting it’s start.  They came to Mount Charles where Charles worked as a weaver.  Weavers provided a valuable service in the community because they freed the women up from the task of weaving all their own cloth.  Weavers usually kept a small herb garden to grow plants used to dye the wool.  Irvin became locally famous and his loom is now located in Black Creek Pioneer Village in the Charles Irvin Weaver’s Shop.  The cemetery, which still contained a church on the county atlas, is the other remaining evidence of the community that once thrived here.  Several of the King family are buried here including both Charles Sr. and Jr.

Mt. Charles is a ghost town that has been slowly wiped from existence by the huge industrial zone around the airport.  Until a few years  ago there were several other buildings which have since been lost.  The south west corner contained three buildings in 2003, including the old blacksmith shop, but they have since been demolished.  We followed Etobicoke Creek south along the west end of Toronto Pearson International Airport where a formal trail begins near Courtneypark Drive.  We followed the trail south along the airport, at times right along side the fence.  In 1937 the Toronto Harbour Commission began to buy farms in the area of Malton for the purpose of establishing an airport.  When it opened in 1939 it was known as Malton Airport and the Chapman farmhouse served as both the offices and the original terminal.  The archive photo below shows the house in 1937.

The trail is a great place for people who love to watch airplanes landing and taking off. Being in an industrial zone it was nearly empty and we saw plenty of wildlife which might be in hiding during lunch hours on a week day.  We crested a hill in time to see half a dozen white tail deer who vanished into the thickets along the Etobicoke Creek.  Today the view through the fence is quite different then it was in the 1937 picture above.

There are several local species of mammal that look similar and can be distinguished by their colouring and habitat.  Along Etobicoke Creek we saw at least three different examples of the American Mink.  They have dark brown fur with a white patch on the chin. They are very fast and refuse to pose for pictures.  Their diet consists of small animals but can include rabbits and the occasional sea food in the form of crayfish and sometimes also unwary birds.

White tail deer give live birth to their fawns between late April and early July.  This doe was sitting in the woods quietly observing us.

The former town of Mount Charles may have disappeared under the development of the airport but there still remains a few reminders of the community that was.

Google Maps link:  Mount Charles

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Saturday Feb. 27, 2016

This hike focused on an area around Sawmill Valley Creek which features one of the earliest homes in the area, an haunted historic grand estate as well as the possible burial site for Tootsie the Elephant. The Glen Erin trail and the Sawmill Valley Trail connect everything.  We parked on Dunwin Drive just north of Dundas Street and followed it north to Brookmede Park.

This part of Dunwin Drive used to be the laneway for the Miles Park Farm.  In 1912 a Toronto undertaker named A. W. Miles built a country home and small zoo in Mimico.  By 1936 the neighbours were complaining and city council was telling him to shut it down.  He decided to buy 200 acres of land on the north west corner of Dundas Street and fifth line west (Erin Mills Parkway) near Erindale.  The park was an instant success with bears, monkeys, llamas and peacocks.  Donkeys and camels were also residents along with many other animals but none were more popular than Tootsie.  Born in Burma, Tootsie the elephant loved children.  Unfortunatey, Tootsie perished along with 70 other animals in a fire on Valentines Day 1943.  Children from all around came to attend her funeral and the burial which took place on the farm.  In spite of the tragic loss, the farm continued to operate into the 1950’s before being sold for development.  The bones likely are buried under modern Brookmede park as there is no record of their discovery during construction on the property.  The picture below shows the park and possibly even the final resting place of Tootsie the elephant.

A small tributary feeds into Sawmill Valley Creek and we followed it from Brookmede Park to where it joins Sawmill Valley Creek near Mississauga Road. Along one section it descends the ravine in a hydraulic energy dissipator. This is designed to slow the water down and remove the energy as it falls so that it arrives at the bottom of the ravine without the energy to cause erosion or do damage. Looking at the series of concrete steps and cylinders running down the hillside it makes me wonder about the waterfall that must have been in this location at one time.

In 1927 William Watson Evans built Glenerin Hall in a glen near Erindale on Sawmill Valley Creek.  The 85 acre estate was intended as a summer retreat for the millionaire and his family so they could get away from their Rosedale home in Toronto.  This was the era of grand estates and several were built in the area but only a few survive.  The tower and the music room at the front were added a couple of years later but sadly, Evans died in 1932 before getting to enjoy his estate for very long.  At his request he was buried nearby.  The home was used as a school by over 100 students, mostly girls, and their teachers during World War 2.  The students, from Hornby England, spent the last part of the war in safety here.  One of the interesting uses of the property began in 1945 when the Simpsons purchased it.  They converted it into a convalescent retreat for employees who were injured on the job or underwent surgery.  All expenses were paid from anywhere in Canada including full salary while you were here recovering.  When the Simpsons had to cut expenses in the early 1960’s this was quick to go.  It was later used as a monastery, a real estate development sales office and also served as home to Mississauga’s first Jewish community.  It is now the Glenerin Inn and spa.  It is featured in the cover shot as well as below.

They say that there is a spirit in the house and it is a site frequently visited by those seeking the paranormal.  Although reported as a full apparition in the doorway they claim he is most often seen tending the fire in the great hall.  Some believe it is the spirit of William Watson Evans as he continues to host his guests in the home.

When Glenerin was built there was a gatehouse on the corner of the lane way at Mississauga road.  The picture below, from the Mississauga Library, shows the gatehouse in 1978.

Today the foundation for the gatehouse have been converted into a sign for the subdivision that stands on the property.  The subdivision is named Ivor Woodlands after Roy Ivors who owned the Winding Lane Bird Sanctuary on the property to the north of the Inn.

In the woods not too far from the Evans  Estate is an old utility pole which brought electricity when the building was first constructed.  Electrical insulators were introduced in the 1850’s along with telegraph wires.  Electrical transmission adopted the same poles and the glass insulators were used for this application as well.

Sawmill Valley Creek has recently been landscaped for erosion control.  What was formerly a long series of cascade waterfalls has been turned into a series of steps made of cut stone blocks.

The Grange was built sometime around 1828 for Sir John Beverly Robinson who was the first Chief Justice of Upper Canada.  He was also considered to be the leader of the Family Compact which controlled the government leading to The rebellion of 1837.  The regency styled house with it’s ornate windows was indicative of the status of it’s owner.  Robinson only owned the house until 1833 when it began a rapid change of ownership until around 1910 having seen up to ten owners during this time. Then the Adamson family took up residence here and they stayed until 1973. Sometime during the Adamson years the exterior of the home was given an exterior layer, or veneer, of brick from the local Cooksville Brickyards.  The building was given to the city of Mississauga by the land developers and used by the Boy Scouts until 2004.  It has now had it’s bricks removed and been fully restored to it’s original splendor.  The Heritage Resource Centre of Heritage Mississauga is now the occupant of this home.

Community Canoes are a way of re-purposing old canoes and turning them into bee friendly gardens.  Due to a phenomenon called  Colony Collapse Disorder we have lost over one third of our bee colonies since 2007.  Bees are essential in the pollination of most of the fruits and vegetables we eat as well as the colourful flowers we enjoy.  They also pollinate many of the plants that the animals in our diets live off of.  On June 13, 2015 Heritage Mississauga planted a community canoe on the lawn of The Grange.  We had previously encountered a community canoe along Garrison Creek during our exploration of Military Burying Grounds.

Google Maps link: Glenerin Inn

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