Nanticoke, Port Dover and Brantford (July, 2009)

Two weekends ago we grabbed a car and checked out a part of the province we haven't before.

This quick trip involved stops in Nanticoke, Port Dover and Brantford, Ontario.

Enjoy!

Heavy rains hitting the sun roof on the QEW.


Despite being a tiny town, Nanticoke is one of the most industrialized parcels of Southern Ontario.


Nanticoke power plant on the shores of Lake Erie. The largest coal-fired plant in North America.


U. S. Steel Canada Lake Erie Works. The newest steel mill in North America and currently mothballed.


U. S. Steel Canada Lake Erie Works (cont.)


U. S. Steel Canada Lake Erie Works (cont.)


Nanticoke Generating Station (cont.)


Nanticoke Generating Station (cont.)


Nanticoke Generating Station (cont.)


Yup, that's people swimming in this part of Lake Erie.


Lake Erie and Nanticoke Power Generating Station.


Nanticoke Power Generating Station (cont.)


Nanticoke Power Generating Station (cont.)


Nanticoke Power Generating Station (cont.)


Nanticoke Power Generating Station (cont.)


Nanticoke Power Generating Station (cont.)


Nanticoke Generating Station's next door neighbours.


Nanticoke Generating Station (cont.)


Nanticoke Generating Station (cont.)


Nanticoke Generating Station (cont.)


Esso Refinery Nanticoke.


Esso Refinery Nanticoke (cont.)


Entering Port Dover, Ontario.


Erie Beach is right downtown Port Dover. Also, apparently, palm tress can grow in this part of Ontario?#$@?


A monument to local fishers who have lost their lives on Lake Erie.


Port Dover (cont.)


Port Dover (cont.)


Port Dover (cont.)


Lake Erie from Port Dover.


Port Dover (cont.)


Port Dover (cont.)


Port Dover's downtown has many stores catering to the summer tourist set.


Port Dover (cont.)


Port Dover (cont.)


Port Dover (cont.)


Port Dover (cont.)


Port Dover (cont.)


Spooky downtown Brantford, Ontario.


Some of the abandoned shops in downtown Brantford have silhouettes of people painted on their hoarding as if to remind us of its former vibrancy.


This greyfield outside the downtown is one of many signs that Brantford has been in a long steady decline.


Brantford greyfield (cont.)


Brantford greyfield (cont.)


If they could get people living at least close to downtown Brantford, this seems like a natural spot to begin to try and start the trend.


Brantford greyfield (cont.)


...and that was our wee trip. Hope you enjoyed!

that photo of people swimming right next to nanticoke generating station, yuk!.

i wonder how contaminated the area around the power plant is? mercury, cadmium, uranium, oh my!

Port Dover is a great little town. Its famous for is biker meets. Go on a Friday the 13th weekend and the place is overrun with bikers of all kind.

Good tour of Nanticoke,Port Dover and some of Brantford...

DK416: Good tour of Nanticoke,Haldimand County for starters with the pics of the Ontario Power generating plant and the currently closed US Steel Canada
plant-Will it re-open when the economy improves?

Port Dover looks like an interesting beachfront community that seems perhaps a little off the beaten path but interesting nontheless.

The DT pics of Brantford are interesting-is it that quiet and has the economy hit it hard like those closed-up "Big Box" stores?

Thanks again-LI MIKE

Ed007Toronto said:

Port Dover is a great little town. Its famous for is biker meets. Go on a Friday the 13th weekend and the place is overrun with bikers of all kind.

Click to expand...

... and famous for Erie Perch (and celery bread at the Erie Beach Hotel), yummmmm.

Long Island Mike said:

DK416: Good tour of Nanticoke,Haldimand County for starters with the pics of the Ontario Power generating plant and the currently closed US Steel Canada plant-Will it re-open when the economy improves?

Port Dover looks like an interesting beachfront community that seems perhaps a little off the beaten path but interesting nontheless.

The DT pics of Brantford are interesting-is it that quiet and has the economy hit it hard like those closed-up "Big Box" stores?

Thanks again-LI MIKE

Click to expand...

US Steel Canada is supposed to re-open Nanticoke when the economy improves (although Hamilton may not ever re-open). However, there's been news in recent weeks of a Canadian company possibly buying both steel mills and re-opening them as soon as possible.

