Don River (Toronto)

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This article is about the river in Toronto, Canada. For other rivers with the same name, see Don River (disambiguation).

The river as it runs beneath the Bloor/Danforth trestle bridge

The Don River is one of two rivers bounding the original settled area of Toronto, Canada along the shore of Lake Ontario, the other being the Humber River to the west. The Don is formed from two rivers, the East and West Branches, that meet about 7 km north of Lake Ontario while flowing southward into the lake. The area below the confluence is known as the lower Don, and the areas above as the upper Don. The Don is also joined at the confluence by a third major branch, Taylor-Massey Creek.

The eastern arm of the rivers starts near the Oak Ridges Moraine just to the west of Yonge Street, flowing south-eastward through ravine forests in Richmond Hill, Thornhill, east of Willowdale and Don Mills. A second branch of the eastern Don, known as German Mills Creek, parallels the main eastern branch and joins it at Steeles Avenue, the northern boundary of Toronto.

The western arm starts near the area of Maple, flowing south-east through the suburban industrial belt of Concord (Vaughan), and the G. Ross Lord Reservoir. It crosses Yonge Street as it flows through Hoggs Hollow and then flows on to Leaside before joining the eastern half.

Foot of the Don, just before it exits into the shipping channel. The overpass in the foreground is the foot of the Don Valley Parkway as it exits onto the elevated Gardiner Expressway seen in the background. Note the algae covering most of the river.

Final exit of the Don into Lake Ontario, looking east from Cherry St. The Keating channel ends about 5 m behind the camera's viewpoint, the Don entering at the far end of the image.

Charles Sauriol Conservation Reserve is located near the forks of the Don River. It was at one time home of a Maple sugar shack and tapline, which was visited yearly by students from across East York. Charles Sauriol Conservation Reserve is a rarely used area of the river valley. Charles Sauriol was a historic protector of the Don.

In 1788, Alexander Aitkin, an English surveyor who worked in southern Ontario, referred to the Don River as NeCheng qua kekonk.^[1]. Elizabeth Simcoe, wife of Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe, reported in her diary that another named used was Wonscotanach.^[2] This is an Anishnaabe phrase meaning back burnt grounds which could refer to an earlier forest fire. The Don River was named by J.G. Simcoe because the wide valley reminded him of the River Don in Yorkshire.

In the 1880s the lower part of the Don south of the former Winchester St. bridge was straightened (east of the original mouth) and placed in a channel to create additional harbour space and industrial dock space for boats. Known as the Don Improvement Project it also turned the river mouth 90 degrees west where it empties into the inner harbour. This short extension of the harbour is known as the Keating Channel. The channel north of Lake Shore Blvd. East ceased being navigable when the Gardiner Expressway was constructed in the 1950s. Boats may still enter the Keating channel by going underneath a lift bridge at Cherry St. In late 2000, several plans were being drawn up to redevelop the area, including relocating the mouth closer to its original location, and developing a canal system around the area.

The Don had been heavily developed in the earlier portions of the 20th century, with several factories, two rail lines and then a freeway, the Don Valley Parkway, being built in the river valley. The last of the industrial plants, Domtar Polyresins, closed in the 1980s and has since been reused as the Toronto Police Force K-9 training site. The only remaining industrial use on urban portions of the river is the North Toronto Sewage Treatment plant, whose use is currently under review.

The western section of Taylor-Massey Creek and the southern portion of the western branch are surrounded by parkland. In more recent years the retreat of the industrial plants and rail infrastructure has freed up room which is now being turned into bicycling trails, which now extend from the shore of Lake Ontario northward in several directions to provide some 30km of off-road paved trails. While Toronto is fairly flat in general, local cyclists have developed a number of technically challenging singletrack trails throughout the area, following the main trails.

[edit] Tributaries

• Don River (lower Don)
  • Castle Frank Brook
  • Yellow Creek
  • Mud Creek
  • Cudmore Creek
• Don River West Branch
  • Wilket Creek
  • Walmsley Creek
  • Otter Creek
  • Ames Creek

• • Burke Brook
• Don River East Branch
  • Taylor-Massey Creek
  • German Mills Creek
  • Duncan Woods Creek
  • Newtonbrook Creek
  • Deerlick Creek

[edit] See also

• Pape Village
• Crothers' Woods
• List of Ontario rivers

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Our Valley
• Don Mouth Naturalization and Port Lands Flood Protection Project
• Task Force to Bring back the Don
• Friends of the Don East
• Lost Rivers Walks and Local History
• Todmorden Mills Wildflower Preserve
• Don Watcher weblog
• Don Watershed Regeneration
• Map of, and links to, the buried waterways of Toronto, including the Don tributaries Castle Frank Creek, Yellow Creek, Mud Creek, Cudmore Creek, Walmsley Brook and Burke Brook.