Crystal Beach Hill

Last updated
The beach at Crystal Beach Hill. BeachInFrontofTheHill.png
The beach at Crystal Beach Hill.

Crystal Beach Hill is a geologically old and natural sand dune, fifty feet high and originally about two thousand feet long, parallel to the shoreline of Crystal Beach on the south-eastern shore of Lake Erie, in the town of Fort Erie, Ontario. The Hill and beach were originally a part of the Crystal Beach Park property first developed in 1888 by John E. Rebstock as a health spa, religious campground, and later amusement park that was built where a portion of the pre-historic sand dune was washed away by Rebstock's hydraulic pumps.

The Hill was an area where early workers and park carnies were leased land by the Crystal Beach Company and allowed to build (usually) one-room shacks for their off-hours living quarters. Near the western foot of the Hill, three cottages were built as residences for the number of international customs and immigration officers required to handle the thousands of daily boat visitors to Crystal Beach Park and the adjoining beach.

In 1983, with the amusement park in financial difficulties, the Crystal Beach Company sold the land comprising the Hill jointly to its residents. [1] The 40 shacks that were built on the dune, for and by park workers, are now fully equipped summer homes that front directly on the beach. Including the three cottages formerly used for customs officers, these 43 homes now comprise a gated community called the Crystal Beach Hill Association (formerly the Crystal Beach Hill Cottagers Organization).

Related Research Articles

Lake Ontario One of the Great Lakes in North America

Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is surrounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York, whose water boundaries meet in the middle of the lake. Ontario, Canada's most populous province, was named for the lake.

Lake Michigan One of the Great Lakes of North America

Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume and the third-largest by surface area, after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that of Lake Huron through the narrow Straits of Mackinac, giving it the same surface elevation as its easterly counterpart; the two are technically a single lake.

Golden Township, Michigan Township in Michigan, United States

Golden Township is a civil township of Oceana County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 1,810 at the 2000 census.

Toronto Islands Chain of islands in Lake Ontario

The Toronto Islands — called Mnisiing, meaning "on the islands", by the Michi Saagiig Anishinaabeg, and formerly Aiionwatha or Hiawatha's Island by early European settlers—are a chain of 15 small islands in Lake Ontario, south of mainland Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Fort Erie, Ontario Town in Ontario, Canada

Fort Erie is a town on the Niagara River in the Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada. It is directly across the river from Buffalo, New York and is the site of Old Fort Erie which played a prominent role in the War of 1812.

Indiana Dunes National Park United States National Park in Indiana

Indiana Dunes National Park is a United States national park located in northwestern Indiana managed by the National Park Service. It was authorized by Congress in 1966 as the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and was redesignated as the nation's 61st national park on February 15, 2019. The park runs for about 20 miles (32 km) along the southern shore of Lake Michigan; it covers 15,349 acres (6,212 ha) of various acreage. Along the lakefront, the eastern area is roughly the lake shore south to U.S. 12 or U.S. 20 between Michigan City, Indiana, on the east and the ArcelorMittal steel plant on the west. A small extension south of the steel mill continues west along Salt Creek to Indiana 249. The western area is roughly the shoreline south to U.S. 12 between the Burns Ditch west to Broadway in downtown Gary, Indiana. In addition, there are several outlying areas, including Pinhook Bog, in LaPorte County to the east; the Heron Rookery in Porter County, the center of the park; and the Calumet Prairie State Nature Preserve and the Hobart Prairie Grove, both in Lake County, the western end of the park.

Indian Lake (Ohio)

Indian Lake is a reservoir in Logan County, western Ohio, in the United States. It is approximately 20 miles (32 km) southeast of Lima. It is fed by the north and south forks of the Upper Great Miami River, Cherokee Mans Run, Blackhawk Creek, and Van Horn Creek. The outlet of the lake, at the bulkhead or "spillway" built in the 1850s by Irish laborers, is the beginning of the Great Miami River. At 5,104 acres (2,066 ha), Indian Lake is the second largest inland lake in Ohio.

Rondeau Provincial Park Provincial park in Ontario

Rondeau Provincial Park is the second oldest provincial park in Ontario, Canada, having been established with an order in council on 8 September 1894. The park is located in Southwestern Ontario, on an 8 km long crescentic sand spit extending into Lake Erie. Rondeau is home to the largest area of Carolinian forest in Canada, a long sand beach, a large marsh, approximately half of Rondeau Bay, campgrounds and a cottage community. The name of the park comes from the French words "ronde eau" or "round water" which describes the shape of the harbour sheltered by the peninsula.

Crystal Beach, Ontario Lakefront community in Fort Erie, Ontario

Crystal Beach is a lakefront community in Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada. As of 2016, it had a population of 8,524. It was named for the "crystal clear" water conditions present when it was founded on the northeast shore of Lake Erie, across from Buffalo.