Brantford's decline, especially downtown, long precedes this current recession, but it certainly hasn't helped. Nonetheless, most people I've talked to actually say downtown Brantford is a bit better than it was a few years ago for a variety of different reasons.

Great Pics

Thanks Darkstar for the great pics.

***
Does Nanticoke actually have a downtown??

***

I've been meaning to visit Port Dover for ages, somehow I never get around to it, its kinda out the way.

***

Brantford's downtown is terrible, its sad. It has improved slightly with the new mini-university campus and the public square, but its still terrible.

I have some hope for improvement with the move to 2-way downtown streets, probably next year, and a major streetscape facelift.

But aside from that terrible complex that blocks the street that used to connect downtown to the river.....

They keep building big box retail and movie theatres at the edges of town, which not exactly helpful.

Does Nanticoke actually have a downtown??

Click to expand...

Nope. Not exactly sure why, but I'd guess that Port Dover has always acted like its downtown. Also, "Nanticoke" is sort of just a name (probably not without history, but still a name), given to a part of the province with three large factories, a few cottages and not much else.

There's also Townend just north of Nanticoke that was sort of planned to be the residential centre for the region, but never really came to fruition.

Thanks for the good pictures.

Downtown Brantford does look pretty sorry, but I can verify that it's actually better now than it was about ten years ago. Brantford is largely a blue-collar town, which has been hit by the shift away from blue-collar employment. It predates the current recession, as you point out. The city has been making real efforts to upgrade, including particularly the new campus of Wilfrid Laurier University, with residence buildings, which has injected a bit of life into the downtown core. They have also targeted food processing as a growing industrial sector, and there are several new plants along Hwy. 403 on the western outskirts of town.

There's a lot more to do. It's a startling contrast to the prosperous Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge area, not far up the road.

Port Dover

You didn't get any shops of the lil 'strip'. I really like the Cape Cod'esq Tim Horton's just up from the Beach... very 'Dover'!

As for people swimming in the lake;
Just think of all the industry on the US side of L Erie :s GROSS!

I beleive US Steel Hamilton is set to reopen before Nanticoke even though it's an older plant and common sense would dictate its days are numbered. One advantage for the Hamilton works is that it's on the opposite side of the Welland Canal: US Steel has plenty of access to Lake Erie but they need access to Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence.

DC83 said:

You didn't get any shops of the lil 'strip'. I really like the Cape Cod'esq Tim Horton's just up from the Beach... very 'Dover'!

As for people swimming in the lake;
Just think of all the industry on the US side of L Erie :s GROSS!

Click to expand...

You would think it's bad, but Erie is actually very clean. Part of the reason is it was one of the first to receive attention for heavy pollution in the 60's and 70's. Another part is due to the closure of industrial sites along the lake. Another curious reason is the Zebra Mussel infestation. Those critters suck up everything in the lake, toxic or not.

I'm curious about the palm trees... are those real, and if so, do they survive the winter, or they get transplanted inside? I was under the impression that palms can't survive more than temporary frost.

I'm curious too!

Here's your answer (palms)

From a 2006 article on inportdover.com

Last Friday, Port Dover beach began looking like Florida, or Mexico or Hawaii. Suddenly, to everyone's amazement at the beachfront, there were four palm trees swaying in Lake Erie breezes in front of the Beach House Restaurant.
The palm trees now in sunny southern Ontario originated in sunny Florida. The trees are about 30 feet tall. They were purchased from Courtland Gardens.
They arrived by truck with their root system in four-foot balls wrapped in burlap. Holes were dug in the sand, the trees planted, then long spikes are driven into the soil making the trees more secure.
Peter Knechtel informed The Maple Leaf that four more similar palm trees will be arriving this week and planted at his family's restaurant.
Knechtel Foods bought the trees which come with a maintenance agreement. In the autumn Courtland Gardens will dig up the trees and winter store them at their greenhouses ... to return them to Port Dover in the spring and replant them on the beach at the Beach House Restaurant.
Peter Knechtel told The Maple Leaf the trees created an immediate buzz of interest.
A palm tree was also planted at Mr. Bills Ice Cream & Grill by its owner at St. George and Walker Streets. That 15-foot Florida native is growing in an oversized planter box.