Forks of the Credit Provincial Park | |
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![]() Credit River flowing through Forks of the Credit Provincial Park | |
Location | Ontario, Canada |
Nearest city | Caledon, Ontario |
Coordinates | 43°48′58″N80°00′43″W / 43.816°N 80.012°W Coordinates: 43°48′58″N80°00′43″W / 43.816°N 80.012°W |
Area | 282 hectares (700 acres) |
Established | 1985 [1] |
Governing body | Ontario Parks |
Forks of the Credit Provincial Park, located in Caledon, Ontario, Canada, is part of the Ontario Parks system and is part of the Niagara Escarpment biosphere. The park is on the Bruce Trail. The Credit River runs through the park. Other notable features of the park include a kettle lake and talus slope. [2]
In 1968 the Niagara Escarpment Study recommended that a park be established in the Forks of the Credit area; this recommendation was then accepted by the Government of Ontario. It was officially regulated as a provincial park in 1985. [3]
There has been a mill in the area since 1820. [4] In 1885, John Deagle bought the mill at the top of the falls and converted it into an electrical generating station, damming the river and creating Cataract Lake; he named the enterprise The Cataract Electric Co. Ltd. Later the station was purchased by Ontario Hydro and was eventually shut down in 1947. [4] The dam was later destroyed and the lake drained. [4] The ruins of the mill and powerhouse are located within the park; [3] The ruins of the Deagle mill are the most visible reminders of the history. [5]
The Credit Valley Railway reached the area in 1879 and built a station at the Forks of the Credit as well as a timber trestle spanning the Credit River. The primary purpose was shipping Credit Valley sandstone to other communities in Ontario, particularly Toronto and Hamilton, where the product was used in the construction of large buildings such as Queen's Park and the original Toronto City Hall. No remnants of the station remain. [6]
The Niagara Escarpment is a long escarpment, or cuesta, in the United States and Canada that runs predominantly east–west from New York through Ontario, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Illinois. The escarpment is most famous as the cliff over which the Niagara River plunges at Niagara Falls, for which it is named.
The Humber River is a river in Southern Ontario, Canada. It is in the Great Lakes Basin, is a tributary of Lake Ontario and is one of two major rivers on either side of the city of Toronto, the other being the Don River to the east. It was designated a Canadian Heritage River on September 24, 1999.
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Waterdown is a community in Canada which since 2001 has been a community of Hamilton, Ontario. Waterdown is approximately 60 km west of downtown Toronto.
The Credit River is a river in southern Ontario, which flows from headwaters above the Niagara Escarpment near Orangeville and Caledon East to empty into Lake Ontario at Port Credit, Mississauga. It drains an area of approximately 1,000 square kilometres (390 sq mi). The total length of the river and its tributary streams is over 1,500 kilometres (930 mi).
Erindale is an historical neighbourhood located within the central part of the city of Mississauga, west of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Erindale is named in honour of the birthplace of the first rector of the village, Reverend James Magrath from Erin (Ireland).
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Twelve Mile Creek is a waterway located on the Niagara Peninsula in the Regional Municipality of Niagara in Southern Ontario, Canada. Its headwaters are located in the town of Pelham, encompassing some of the most unspoiled and natural areas of Niagara area. The creek's lower reaches flow through urban areas of Thorold and St. Catharines, and have been heavily altered by human activity for almost two centuries. The creek was first known as "Ashquasing" by the Mississaugas Indigenous people, the name meaning "that which lies at the end" in the Anishinaabe language.
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The Credit Valley Railway was a railway located in Ontario, Canada from Toronto to St. Thomas. Chartered in 1871 by Ontario railway magnate George Laidlaw, it operated as an independent company until 1883 when it was leased by the Ontario and Quebec Railway, a Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) operating company building a network of lines in southern Ontario.
The Cheltenham Badlands are in Caledon, Ontario, on the south east side of Olde Base Line Road, between Creditview and Chinguacousy Roads. The site occupies an area of approximately 0.4 square kilometers and features exposed and highly eroded Queenston shale. The Cheltenham Badlands are a significant educational site due to the readily visible geologic processes and the red colour and the unique topography of the exposed shale makes this a popular tourist site. The site is a Provincial Earth Sciences Area of Natural and Scientific Interest (ANSI) since it is considered one of the best examples of "badlands topography" in Ontario.
The actual closing of the plant in 1947 by Ontario Hydro led eventually to the dynamiting of the dam at ‘Cataract Lake’ and the disappearance of this man-made feature, which had become a part of area life. The ruins of Deagle’s mill are the most visible remnant of the historic period of water-powered milling on this section of the Credit River and of Deagle’s pioneering work in hydro-electric generation.
With the rail link in place, Credit Valley sandstone was shipped throughout southern Ontario but primarily to Toronto and Hamilton. Queen’s Park and the old Toronto City Hall are two significant examples of the many important buildings completed in this material. Four varieties of ‘dimension’ sandstone were available from the Forks’ quarries: a grey with occasional brown spots; a uniform grey stone of particularly high quality; a brownstone which varied from chocolate to deep brown depending on the quarry with occasional deposits of a pinkish brown stone (particularly prized) and a piebald mix of white and brown stone.
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