Indiana Dunes State Park is an Indiana State Park located in Porter County, Indiana, United States, 47 miles (75.6 km) east of Chicago. The park is bounded by Lake Michigan to the northwest, and is surrounded by as well as within the authorized boundaries of Indiana Dunes National Park, a unit of the National Park Service; the NPS owns the water from the ordinary high water mark to 300 feet (91 m) offshore. The 1,530-acre (619.2 ha) Dunes Nature Preserve makes up the bulk of eastern part of the park, and includes most of the park’s hiking trails and dune landscape. This was one of the first places Richard Lieber considered when establishing the Indiana State Park system. Like all Indiana state parks, there is a fee for entrance. Indiana Dunes State Park was established in 1925 and designated a National Natural Landmark in 1974.

Presque Isle State Park Pennsylvania state park on Lake Erie

Presque Isle State Park is a 3,112-acre (1,259 ha) Pennsylvania State Park on an arching, sandy peninsula that juts into Lake Erie, 4 miles (6 km) west of the city of Erie, in Millcreek Township, Erie County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. The peninsula sweeps northeastward, surrounding Presque Isle Bay along the park's southern coast. It has 13 miles (21 km) of roads, 21 miles (34 km) of recreational trails, 13 beaches for swimming, and a marina. Popular activities at the park include swimming, boating, hiking, biking, and birdwatching.

Northwest Indiana sanjeevk

Northwest Indiana, nicknamed "The Region" after the Calumet Region, comprises Lake, Porter, LaPorte, Newton and Jasper counties in Indiana. This region neighbors Lake Michigan and is part of the Chicago metropolitan area. According to the 2010 Census, Northwest Indiana has a population of 819,537 and is the state's second largest urban area after the Indianapolis Metropolitan Area. It is also the home of the Indiana Dunes, parts of which have been preserved through conservation efforts. The town of Ogden Dunes houses the Hour Glass, a museum showcasing the ecological and conservation efforts of O. D. Frank.

Pleasure Beach

Pleasure Beach is the Bridgeport portion of a Connecticut barrier beach that extends 2.5 miles (4 km) westerly from Point No Point. Prior to June, 2014, when Pleasure Beach re-opened, the area was Connecticut's largest and most recent ghost town after it was abandoned in the late 1990s due to a fire on the bridge connecting it to the mainland. It is surrounded on three sides by water.

Lake Chicago

Lake Chicago was a prehistoric proglacial lake that is the ancestor of what is now known as Lake Michigan, one of North America's five Great Lakes. Fed by retreating glaciers, it drained south through the Chicago Outlet River.

Ice dune Dune made of ice

An ice dune, also called an ice ridge or an ice foot, is a formation of ice that accumulates on the shores of many arctic beaches and is also common along the shores of the Great Lakes during the winter. Ice dunes are not to be confused with ice shoves, which accumulate on bodies of water then push their way on shore, carrying sediment with them and deforming the shoreline.

Sandy Island Beach State Park New York State park

Sandy Island Beach State Park is a New York State park on the eastern shore of Lake Ontario. Its highlight is a 1,500-foot (460 m) natural sandy beach. The park is near the southern end of a notable 17-mile (27 km) length of sandy shoreline, coastal dunes, and wetlands ; a 1959 study noted that "The eastern end of Lake Ontario contains not only the finest beaches on the entire lake but also the finest wildlife habitat."

Stockton Beach New South Wales, Australia

Stockton Beach is located north of the Hunter River in New South Wales, Australia. It is 32 km (20 mi) long and stretches from Stockton, to Anna Bay. Over many years Stockton Beach has been the site of numerous shipwrecks and aircraft crash sites. In World War II it was fortified against a possible attack by Imperial Japanese forces. During that time it served as a bombing and gunnery range as well as a dumping area for unused bombs by aircraft returning from training sorties. The length of the beach, its generally hard surface and numerous items of interest along the beach make it popular with four-wheel drive (4WD) enthusiasts. Four-wheel drive vehicles are permitted to drive on Stockton Beach provided the vehicles are in possession of valid permits. The beach is also popular with fishermen and several different varieties of fish may be caught.

Sunnyside Amusement Park

Sunnyside Amusement Park was a popular amusement park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada that ran from 1922 to 1955, demolished in 1955 to facilitate the building of the Metro Toronto Gardiner Expressway project. It was located on the Lake Ontario waterfront at the foot of Roncesvalles Avenue, west of downtown Toronto.

Crystal Beach Park Former amusement park in Crystal Beach, Ontario

Crystal Beach Park was an amusement park in Crystal Beach, Ontario from 1888 to 1989.

Lake Kankakee

Lake Kankakee formed 14,000 years before present (YBP) in the valley of the Kankakee River. It developed from the outwash of the Michigan Lobe, Saginaw Lobe, and the Huron-Erie Lobe of the Wisconsin glaciation. These three ice sheets formed a basin across Northwestern Indiana. It was a time when the glaciers were receding, but had stopped for a thousand years in these locations. The lake drained about 13,000 YBP, until reaching the level of the Momence Ledge. The outcropping of limestone created an artificial base level, holding water throughout the upper basin, creating the Grand Kankakee Marsh.

References

  1. Dubé, Kris (15 April 2020). "Lack of U.S. Seasonal residents on Lake Erie would be 'devastating' for shoreline towns". The Toronto Star.

Coordinates: 42°51′40″N79°03′29″W / 42.861°N 79.058°W / 42.861; -79.058