Halton Region trivia
22 facts and quiz questions about Halton Hills, Ontario. Each one links to its source. A new fact of the day goes live every morning.
Fact of the day
Halton Hills History
On July 1, 1923, the first 50 orphans of the Armenian genocide came to Cedarvale Farm, now Cedarvale Park, to learn farming. In all, 109 boys and 40 girls came. Many people call it Canada's first humanitarian initiative.
Source: Wikipedia, Georgetown, Ontario
Halton Hills Culture
The fair started in 1846. It runs Friday to Sunday after the Labour Day weekend at the Georgetown Fairgrounds, with rides, a tractor pull and a demolition derby.
Source: Wikipedia, Georgetown, Ontario
Halton Hills History
The hamlet was called Williamsburg until its post office opened in 1852. Its name honours Benajah Williams, who built a sawmill on the Credit River with his sons in 1825.
Sources: Wikipedia, Glen Williams, Ontario, Wikipedia, Georgetown, Ontario
Halton Hills History
The brewery opened in Hornby in 1845 and grew to make 5,000 barrels of beer a year with ten workers. It closed when Prohibition began in 1916 and never reopened.
Source: Wikipedia, Halton Hills
Halton Hills Quiz
George Kennedy settled here in 1821 and used Silver Creek to power a sawmill, then a gristmill, a foundry and a woollen mill. The small settlement around them was often called Hungry Hollow.
Source: Wikipedia, Georgetown, Ontario
Halton Hills Quiz
Acton was a major centre for tanning and leather goods from 1842 until 1986. Local hemlock and spruce gave the tannin for a firm, reddish leather.
Source: Wikipedia, Acton, Ontario
Halton Hills Quiz
Lime kilns opened in Fountain Green around 1840 and ran until 1917. Hikers on the Bruce Trail can still see the old kilns in the Limehouse Conservation Area.
Sources: Wikipedia, Georgetown, Ontario, Wikipedia, Limehouse, Ontario
Halton Hills Quiz
The author of Anne of Green Gables came because her husband, Ewan Macdonald, was minister of the Norval Presbyterian Church. She wrote that she loved Norval more than any place except Cavendish, PEI.
Sources: Wikipedia, Norval, Ontario, Wikipedia, Lucy Maud Montgomery
Halton Hills Culture
Norval is believed to take its name from Douglas, a Scottish play by John Home. Before the post office opened in 1836, the place was called McNabsville or McNab's Mill.
Source: Wikipedia, Norval, Ontario
Halton Hills Places
In 1980 three investors turned the old tannery warehouse into a leather store. Its slogan, "It's worth the drive to Acton!", became famous. The store closed in late 2024.
Source: Wikipedia, Acton, Ontario
Halton Hills Quiz
Halton Hills counted 62,951 people in 2021. Georgetown had 44,058 of them and Acton had 9,376. The rest live in hamlets such as Glen Williams, Limehouse and Norval.
Sources: Wikipedia, Halton Hills, Wikipedia, Georgetown, Ontario, Wikipedia, Acton, Ontario
Halton Hills Places
Toronto Premium Outlets opened on Steeles Avenue on August 1, 2013, as the first Premium Outlets centre in Canada. A second phase was completed in November 2018.
Sources: Wikipedia, Toronto Premium Outlets, Wikipedia, Halton Hills
Halton Hills Nature
It came from an English oak in Windsor, England. Acorns went across the Commonwealth to mark the 1937 coronation of King George VI. This one was planted in 1937 and moved to the Speyside school in 1960.
Source: Wikipedia, Speyside, Ontario
Halton Hills Culture
The mill site is now the Williams Mill Visual Arts Centre, with studios for ceramics, glass, jewellery, printmaking and more. Glen Williams Glass, a studio of seven glass artists, is there too.
Halton Hills Quiz
The Adams brothers settled here in 1825. The village was first Danville, then Adamsville. In 1844 postmaster Robert Swan named it after Acton in London, England.
Source: Wikipedia, Acton, Ontario
Halton Hills History
The Towns of Georgetown and Acton merged with most of Esquesing Township and a small part of Oakville north of Highway 401. Georgetown and Acton are still the two main centres.
Source: Wikipedia, Halton Hills
Halton Hills History
In 1837 the Barber brothers bought Kennedy's woollen mill and foundry and renamed the settlement Georgetown. From 1854 their paper mills made large amounts of wallpaper, and the business lasted over 100 years.
Source: Wikipedia, Georgetown, Ontario
Halton Hills History
The Beardmore family bought the Acton tannery in 1865, and at one time it was the largest tanner in Canada. Canada Packers bought it in 1944 and ran it until it closed in 1986.
Source: Wikipedia, Acton, Ontario
Halton Hills Quiz
A.J. Casson often used Glen Williams as a summer base. His 1938 canvas Street in Glen Williams sold in Toronto in 2010 for $542,800, a record for his work.
Sources: Wikipedia, Glen Williams, Ontario, Wikipedia, A. J. Casson
Halton Hills Nature
French fur traders gave goods to First Nations on credit against furs due the next spring, so they called it the Rivière au Crédit. The Mississauga name, Missinnihe, means trusting creek.
Sources: Wikipedia, Credit River, Wikipedia, Georgetown, Ontario
Halton Hills Places
The Acton Fall Fair takes place every September at Prospect Park, beside Fairy Lake. Black Creek gave the town its water power, and the first flour mill still runs as part of Parrish & Heimbecker.
Source: Wikipedia, Acton, Ontario
Halton Hills Quiz
The law that formed the town on January 1, 1974 named it the Town of North Halton. A referendum in October 1973 chose the name Halton Hills instead.
Source: Wikipedia, Halton Hills
