230 Cannon |
Ontario Tourism Region : Hamilton, Halton, and Brant
Description From Owner:
- Pop. 316,190. In the Reg. Mun. of Hamilton-Wentworth at the W end of L. Ontario on Hwys 6, 403 and the QEW.
- The city is on the south side of Hamilton Bay, a triangular-shaped landlocked harbour bounded on the lake side by a sandbar. The sandbar is crossed by the Burlington Bay Skyway which carries the QEW.
- In 1813 a heavily-armed American fleet attacked the British squadron off York (now Toronto). After a running battle, the British managed to bring their ships over the sandbar to the safety of the harbour.
- The city, nicknamed the 'Steel City' because it is Canada's largest steel producer, is built on a sloping plain between the harbour and the Niagara Escarpment, which rises steeply to a height of250 feet (76.2 m) and is called 'The Mountain.'
- The first recorded visit to the site was by French explorer Rene Robert de la Salle in 1669.
- In 1784 the British government bought land from the Mississauga Indians to provide home sites for United Empire Loyalists, forced to leave the United States after the American Revolution.
- Robert Land, the first settler, arrived in 1778. The city was known first as Burlington Bay and then as King's Head after an inn erected for travellers by order of Lt.-Gov . John Graves Simcoe.
- When the post office opened in 1825 the place was named after George Hamilton, born in Queenston in 1788. He bought land here in 1813 and was elected to the House of Assembly of Upper Canada for Wentworth between 1820 and 1830.
- George Hamilton was the son of Robert Hamilton, founder of Queenston and a member of the legislative council of Upper Canada.
- Wilham Shemng (1877-1964) won an Olympic gold medal in Athens in 1906 by defeating 55 other runners on a 26-mi. (41.6 km) course. The Around-the¬Bay Marathon, one of the oldest long-distance races in North America was renamed in his honour.
- The Co-operative Union of Canada was founded in Hamilton in 1909. It is a national cooperative association to coordinate local cooperatives and unions.
- Hamilton is the home of the Tiger Cats football team, the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, the Royal Botanical Gardens, Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, Dundurn Castle, the residence of Sir Allan Napier MacNab (Canada's pre-Confederation prime minister)
- and McMaster University.
Map Below gives Canadian Geographical Names
Natural Resources Canada in the City of Hamilton.
Natural Resources Canada in the City of Hamilton.
Address of this page: http://www.ruralroutes.com/hamilton