Heritage York Research Guide
Natural Geographies
Exhibits
To see the Heritage York exhibition on natural geographies entitled Wading Through Time, by Bailey Classen-Schneider, please click here.
To see the Heritage York exhibition about the Humber River entitled What's Up With The Humber River, by Kate Campbell, please click here.
Glaciation and Lake Iroquois
During the last ice age over 12 000 years ago, a large glacier known as the Laurentide Ice Sheet covered Southern Ontario, which helped to create many of the natural landscapes in the area. Glaciers laid down sediment deposits, depressed the land, and scoured valleys into rock. The Laurentide ice sheet in particular created the Oak Ridges Moraine which is a very important environmental landscape feature. The Oak Ridges Moraine supports many native plants and animals, and is a very important recharge area for groundwater aquifers which are a source of fresh water to thousands of people. This moraine also acts as a drainage divide between the Lake Ontario and the Lake Simcoe/Huron basins.
The Laurentide Ice Sheet began to melt and retreat and about 12 500 years ago and during this process Lake Iroquois was formed. Lake Iroquois was roughly where Lake Ontario is now, though the water levels were much higher. A shore bluff was created around the perimeter of the lake, and this bluff is what Casa Loma now sits on. This is because the lake was not able to drain from the St. Lawrence outlet, which at the time was still blocked by glacial ice. Instead, the lake drained via the Mohawk Valley in an outlet located in Rome, New York. The former shore of Lake Iroquois also had two large bays, one of which is currently occupied by Black Creek and the Humber River. Lakeshore currents created large bars consisting of sand and gravel which stretched across the mouths of these bays. One of these bars is crossed by St. Clair Avenue and the Lambton Golf and Country Club looks out at the Humber from its northern flank.
19th Century Estimate on the Boundaries of Lake Iroquois by Harry Fenn
About 12 000 years ago the St. Lawrence outlet opened up and the lake began to drain until the water was at sea level. Glaciers are very heavy and depress the land they rest on. After a glacier retreats from an area, the land slowly begins to rise again. This is called isostatic rebound and caused the tilting of the basin in which Lake Ontario sits when one part began to rise faster than the other. It resulted in the water flow from the upper Great Lakes bypassing Lake Erie and Ontario. This once more the water levels were raised within Lake Ontario. It wasn’t until about 5000 years ago that the water flow through the lower Great Lakes resumed.
Riley, John L. 2014. The Once and Future Great Lakes Country : An Ecological History. Montreal ; Ithaca: Mcgill-Queen’s University Press.
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​Williamson, Ron. 2008. Toronto: An Illustrated History of Its First 12 000 Years. Toronto: Lorimer.
Physical Characteristics of The Humber River
The Humber River has been known by many names in the past including Niwa'ah Onega'gaih'ih, Toronto River, and St. John’s River. Its name was changed to the Humber River by Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe who named it after a river in England. The various branches and tributaries of the Humber River begin in the Oak Ridges Moraine, and all of them eventually converge and flow into Lake Ontario.
​The Humber River has many branches and tributaries which often divided into groups. The Toronto and Region Conservation Authority has divided these branches into a few general sections. There is Black Creek, Lower Humber, West Humber, East Humber, and Main Humber. Their boundaries can be seen on the map below.
Map of Humber River Watershed by Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, 2021
A report on the physical characteristics of the Humber River from 1984 divided the river up to Steeles Avenue into three reaches based on the gradient of the river. The gradient of a river is essentially how steep the riverbed is and can vary across the length of a river. Reach 1 is the portion of the river from the mouth at Lake Ontario to Bloor Street. In this reach the river has a very shallow slope, and the velocity of the water is lower than other areas of the river because of it. This reach is also where the water level of the river is at its deepest, gradually getting deeper as the river approaches Lake Ontario. Because of the low water velocity higher sediment deposition in the river occurs. When the velocity of the water slows it is no longer able to transport some of the sediment, so this sediment begins settle.
Reach 2 is the steepest of the three reaches and has such the water here has a high velocity. This reach goes from Bloor Street to Highway 401 and is where the rapids on this river once started making travel on the river at this point very difficult. Reach 2 was once home to many water powered mills, the water's high velocity made it a good location for such mills. Floods and ice jams used to frequently wash out the mill dams, but the water's high velocity made it worth the damage. As of 1984, this reach contained 10 weirs and the increased water turbulence behind the weirs resulted in very little sediment deposition upstream of them.
