Ontario's Ghost Town Heritage.

John Abbott is a professor of history at Laurentian University’s Algoma University College. He is the co-author of The Border at Sault Ste Marie and The History of Fort St. Joseph.

Like the grass that springs up in the morning dew, but withers by nightfall, ghost town lives were short. The same cannot be said of the publishing industry these towns inspire. It bids fair to outlast them all, and to generate financial returns rivaling the most prosperous. While most of the volumes have been of standard size, printed on common stock, offering monochromatic photos of indifferent quality, the volume under review is a slightly down-market (paperback) coffee table book sporting glossy stock, and photographs that are either contemporary photos in glorious colour, or refurbished historical ones. It is produced by Ron Brown, the dean of the ghost town profession.

This is the best buy for families as well as solitary explorers whose delight is to pack a picnic, climb into the car, and set out for a destination that will pique their interest, offer a spot to spread a picnic blanket, and cost little more than the price of fuel. The maps that Brown has drawn make it abundantly clear that, wherever you live in Ontario, there is a ghost town nearby. The author divides the book into five sets of “trails”: to the east, to the west, to cottage country, to the north, and around the Golden Horseshoe at the western end of Lake Ontario. In the introduction he succinctly frames the changing temporal, economic, and social contexts that brought these small settlements into existence and then sealed their fates.

To the east, try Corbyville (Belleville) for its monuments to rye whiskey, or Bedford Mills (Kingston), with its fine old mill building and winding, gravelled main street. In the west, try Indiana (Brantford), with its rich history and magnificent mansion, Ruthven. For a site more evocative of the traditional ghost town, try Swords (Parry Sound). In the north, sailors, kayakers, and motorists alike can visit Gargantua in Lake Superior Park, and imagine it in its heyday as a fishery hub. Most surprising of all is the fact that 10 sites exist as islands in the asphalt jungle between Barrie, Guelph, St. Catharines, and Toronto. Visit Crooks Hollow (Hamilton) and the impressive ruins of a grist mill erected in 1813.