Waterfalls in the City of Hamilton
A publication by

Stephen D. Head Robert F. Nixon
Moonstone, Ontario Ancaster, Ontario

Introduction

The city of Hamilton has long been recognized as the "Steel City" and it has become well known for its "mountain". Although there are at least twenty-nine waterfalls within its limits and although some of these waterfalls are well known, particularly in local neighbourhoods, no one recognized that no other city of substantial size contains so many waterfalls until Jerry Lawton did in 2001 when he introduced the idea of Hamilton as "The City of Waterfalls".

My parents knew Albion Falls as their childhood playground. They took me when I was a child to Webster's Falls for family picnics. Albion Falls recently surfaced on TV as the site of John Dick's remains in the notorious murder case in the 1940s.

Devil's Punchbowl in Stoney Creek was the childhood playground of my cousin, Robert Nixon, my brother and me. It then became and has remained a special place, the residence of the joy, adventure and fantasies of youth, the sunny, carefree days of young explorers. About forty-five years later, when my cousin and I began our tour of waterfall sites, we spent some time exploring our old, friendly place again and went back in time to those good, sunny days to dispute Thomas Wolfe's claim that you can't go home again. We did.

We also spent a lot of time on Murray Utter's farm on which Battlefield Creek passes through. Billy Green's Falls is on the edge of the escarpment there, right beside what is now Centennial Parkway, and we explored Battlefield Creek all the way down to the Monument where we imagined how those big cannons must have boomed. Boys will be boys. Youthful curiosity leads to their education.

And so our experiences were repeated by so many others at other waterfalls in their neighbourhoods. Personal experiences by thousands of childhood explorations, of family picnics, of casual strolls and of Bruce Trail hikes have recognized Hamilton as "The City of Waterfalls".

View map and text View or download the publication, Waterfalls in the City of Hamilton (PDF file, updated June 2004)