Halloween will be here before you know it, and while ghost towns don’t have anything to do with the holiday, they’re full of history and perfect to explore this time of year. Some of the ghost towns in Ontario date back all the way to the 1800s and still stand today!

What is a ghost town?

Firstly, you may be wondering what a ghost town is. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a ghost town is “a once-flourishing town wholly or nearly deserted usually as a result of the exhaustion of some natural resource.”

Yep, that means these towns that once were full of life have been abandoned and remain intact!

Now let’s jump into the ghost towns that are in Ontario.

Cardiff

Cardiff was once a thriving mining town! Bicroft mine went into production in 1956, with workers living in houses that were built across the highway to house workers and families!

There was a school built for the children and enough homes to house everyone until The mine closed in 1960, with 50 houses left vacant. Eventually, the second town mine closed in 1963 leaving 150 houses vacant.

Arden

During the gold rush, Arden brought in prospectors from all over the country hoping to work and make a life for themselves.

“The gold rush was relatively short-lived, and today many of the buildings erected to house the miners and their families are gone or abandoned,” details Toronto Public Library. 

South Wilberforce

Back in its time, South Wilberforce was home to a mill, a general store, a post office, a school and a church.

While the area is abandoned now, the church, school and post office still stand to this day.

Remnants of the old mill’s rock configuration can still be seen in the river, too.

Burwash

Burwash is just 50 km outside of Sudbury and here’s its backstory.

In 1914, the federal government opened a prison here that focused on reform instead of punishment for the inmates.

Around 100 people worked at the prison and lived in the area, but it closed in 1975 leading to its abandonment.

You can explore the abandoned ruins of the prison still to this day.

Wattenwyl

This area has an interesting backstory when it comes to its name.

The community was settled at the southern end of Lount Township in the 1880s, named ‘Wattenwyl.’

The name was said to have sounded like “wait for me awhile” when spoken by the Swiss and German settlers in the community, therefore the name was born.

It gets better – before the area was abandoned residents “would wait for the mail to arrive and be sorted at the post office, which was located within the home of a settler by the name of Frederick Egger.”

It is said that the young people of the area found it to be a perfect opportunity to get to know one another without knowing that romance was in the air, aka a secret matchmaking spot!

Cheltenham Brickworks

The abandoned Cheltenham Brickworks. has a similar layout to Evergreen Brick Works in Toronto.

The area was popular in the early 1900s but around 60 years later the brickworks were shut down.

The remains of the area are eery but beautiful and are just a 45-minute drive from Toronto.

Balaclava

Balaclava was centred around a sawmill, general store and hotel back in the 1850s.

The end to this thriving community was simple, the sawmill shut down thus causing job loss and eventually abandonment to the town.

Hotspur

Located just north of Kawartha Highlands Provincial Park is Hotspur. 

Founded in 1871, Hotspur was located on a pioneering road which travelled from Lake Simcoe to the Hastings Boundary.

There was a school, a post office and a large hotel while lumbering was a mainstay for residents that lived there while it was thriving.

Will you be visiting any of these ghost towns in Ontario this fall?

Recent Posts:
8 Ontario hotels awarded MICHELIN Keys in inaugural list in Canada
This charming fall drive through an Ontario town has striking views from its highest points

Taylor Lucas

Associate Editor – Taylor is a Toronto-based journalist with a passion for storytelling. Whether chasing a story, writing, or editing, she brings a creative spin to the media world and has a blast doing it. Taylor brings years of journalism experience in sports, local/national news, and entertainment. In her spare time, you can typically find Taylor trying out a new restaurant or cocktail bar, cooking, golfing or binge-watching true crime documentaries.

Read articles