Burlington Post
January 27, 199?
One could probably fill Lake Ontario with everything that has been written about Burlington's waterfront area, particularly the Beach Strip.
So the Looking Back column about the waterfront will be written in two parts, with this week's segment devoted to the Strip.
The Beach Strip is actually a huge sandbar, which originally consisted of two spits separated by a small gap or "outlet." The strip was created by wind and wave action over the ages.
When first seen by white explorers it was a four-mile long white sand beach separating Lake Ontario from a sheltered bay. The strip was a quarter-mile wide at most, withgrapevines and bamboo-like plants which were home to rabbits and raccoons.
It's believed the Strip was sold to Upper Canada for goods valued at 100 British pounds.
There were also willow trees with small marshy inlets and lagoons full of herons, loons, kingfishers, swans etc.
It's believed that Etienne Brule passed by it in 1615, while Sulpican priests, including the explorer La Salle camped there in 1669.
The first regular inhabitants were the Neutral Indians, so named because they refused to get involved in disputes involving other Indian nations. But they were wiped out in 1650 by the Iroquois.
According to one report the government of Upper Canada bought the Strip from the Mississauga Indians for goods valued at 100 British pounds.
White settlement started a few years after 1794, when Lieut. Gov. Simcoe had the King's Head Inn built on the south end of the
beach. The main purpose of the inn was for storing military supplies, and these were guarded by troops.
But King's Head was eventually destroyed in 1813 by Americans under General George Dearborn.
There were two other War of 1812 encounters on the Beach Strip, with one being an aborted landing by the Americans, and the other an occurrence known as "The Burlington Races".
This incident started with a naval battle between the Americans and British near York. After a fierce fight, the British ship Wolfe retreated with U.S. Commodore Isaac Chauncev's boat in pursuit.
The chase went to Oakville, where Chauncey (who'd earlier helped sack King's Head) gave up pursuit, figuring his rival would run aground on the Beach Strip.
But the water was high and the Wolfe, captained by a 22-year-old, was able to squeak through the outlet into the safe bay side.
As for early Beach Strip settlement, Lewis Corey, son of a United Empire Loyalist, and John Dynes, were believed to be the first.
When they initially settled there, wrote Corey A. Kume, the area was a mass of trees, foliage and a swamp full of water lilies.
Thousands of frogs croaked a night, and they were dubbed the Canadian Band by the early in habitants.
Smugglers and innkeepers were among the early residents.
Fishing was an important occupation during the Strip's early days with numerous varieties available, and later there were orchards and market gardens. Local hunters also visited the area, as game was plentiful.
Besides farmers and fishermen, laborers, smugglers and innkeepers were also permanent residents.
By 1833 the Beach Strip boasted four small hotels, three general stores, and two saloons. Jacob Spahn built the first hotel there, while O. McAffee, who ran the canal dredge, lived on the Strip.
Another interesting resident was schooner captain Edward Zealand, who owned three boats and had a forwarding business at Port Hamilton.
However, Captain Zealand was killed in December, 1869, when he was gored by a young cow that escaped at the Hamilton market.
There were many, many hotels and taverns over the years, with some of these being Martin's Pleasure Garden, the Arlington Hotel, the Road House, The Old Tavern, the Ocean House Wells' Tavern, the Lakeside, the Sportman's Arms, Corey House, Perry's Hotel.
Many of these were destroyed by fire. A spark from a passing train burnt the Perry House, while lightning razed Mrs. Fish's tavern, and a fire from the cellar destroyed the Ocean House.
The Dynes' Hotel (established in 1846), was also damaged by fire in 1882, but was rebuilt and still exists on the same property today.(Edit, the Dynes Tavern was demolished in 2007).
Capt. Thos. Campbell described the Dynes in 1899 as a place ...where duck dinners cannot be excelled by any caterer in the Dominion."
It was was the site of many picnics including the Annual Beach Fete, a celebration which featured swimming and boat races, other sports, and even aviation stunts,
Steamers and ferries made frequent trips from Hamilton to the Beach Strip and on one storm, day three children drowned when a dock at Martin's gave way.
In wintertime, nearby Burlington Bay could be crossed on foot, on skates or by sleigh. Occasionally the canal would freeze and people would cross it using man ropes that were put out.
A canal was built in the 1820s for $94,000, ensuring that ships could pass through the Beach Strip reliably. A small swing bridge was built in 1830, and a year later, the first ship was constructed in the vicinity.
The old outlet was filled in, and a workman was injured there and left in a shack to die after his leg was amputated. His ghost was said to haunt the shack, while his leg was hidden in a whisky barrel that was drained of booze by unsuspecting thieves.
The first canal lighthouse was built in 1838, but burnt when sparks from a steamer set fire to the pier. A lighthouse made out of white dolomite limestone, which has stood up until recent times, was built in 1858.
