Top 100 Unusual Things to See in Ontario

by Brown, Ron

• ISBN13: 9781550464252
• ISBN10: 1550464256
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-08-06
• Publisher: Boston Mills Pr

Summary

In his relentless quest to discover the unusual, Ron Brown has traveled nearly every road in Ontario. This book features 100 of the very best trips from his three bestselling 50 Unusual collections: 50 Unusual Things to See in Ontario, 50 Even More Unusual Things to See in Ontario, and Ontario's Secret Landscapes: 50 More Visits to Unusual Ontario. This is the first time these bestselling books have been updated and compiled into a "best of" format.What's an unusual thing? "Anything that is unexpected. Something that shouldn't belong where you found it." Most locations are easy to reach from Ontario's major population centers, a few are for more adventurous explorers.Trips include: North America's Longest Wooden Bridge Ghosts of the Gold Fields Holleford Meteor Crater The Swamp That Feeds the World Ontario's Taj Mahal The Floating Mansions of Lemonville The Eight-Sided Main Street The Telltale Grave Ontario's Stonehenge The Dune That Ate the Town Boats in the Air Strange Serpent Mounds of Rice Lake Massacre at Reesor Siding Hell Holes of Eastern Ontario Birdhouse City Magical Cyprus Lake Grotto The Country's Smallest Jail North America's Longest Stone-Arch Bridge The Mud Church of Shanty Bay The World's Shortest Railway

Author Biography

Ron Brown has written a dozen books on Ontario's ghost towns and roadside attractions (both natural and unnatural). He is a frequent contributor to CBC Radio, and his travel articles have appeared in North American newspapers and magazines. He lives in Toronto.

