Ontario's Ghost Town Heritage

by Ron Brown

Despite the urban sprawl, industrialization and endless highway construction, Ontario possesses many hidden corners and lonely roads where the remains of earlier settlements, often constructed with immense effort against impossible odds, now lie forgotten. Some are no more than a few decaying foundations and collapsing houses, while others are littered with the remains of the industry and manufacturing that once thrived there. There is a renewed interest in exploring our own backyard, and Ontario's Ghost Town Heritage is the perfect guide to these once-booming towns and villages. While some still maintain small resident populations, others exist only as abandoned buildings and ruins. All have in common that they are "ghosts" of their former greatness, and their images evoke the lost legacy of Ontario's past. This fascinating book by Ontario historian Ron Brown explores over 80 accessible ghost towns in all parts of Ontario. Detailed driving directions invite you to experience the province's heritage for yourself. This revised edition contains many new sites to visit and has been carefully updated with the latest information and driving directions.

Genres: Nonfiction, Canada, History

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Ron Brown is a geographer and travel author of more than twenty books, including Rails to the Atlantic, The Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore, and Back Roads of Ontario. He is past chair of the Writers' Union of Canada and leads tours of Ontario's unusual sights. He lives in Toronto.

Reviews

[Paul Sutter]

As one who does not drive at all, books like ONTARIO’S GHOST TOWN HERITAGE are like a free ride to remote locations, that one might never see in their lifetime. Ron Brown is an expert on ghost towns, having penned more than twenty books on ghost towns, railways, and other areas that are distinctly Canadian.
This is the new and updated version of a classic work that was published more than decade ago. Now with added locations and information, it is the ideal book for those who crave something different. Anyone can drive do to popular tourist destinations, but to drive through towns that once flourished and are now virtually non-existent is certainly something of note.
There are more than 100 such towns presented here, with pictures that take you right to that spot. They show the desolation of the region, with many of these towns reduced to one or two houses, with some having pretty well nothing of note left here. They were thriving communities as far back as in some instances 150 years ago.
In many of these towns, sawmills were the main product as homes were being built as people came and settled into the communities. Gristmills were also prevalent, to grind the wheat and provide grains for consumption. As time progressed and transportation means were altered to include cars and trains, such small communities were no longer a vital part of the area, and people left, taking with them the customer and family base, towns basically reduced to a handful of people, then none. Brown has done an exceptional job of mentioning so many of these places. Included are such locales as: Cheddar, Newfoundout, Howland Junction, Uffington, Jackfish,Napier, Greenlaw Corners, Pickerel Landing Village, Keldon, Dawn Mills, and dozens more. Depot Harbour is noted as the largest Ontario town ever to become a ghost town, once boasting more than 1,600 residents. It had lots of stores, three churches, a school and more.
The community of St. John’s West has the smallest school in Ontario. It dates back to 1803. And the town of Sunshine near the Maitland River is pretty well gone except for a cemetery on its site. Some of the photos do present a sort of ghostly aura, with once proud buildings and houses abandoned and in disrepair. The book is a classic for those seeking a part of Ontario’s history, and for visiting on a whim with a different sort of road trip in mind.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good overview of ghost towns in Ontario, but the broad scope means that each town is usually given two, sometimes four pages for its history, the current condition it is in, and any pictures of it, which often left me as a reader feeling like I wanted to know more. While towns are grouped by region, there often isn't a clear sense of how they related to each other or to existing cities and towns, and as a result the summaries can often feel disjointed and repetitive. The maps at the beginning of each chapter do help with context.

For those interested in reading the book, I'd recommend instead reading the author's "In Search of the Grand Trunk", which features very similar and overlapping content, but really evokes the author's love of historic railways and their stations, and provides a more focused topic. Though it may be more niche, I'd have rather the author wrote either more economic analysis, or had a more personal touch that focused on what life was like for people in these places, which might give some people an opportunity to tell their story in print.

[Ed Howe · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good book on Ontario's ghost towns with lots of photos.

[Peter Wilson]

Pretty cool guide. Unfortunately a lot of these towns are gone without a trace. Still, some cool summer road trip ideas in here.

[Jeanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although it took me some time to finally flip through the entire book (and that I can easily attribute to the style the author chose to write in), I found the content very interesting and it left me knowing a little more about local history.

That and a few places to check out in the area.

Each entry gave all the relevant information possible to best describe each town to the reader, some having more than others depending on the information available to us in this day and age. The layout of each entry was also structured similar to each other, making it easily to simply pick the book up from time to time rather than reading it all in one go.

And while I did learn a lot more about the history of the area, I'd really only recommend this book to locals of Ontario - more often than not, other local towns, cities, and roads are used as reference points leaving those who are not familiar with the area a bit confused. Being familiar with Canadian history in general is also helpful.