George Thompson, a lighthouse keeper in the 1800s kept a diary that proved to be an important source of information about those early days.
Thompson kept his light polished and could see from one end of the Strip to the other, and once testified against two men who were fishing illegally.
The pair could not pay their fines and were jailed, but only temporarily. "Balderdash (one culprit was named Baldry) out of jail," said Thompson's diary.
Tracks were laid across the Beach Strip by the Grand Trunk Railway about 1855. The Hamilton and Northwestern Railway and the radial electric line also traversed the strip. Bridges were built across the canal to accommodate both railroads.
A double leaf bascule bridge replaced the radial bridge in 1921. Thirty one years later it was severely damaged when the W.E. Fitgerald, a 7,000 ton U.S. sand-boat slammed into it.
When the wreckage was finally cleared, the current vertical lift bridge was built.
Then in 1958, an engineering marvel, the multi-million dollar Burlington Bay Skyway, was built. The Beach Strip was widened to accommodate the bridge using fill pumped out to deepen the channel.
Toll booths were originally installed, but later discontinued after traffic problems resulted.
The Skyway has been twinned recently, and beach strip roads have been improved as well. Naming the expanded bridge system was controversial with the cumbersome "James N. Allan Burlington Bay Skyway" finally adopted. Hydro towers were originally built on both sides of the Strip, but the bayside ones were removed in 1982. The lakeside towers were built in 1908 to carry power from Niagara Falls to the rest of Ontario and were unofficial direction markers, water level markers, and firebuilding areas.
The Strip was a popular cottage area at one time for Burlington-Hamilton area residents. It was handy for summer stays as owners could easily commute to work and check up on their main residences. And the area was once known for its clean air.
Time and space limitations prohibit complete list of Beach Strip personalities, but here are a few.
They include Royston C. Kime, known as The Walker; "Old Bert" who was described as a type of hermit living at Station 10, "Butts" Fell, who was always looking for cigarette butts, George Stockfish, the Beach barber; and Bill Ryan, the first registered pharmacist, who also had a soda fountain at his drugstore.
The Burlington Beach Strip is eventually slated to become a waterfront parkland area, with local authorities taking over properties once leases run out in a few years.
Information for this week's column was obtained a book by Dorothy Turcotte entitled The Sand Strip: Burlington/Hamilton Beaches and from information supplied by the Burlington Historical Society
January 27, 199?
One could probably fill Lake Ontario with everything that has been written about Burlington's waterfront area, particularly the Beach Strip.
So the Looking Back column about the waterfront will be written in two parts, with this week's segment devoted to the Strip.
The Beach Strip is actually a huge sandbar, which originally consisted of two spits separated by a small gap or "outlet." The strip was created by wind and wave action over the ages.
When first seen by white explorers it was a four-mile long white sand beach separating Lake Ontario from a sheltered bay. The strip was a quarter-mile wide at most, withgrapevines and bamboo-like plants which were home to rabbits and raccoons.
It's believed the Strip was sold to Upper Canada for goods valued at 100 British pounds.
There were also willow trees with small marshy inlets and lagoons full of herons, loons, kingfishers, swans etc.
It's believed that Etienne Brule passed by it in 1615, while Sulpican priests, including the explorer La Salle camped there in 1669.
The first regular inhabitants were the Neutral Indians, so named because they refused to get involved in disputes involving other Indian nations. But they were wiped out in 1650 by the Iroquois.
According to one report the government of Upper Canada bought the Strip from the Mississauga Indians for goods valued at 100 British pounds.
White settlement started a few years after 1794, when Lieut. Gov. Simcoe had the King's Head Inn built on the south end of the
beach. The main purpose of the inn was for storing military supplies, and these were guarded by troops.
But King's Head was eventually destroyed in 1813 by Americans under General George Dearborn.
There were two other War of 1812 encounters on the Beach Strip, with one being an aborted landing by the Americans, and the other an occurrence known as "The Burlington Races".
This incident started with a naval battle between the Americans and British near York. After a fierce fight, the British ship Wolfe retreated with U.S. Commodore Isaac Chauncev's boat in pursuit.
The chase went to Oakville, where Chauncey (who'd earlier helped sack King's Head) gave up pursuit, figuring his rival would run aground on the Beach Strip.
But the water was high and the Wolfe, captained by a 22-year-old, was able to squeak through the outlet into the safe bay side.
As for early Beach Strip settlement, Lewis Corey, son of a United Empire Loyalist, and John Dynes, were believed to be the first.
When they initially settled there, wrote Corey A. Kume, the area was a mass of trees, foliage and a swamp full of water lilies.
Thousands of frogs croaked a night, and they were dubbed the Canadian Band by the early in habitants.
Smugglers and innkeepers were among the early residents.