Reach 3 is the stretch of river from Highway 401 to Steeles Avenue, and at this reach, the slope of the river becomes shallower, though the velocity remains moderately high. There is a section of the river at Albion Road in which the velocity of the river decreases which leads to significant sediment deposition for about 400 m. After Reach 3, the slope of the river gets steeper, especially as it approaches the Oak Ridges Moraine.
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Chipman, Willis. 1900. Reports upon the Water Available from the Humber Water-Shed : With Profiles of the Humber Valley and Cross-Sections of Dams at Baby’s Point and Weston. India: Pranava Books.
Indigenous Peoples Use of the Humber River
The Humber River played an important role in the lives of the Indigenous peoples in the area. The Carrying Place Trail along the banks of the Humber has been used by Indigenous peoples for hundreds of years before Europeans ever arrived. The trail goes from Lake Ontario to Lake Simcoe, then Lake Couchichung, the Severn River, before terminating at the Upper Great Lakes. This trail helped to connect populations across the Great Lakes Watershed and allowed access to interior hunting grounds.
The Humber River was also a source of food, particularly fish. Atlantic salmon, American eel, redside dace, rainbow trout, and common carp were all once found in this river. One of the fishing techniques involved the use of weirs, which were created by putting wooden stakes into the water. A depiction of what these weirs would have looks like is shown in the image to the left.
Mural near Baby Point Gates, Jane Street. Photo taken by Mireille Macia
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Mills
The steep gradient and high velocity of the Humber River made it a good location for water powered mills. The King’s Mill which was built in 1793 on the west bank just above where Bloor Street is now, by direction of Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe became the first dam to constructed along this river. There is also Cooper’s Mills located on the east and west banks where the Old Dundas Street bridge used to be. This mill was later renamed Lambton Mills around the late 1840's. Farr’s Mills was located on the west bank of the river and was later renamed Weston in 1831. Scarlett’s Mills was just North of the present-day Dundas Street bridge and located on the east and west banks of the river. Fisher’s Mill was built about 1835 South of the present-day Dundas Street bridge on the west bank. Milton Mills, built by William Gamble, was constructed on the site of the former King’s Mill (which had been destroyed).
Old Dundas St., bridge over Humber River, looking east, showing Lambton Flour Mills. Toronto, Ontario.
Photograph, 1914. Baldwin Collection of Canadiana, TPL. Public Domain
Fisher, Sidney T. 1985. The Merchant-Millers of the Humber Valley. Toronto: NC Press.
Quarries
The Humber River was a popular source of stone which was used in the construction of buildings and outdoor walls/fences. This stone was called Humberstone. Humberstone is primarily shale and limestone that are from sediment deposition over 400 million years ago when the land was located closer to the equator and covered by an ocean. In the early existence of the Humber River, the river cut through this stone which is the bedrock of the area exposing it near the river banks. While the mining by the Humber River is no longer allowed, there were once many quarries along its banks.
Not a lot is known about many of these quarries, but there are hints left behind as to the location of some of them. A newspaper article from 1873 mentions such two quarries. One owned by Tripp, Hickman, & Co located on the west bank of the river about 1 mile from where it meets Lake Ontario. This company also owned a second plot of land (though at the time of the article it wasn’t being actively quarried) about a quarter of a mile upstream and located below Gamble’s Mill. Gamble’s Mill wasn’t in operation at this time and is located on the site of the former King’s Mill. The article also mentions a second quarry owned by M.S. Morrell which was located on the east side of the river opposite Gamble’s Mill.
Old Mill Road., looking west to bridge across Humber River between Catherine St. & Old Mill Road.
Photograph, 190?. Baldwin Collection of Canadiana, TPL. Public Domain.
A newspaper article from 1974 mentions a possible third quarry existing in the same area as the previous two. Captain Sylvester, who owns the quarry, took several people (which included Tripp and Mars of Tripp, Hickman, & Co) on a two mile ride to his quarry where they experimented with dynamite. An article about the planned construction of a dam at Baby’s Point mentions that the Baby stone quarries were located nearby, and this where they were planning to get much of the stone needed for construction.
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The Globe and Mail. 1880. “Classified Ad 1,” January 6, 1880. TPL - Account Needed.
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The Globe and Mail. 1881. “Classified Ad 11,” January 22, 1881. TPL - Account Needed.
Ship Building
While the majority of ship building occurred elsewhere, there was a shipyard set up along the Humber River, not far from its mouth. The shipyard was set up by John Dennis on the East bank in an area called St. John’s Landing or Rousseau’s Landing. There were three ships on stocks between 1796 and 1801, and Mathais Sanders built a ship here in 1809. In 1818 Joseph Haines describes this shipyard as being a landmark, though only a handful of ships were ever built there. The schooner Toronto was built in 1799 by John Dennis at this shipyard, which was known as King’s Shipyard. One of the reasons this shipyard was constructed where it was is that was close to a sawmill, which made getting the necessary lumber easier.
