The Lake Erie Shore. Ron Brown
freeway was opened by Queen Elizabeth (the Queen Mother) in 1939, while two decades later the 401 (officially known as the MacDonald-Cartier Freeway) was speeding cars and trucks between Toronto and Windsor. Travellers were leaving the trains for the freedom of their own cars, and trucks began taking business away from rail freight. One by one, the rails to the lakes were removed. Today only the tracks to Fort Erie and Port Colborne remain, while the L&PS line has become a tourist line only. Many of the once-busy main lines are now recreational trails.
Then, in the late 1960s, the face of Lake Erie’s industry changed yet again. In an effort to decentralize the industrial sprawl plaguing Ontario’s large cities, the Ontario government assembled a large tract of land east of Port Dover, luring such heavy industries as Texaco Oil, Dofasco Steel, and Ontario Hydro. This once scenic and idyllic stretch of shore now resembles a gloomy industrial forest. Indeed, the hydro plant is considered to be Ontario’s single greatest polluter.
However, clean energy is beginning to dominate the landscape, as well. In an area west of Port Rowan, silhouetted against the sky, are the vast, whirling blades of the sixty wind turbines that make up the Houghton Wind Farm.
Today, condos and cottages clog the shoreline where the amusement parks once bustled. Small industries have moved away, and residents now commute to larger industries in places like Cambridge, St. Thomas, and London.
Even farming itself has changed again. As the demand for cigarettes has declined, the tobacco auction houses have closed and the back-breaking tobacco fields are gradually being replaced with such alternative crops as corn (for ethanol), ginseng, and peanuts, and the dilapidated rows of tobacco sheds now resemble miniature ghost towns. Increasing numbers of farms are converting to pick-your-own operations, and roadside markets line the shore roads. In 1972, the first of the high-bush blueberry farms opened, and that crop has now begun to dominate the roadside and pick-your-own markets.
The cross-lake car ferries have faded into the lake’s lore. While fishing remains a major industry, and is still the world’s largest freshwater fishing fleet, the focus has changed. While 211 fishing licenses are still issued for boats in eleven harbours, fish are increasingly sold to markets in Toronto and to a growing number of local restaurants. Buying fish fresh from the boats, or at the least in the dockside fish markets, is becoming a popular pastime with the tourist traffic.
Many of the cottages have been cleared from the more sensitive ecological areas, which have become popular destinations for nature-seeking tourists. Beaches are cleaner, and most are crowded during Lake Erie’s long, hot summers. The local bed-and-breakfast operations, and the renowned “quaintness” of the old ports are attracting ever more visitors. Indeed, Norfolk County specifically promotes its Lake Erie shoreline as “Ontario’s South Coast.”
But many other little communities have not benefitted from the busy roads and tourists trade. The schooners no longer call, the mills have long gone with no replacements, and their stores and hotels sit shuttered. Their heydays are only distant memories. These are the places of Lake Erie’s “ghost coast.”
The Places of the Lake Erie Shore
4 THE BATTL E-SCARRED BOOKENDS Fort Erie ~ Amherstburg
In many ways, although they occupy the opposite ends of Ontario’s Lake Erie shore, Fort Erie and Amherstburg are almost mirror images of one another. Both began as military towns with forts built to protect the Canadian shore from American attack. Both were major destinations for slaves fleeing the oppression of the United States. Both were among the busiest channels for smuggling booze into the United States during the hated days of prohibition, and both form a terminus for scenic riverside drives.
But there the similarities end. While Fort Erie became a busy crossing point into the United States for both cars and trains, and boasts such attractions as a racetrack, clubs, and modern motels, Amherstburg never realized that potential and has remained, relatively, a backwater. Still, both know how to cherish and celebrate their deep historic roots.
Fort Erie’s first occupants were nomadic groups of Neutral Natives who used the extensive flint beds near the area to fashion arrowheads and spear points. Following the end of the Seven Years’ War in 1763, Britain gained control of what had been formerly French territory, and set out to secure the new areas with a series of forts. On the shore of the river, they built a small, wooden fort and store. A small settlement began to slowly take shape along the river, centred around Dunbar’s gristmill, built in 1792.
The original wooden fort lasted nearly half a century and was used mainly for transhipping troops and military equipment to the Upper Great Lakes. During the American Revolution the fort continued its role as a supply base for the British. However, its exposure to the fierce winds and waves of the lake caused so much damage that the military embarked on a newer and stronger fort farther from the water.
In 1803, planning began for the new structure, one that would use stone from nearby quarries. But progress was slow, and even by the outbreak of the War of 1812, it remained unfinished. During the war, the partial fort changed hands a number of times, each time being alternately rebuilt or dismantled. The soldiers greatly expanded the fort defences during the American occupation of the site in 1814.
A fierce battle on August 15, 1814, resulted in the loss of 1,000 British troops killed or wounded. The British then began a siege that lasted until September 17, when the Americans finally attacked and destroyed the British gun positions. In November, with the war winding down, the Americans destroyed the fort and withdrew. Although in ruin, the British occupied the site until the 1820s. The ruins, however, continued to attract attention of would-be invaders such as the Fenians1, who occupied the site briefly in 1866, but, with its lakeside location, and historic appeal, the ruined fort became a popular attraction for picnickers and visitors, among whom were Mark Twain and the Prince of Wales. In 1937, the federal and provincial governments, and the Niagara Parks Commission, embarked upon a major restoration project. While only a small portion of the stone wall is original, such buildings as the officers’ quarters, soldiers’ barracks, and powder magazine have been recreated based upon the plans of American occupiers. Today, costumed guides represent the Natives, the troops and the militia of the day along with commissary officer “John Warren” and a “soldier’s wife.”
Costumed interpreters relive life at Fort Erie during the War of 1812.
But American soldiers were not the only ones crossing the border. In 1793, John Graves Simcoe abolished the importing of slaves into Upper Canada, and began the process of ending slavery in the Canadas. The whole notion of slavery appalled many in the northern United States, where the inhuman benefits of free labour to a plantation economy, as in the American South, held no sway. Outraged abolitionists began to assist slaves in escaping their bonds and resettling in the northern states where they would be free. Southern Ontario, too, became a destination with major terminals being Windsor, St. Catharines, and Chatham, while