Fishing was an important occupation during the Strip's early days with numerous varieties available, and later there were orchards and market gardens. Local hunters also visited the area, as game was plentiful.
Besides farmers and fishermen, laborers, smugglers and innkeepers were also permanent residents.
By 1833 the Beach Strip boasted four small hotels, three general stores, and two saloons. Jacob Spahn built the first hotel there, while O. McAffee, who ran the canal dredge, lived on the Strip.
Another interesting resident was schooner captain Edward Zealand, who owned three boats and had a forwarding business at Port Hamilton.
However, Captain Zealand was killed in December, 1869, when he was gored by a young cow that escaped at the Hamilton market.
There were many, many hotels and taverns over the years, with some of these being Martin's Pleasure Garden, the Arlington Hotel, the Road House, The Old Tavern, the Ocean House Wells' Tavern, the Lakeside, the Sportman's Arms, Corey House, Perry's Hotel.
Many of these were destroyed by fire. A spark from a passing train burnt the Perry House, while lightning razed Mrs. Fish's tavern, and a fire from the cellar destroyed the Ocean House.
The Dynes' Hotel (established in 1846), was also damaged by fire in 1882, but was rebuilt and still exists on the same property today.(Edit, the Dynes Tavern was demolished in 2007).
Capt. Thos. Campbell described the Dynes in 1899 as a place ...where duck dinners cannot be excelled by any caterer in the Dominion."
It was was the site of many picnics including the Annual Beach Fete, a celebration which featured swimming and boat races, other sports, and even aviation stunts,
Steamers and ferries made frequent trips from Hamilton to the Beach Strip and on one storm, day three children drowned when a dock at Martin's gave way.
In wintertime, nearby Burlington Bay could be crossed on foot, on skates or by sleigh. Occasionally the canal would freeze and people would cross it using man ropes that were put out.
A canal was built in the 1820s for $94,000, ensuring that ships could pass through the Beach Strip reliably. A small swing bridge was built in 1830, and a year later, the first ship was constructed in the vicinity.
The old outlet was filled in, and a workman was injured there and left in a shack to die after his leg was amputated. His ghost was said to haunt the shack, while his leg was hidden in a whisky barrel that was drained of booze by unsuspecting thieves.
The first canal lighthouse was built in 1838, but burnt when sparks from a steamer set fire to the pier. A lighthouse made out of white dolomite limestone, which has stood up until recent times, was built in 1858.
George Thompson, a lighthouse keeper in the 1800s kept a diary that proved to be an important source of information about those early days.
Thompson kept his light polished and could see from one end of the Strip to the other, and once testified against two men who were fishing illegally.
The pair could not pay their fines and were jailed, but only temporarily. "Balderdash (one culprit was named Baldry) out of jail," said Thompson's diary.
Tracks were laid across the Beach Strip by the Grand Trunk Railway about 1855. The Hamilton and Northwestern Railway and the radial electric line also traversed the strip. Bridges were built across the canal to accommodate both railroads.
A double leaf bascule bridge replaced the radial bridge in 1921. Thirty one years later it was severely damaged when the W.E. Fitgerald, a 7,000 ton U.S. sand-boat slammed into it.
When the wreckage was finally cleared, the current vertical lift bridge was built.
Then in 1958, an engineering marvel, the multi-million dollar Burlington Bay Skyway, was built. The Beach Strip was widened to accommodate the bridge using fill pumped out to deepen the channel.
Toll booths were originally installed, but later discontinued after traffic problems resulted.
The Skyway has been twinned recently, and beach strip roads have been improved as well. Naming the expanded bridge system was controversial with the cumbersome "James N. Allan Burlington Bay Skyway" finally adopted. Hydro towers were originally built on both sides of the Strip, but the bayside ones were removed in 1982. The lakeside towers were built in 1908 to carry power from Niagara Falls to the rest of Ontario and were unofficial direction markers, water level markers, and firebuilding areas.
The Strip was a popular cottage area at one time for Burlington-Hamilton area residents. It was handy for summer stays as owners could easily commute to work and check up on their main residences. And the area was once known for its clean air.
Time and space limitations prohibit complete list of Beach Strip personalities, but here are a few.
They include Royston C. Kime, known as The Walker; "Old Bert" who was described as a type of hermit living at Station 10, "Butts" Fell, who was always looking for cigarette butts, George Stockfish, the Beach barber; and Bill Ryan, the first registered pharmacist, who also had a soda fountain at his drugstore.
The Burlington Beach Strip is eventually slated to become a waterfront parkland area, with local authorities taking over properties once leases run out in a few years.
Information for this week's column was obtained a book by Dorothy Turcotte entitled The Sand Strip: Burlington/Hamilton Beaches and from information supplied by the Burlington Historical Society