Table of Contents

Introduction	8	(2)
Over the Sioux Narrows: North America's Longest Wooden Bridge	10	(2)
Nicholson: A Ghost Town Worth Visiting	12	(2)
Dyer's Dedication: Muskoka's Wilderness Memorial	14	(2)
Canada's Gibraltar: Bon Echo Rock	16	(2)
Ghosts of the Gold Fields: Ontario's Eldorado	18	(2)
The Disappearing River of Peterborough County	20	(2)
The Rice Lake Railway	22	(2)
Kingston's Little Round Forts	24	(2)
Death Beneath the Street: Lemieux's Underground Death Trap	26	(2)
It Came from Outer Space: The Holleford Meteor Crater	28	(2)
Smiths Falls' High-Rise Privy	30	(2)
Trenton's Big Boulder	32	(2)
Rails Under Brockville: Canada's Oldest Railway Tunnel	34	(2)
The Swamp that Feeds the World: The Amazing Holland Marsh	36	(2)
The Comfort Giant: Canada's Biggest Maple Tree	38	(2)
The Townsend Experiment	40	(2)
St. Catharines' Forgotten Tunnel	42	(2)
Dwarf Cedars: Ontario's Oldest Trees	44	(2)
Ontario's Taj Mahal: The Thomas Foster Memorial	46	(2)
Belfountain Park: The Stamp Man's Legacy	48	(2)
Guiding Light: Beautiful Point Abino Lighthouse	50	(2)
Rockwood's Potholes	52	(2)
The Floating Mansions of Lemonville	54	(2)
An Industrial Survivor: Toronto's Gooderham and Worts Distillery District	56	(2)
Ode to Joy: The Last Joy Gas Station	58	(2)
A Utilitarian Beauty: The R.C. Harris Filtration Plant	60	(2)
A Touch of Holland: The Bayfield Windmill	62	(2)
Carved in Stone: The Apple Park Farm Statues	64	(2)
The Hole in the Hill: The Strange Story of the Eugenia Arches	66	(2)
Point Pelee: Where Canada Begins	68	(2)
The Telltale Grave: The Donnelly Tombstone	70	(2)
Going Around in Circles: Goderich's Eight-Sided Main Street	72	(2)
The Log Castle on White Otter Lake	74	(2)
Grand Canyon North: Ouimet Canyon	76	(2)
Cobalt's Boom-Town Legacy	78	(2)
The Algoma Central: A Train Ride from the Past	80	(2)
The White Crests of Killarney	82	(2)
Sudbury's Little Italy	84	(2)
Stonehenge Ontario?	86	(2)
The Ruins of St. Raphael	88	(2)
Ontario's Smallest Ferry	90	(1)
The Lake on the Mountain	91	(1)
The Dune that Ate a Town	92	(2)
Waterway from the Past: The Rideau Canal	94	(2)
The Teaching Rocks: Peterborough's Petroglyphs	96	(2)
Boats in the Air: The Kirkfield Lift Lock	98	(2)
Boats on Rails: The Big Chute Marine Railway	100	(2)
Ontario's Black Gold: The Petrolia Discovery	102	(2)
West Montrose: The Last Covered Bridge	104	(2)
Paris Plains Stone Church	106	(2)
The Cheltenham Badlands: Ontario's Painted Desert	108	(2)
Sloman's School Car: The Schoolhouse that Rode the Rails	110	(2)
Fort Mississauga: The Forgotten Fort	112	(2)
The Canal that Never Saw Water: Newmarket's Ghost Canal	114	(2)
Temple of Light: The Sharon Temple	116	(2)
The Dutch Chapel: The Pillars of the Scarborough Bluffs	118	(2)
Toronto Islands's Haunted Lighthouse	120	(2)
Those Perplexing Pukaskwa Pits	122	(2)
The Strange Serpent Mound of Rice Lake	124	(2)
The Southwold Earthworks: A Pre-European-Contact Village Site	126	(2)
Ojibway: The Case of the Missing Town	128	(2)
A Horse Palace: The Casa Loma Stables	130	(2)
The Yorkville Rock and Other Strange Parks	132	(2)
Perfect Purification: The Elevated Wetlands of the Don Valley	134	(2)
Last of a Kind: Blair's Sheave Tower	136	(2)
Kitchener's Pioneer Tower: Cultural Cooperation	138	(2)
Emo's Unusual Norlund Chapel	140	(2)
The Cryptic Gravestone of Rushes Cemetery	142	(2)
Monument to Murder: Massacre at Reesor Siding	144	(2)
The Sudden Splendour of the Elora Gorge	146	(2)
Fossil Hunters' Fantasy: The Rock Glen Gorge	148	(2)
Algonquin Park's Incredible Barron Canyon	150	(2)
The Hell Holes of Eastern Ontario	152	(2)
The Lake with No Waves: The Strange Story of Crawford Lake	154	(2)
Ontario's Southern Prairie	156	(2)
The Big Sand Pile: Houghton's Sand Hill	158	(2)
The Torrance Barrens: Scary	160	(2)
A City for the Birds: Picton's Birdhouse City	162	(2)
Markham Heritage Estates: A Suburb of Last Resort	164	(2)
A Green Sudbury	166	(2)
Climbing Neptune's Staircase: The Welland Canals of St. Catharines	168	(2)
Marmora's Big Hole	170	(2)
James Bond and the Secret of Camp X	172	(2)
The Magical Cyprus Lake Grotto	174	(2)
Size Matters: The Battle Over the Country's Smallest Jail	176	(2)
Eight Sides to a House: Woodchester Villa	178	(2)
Pakenham's Stone Arch Bridge: North America's Longest	180	(2)
Ontario's Worst Roads: The Forgotten Corduroy Trails	182	(2)
The Smallest Union Station	184	(2)
The Feeling of Being Watched: Toronto's Old City Hall Gargoyles	186	(2)
Kapuskasing: A Planned Town in the Northern Bush	188	(2)
The Mud Church of Shanty Bay	190	(2)
The Guild Inn's Garden of Ruins	192	(2)
A Legacy in Log: The Madill Church	194	(2)
3-D-ception: The Trompe l'Oeil Murals of Castle Kilbride	196	(2)
Temagami's Tall Pines	198	(2)
Tiny Town: Toronto's Smallest Houses	200	(2)
Depot Harbour: A Ghost Town Worth Visiting	202	(2)
The Return of Muskoka's Portage Flyer: The World's Shortest Railway	204	(2)
The Levee Road	206	(2)
Index	208

Excerpts

IntroductionOntario is full of hidden treasure. Down village streets, in city lanes, and along quiet country roads lie its most unusual sights -- houses that seem to float, a river that disappears, log cabins in the center of a major city. All await the curious explorer. Monuments to murders, massacres and mysterious spy camps bring to life the lesser-known aspects of Ontario's hidden heritage.This book features my pick of Ontario's top 100 unusual things to see. It combines the best features found in the 50 Unusual Things to See in Ontario series, updates them and adds new oddities as well. Most of the listings are easy to see and are available to the public, either through admission, or from a public vantage point.There is no particular order to the arrangement of the chapters in this volume, and that, in the opinion of this random explorer, is as it should be. Head out and discover whichever treasure appeals at the moment. Temples, towers and quirks of nature offer insight into an Ontario that few even know exists. And that's what looking for treasure is all about.Ron Brown, Toronto