River Health
Ever since Europeans settled in the area of the river, they have been changing it. For a long time, lumber was a big enterprise along the Humber River. In the days of early European colonization a lot of wood was used in construction. Houses were built out of wood, as were the first sewers and sidewalks, roads would be planked with wood for easier travel, furniture, barrels, and fire were just some of the many uses of wood. Trees by the river would get cut down and the lumber would be dumped in the river to travel downstream where it would be sold and/or transported elsewhere. However, all of this deforestation had an effect on the river. With the land around the river stripped of trees and other plant life, recharge rates began to drop and as a result so did the water level of the Humber. In addition, without all of the plant life to act as a barrier to slow down the passage of runoff the entire area became more prone to serious flooding. From early European settlement to 1954 the Humber River flooded over 78 times.
Atlantic salmon were once plentiful throughout the Humber River. However, with the construction of mills and dams, the salmon were blocked from going upstream where they spawn. As a result, the Atlantic salmon became extirpated from the Humber River. It is only relatively recently that weirs and dams have been modified to allow for passage of jumping fish, like salmon. Currently there is an ongoing program called Bring Back the Salmon or the Lake Ontario Atlantic Salmon Restoration Program that is working to bring Atlantic salmon back to Lake Ontario, and thus to many of the rivers which feed into it, including the Humber. However, there are still plenty of barriers throughout the river that could prevent fish from migrating upstream.
Humber Weir, 2009
A 2018 report card by Toronto and Region Conservation Authority highlights some of the main issues in the health of the Humber River that are going on today. The key issues that are listed are storm water management, chloride concentrations, and barriers to fish migration. While there are weirs which have been modified to allow the passage of fish, there are still plenty of barriers in the river such as perched culverts and dams which can inhibit fish migration. Due to urbanization and the wide use of materials like pavement or concrete, runoff from rainstorms or snowmelt has less area in which it can be absorbed into the ground. This means that a lot of this water is running straight into the river, which increases flooding and the erosion of riverbanks. This runoff can also pick up all sorts of contaminants as it travels across the ground, contaminants which get carried into the river. The concentration of chloride in the river has been rising. Chloride concentrations of less than 120 mg/L are recommended and high concentrations can negatively impact aquatic life. For 2012-2016, the average chloride concentration was over 250 mg/L. The chloride is mostly coming from road salt and other deicers being used in the winter.
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“Lake Ontario Atlantic Salmon Restoration Program |.” n.d. https://www.bringbackthesalmon.ca/.
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Toronto and Region Conservation Authority. 2007. Listen to Your River. Toronto: Toronto and Region Conservation Authority
Hurricane Hazel
Hurricane Hazel hit Toronto in 1954 with over 200 mm of rain falling within 48 hours. The infrastructure in the area was not designed to cope with this much water in such a short period of time, as a result all of the rivers in the area began to flood. Trees were uprooted, bridges and houses destroyed. In the end 81 people were dead, 4000 were homeless, and there was over $100 million in damages with 20 bridges and hundreds of homes destroyed. A lot of this damage occurred along the Humber River with the peak flooding occurring after much of the storm had passed. The neighbourhood of Raymore drive had the largest death toll, where many of the houses were ripped from their foundations once the flood crest reached the area at 1 am. Many of the residents were asleep and in the end 35 people died.
Humber River, looking southeast, just south of Old Dundas St
Negatives (Photograph), 1954. Baldwin Collection of Canadiana, TPL. Public Domain.
The aftermath of Hurricane Hazel resulted in the city of Toronto upgrading their infrastructure to prevent such a disaster happening in the future. Part of these improvements included the building of dams on the rivers in Toronto. Approval was given for the building of 13 dams, 6 of which would be on the Humber. In the end only 3 of the 13 planned dams were built, the Claireville Dam and Reservoir on the Humber, the G Ross Lord Dam on West Don River, and the Milne Dam on Rouge River. A small dam was also built at Black Creek.
Recreation
Today the Humber River watershed is home to many public parks and trails for people to enjoy. There are many recreational activities available including camping, canoeing, fishing, hiking, and environmental education. This river has played an important role in the history of indigenous peoples and European colonization. In 1999, this importance was formally recognized when the Humber River was officially designated as a Canadian Heritage River.