Waterdown Village boasts a section of the Bruce Trail that hikers and birders adore. A hilly path, surrounded by stately trees, eventually levels off along Grindstone Creek in a deep gully known as Smokey Hollow. The view of the creek grows increasingly spectacular — from stones to rocks to boulders — culminating in the 33-foot, ribbon-like cascade known as Great Falls.
Smokey Hollow is almost impossible to imagine as being enveloped in steam, sawdust and chimney smoke, but that’s how it got its name. Thanks to the powerful resource of water tumbling down the Niagara escarpment, the aptly named Waterdown Village was born of industry.
WATER AND WEALTH
Pioneer communities relied on lumber and grist mills, so entrepreneurs were drawn to Grindstone Creek in the 1800s. Alexander Brown, an early settler, harnessed the power of the Great Falls by building the area’s first sawmill. A hamlet grew around the area after brothers Ebenezer and Absalom Griffin built flour and grist mills, a general store, and a hotel.
The long, narrow gully soon bustled with industry. Mills ground flour, sawed timber, and even produced woollen goods. Soon to follow were tanning pits, basket makers, and a brass foundry. One particularly impressive structure was the Torrid Zone Flour Mill, built in the 1860s by Sir William Pierce Howland, a future Father of Confederation. His mill delivered raw grain from the top of the escarpment and, ingeniously, used gravity to transport finished flour to the bottom. Over 170 barrels of flour a day travelled from Waterdown to markets in Montreal and Europe.
A VICTORY FOR NATURE
Smokey Hollow was the site of ruin for seventy years. Locals used it as a dump. Weeds and brambles took over former mill sites until the 1990s, when a quiet revival began. Seeing the potential for public parkland — and a green space worth protecting — local volunteers started clearing trails, installing signs, and building a viewing platform over the Great Falls. This labour of love would become a remarkable portion of the Bruce Trail.
In a forest once clamorous with grinding millstones, whirring gears and screeching saw blades, visitors will have an entirely different experience today. Smokey Hollow is a majestic, pine-scented oasis where the only sounds are of birds, chipmunks, and the babbling creek and majestic waterfall that have reclaimed their home.
Special thanks to Waterdown Mill Street Heritage and the Flamborough Historical Society.
UP IN SMOKE
The deforestation that was happening all over Ontario, together with the draining of marshes, caused a decrease in Grindstone Creek’s power. Many industrial establishments shifted to steam technology powered by scrap wood. These changes brought a host of occupational hazards. Flash fires frequently destroyed the wooden mills. The Torrid Zone Mill burned in 1885, was rebuilt, and burned again in 1910, never to recover. Steam engines were prone to often fatal boiler explosions. Meanwhile, air quality at the southern end of the village was poor, due to the cloud of smog hanging over the gully.
All mills at Grindstone Creek had ceased production by 1912, the year when the Canadian Pacific Railway arrived. While railways caused some Canadian towns to thrive, in this case the changes overwhelmed Waterdown’s industrial hub. Dams were dismantled, the creek was rerouted for agricultural purposes, and the last physical reminders of Smokey Hollow’s industrial heyday began to vanish. The short-lived railway station, closed by the 1960s, burned down in 1966.
BY MICHELLE MORRA
