Idylwild Park was a

park A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are urban green space, green spaces set aside for recreation inside t ...

located on the

Speed River The Speed River is a river that flows through Wellington County and the Region of Waterloo in southwestern Ontario, Canada. It flows south from its source near Orton, through Guelph, where it is joined by the Eramosa River, then through the tow ...

in what is now

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

.Bean. 2005. It attracted people from across

Southwestern Ontario Southwestern Ontario is a secondary region of Southern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario. It occupies most of the Ontario Peninsula bounded by Lake Huron, including Georgian Bay, to the north and northwest; the St. Clair River, Lake St. ...

and the

Golden Horseshoe The Golden Horseshoe is a secondary region of Southern Ontario, Canada, which lies at the western end of Lake Ontario, with outer boundaries stretching south to Lake Erie and north to Lake Scugog, Lake Simcoe and Georgian Bay of Lake Huron. The r ...

, via the

Grand Trunk Railway The Grand Trunk Railway (; french: Grand Tronc) was a railway system that operated in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario and in the American states of Connecticut, Maine, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The rai ...

and the Galt, Preston & Hespeler (GP&H) Street Railway. Idylwild fell between the Town of Preston and the Town of Hespeler, just north of where the

MacDonald-Cartier Freeway King's Highway 401, commonly referred to as Highway 401 and also known by its official name as the Macdonald–Cartier Freeway or colloquially referred to as the four-oh-one, is a controlled-access 400-series highway in the Canadian provin ...

crosses the river today.

History

Idylwild Park was opened in 1899 by operators of the GP&H Street Railway. Their purpose for establishing it was to stimulate rail travel during the weekends. It was accessed exclusively via the Preston-Hespeler line, which was opened the same year. Park-goers were given ribbons to wear that identified them as patrons of the park and rail-line.

"A wooded area with tall elms, maples and evergreens - a perfect setting for one of, if not the, most popular playground, picnic and recreational centres in the district. Popular dances of the time included quadrilles, waltzes, two-steps and the cake walk. It was not at all uncommon for the railway to shunt in from Preston Junction a train load of picnickers from as far away as Hamilton, bringing hundreds to enjoy the great out-of-doors in the wilds of Idylwild." - O.A. Kummer

Straddling the Speed River within Hunt Club Valley, the park encompassed lands on both banks, as well as an

islet An islet is a very small, often unnamed island. Most definitions are not precise, but some suggest that an islet has little or no vegetation and cannot support human habitation. It may be made of rock, sand and/or hard coral; may be permanent ...

between them. Wooden

footbridge A footbridge (also a pedestrian bridge, pedestrian overpass, or pedestrian overcrossing) is a bridge designed solely for pedestrians.''Oxford English Dictionary'' While the primary meaning for a bridge is a structure which links "two points at a ...

s were erected to facilitate travel across the river and to the islet. The bridges were disassembled in the

autumn Autumn, also known as fall in American English and Canadian English, is one of the four temperate seasons on Earth. Outside the tropics, autumn marks the transition from summer to winter, in September ( Northern Hemisphere) or March ( Sou ...

, to accommodate for ice and floods, and then reassembled in the

spring Spring(s) may refer to: Common uses * Spring (season), a season of the year * Spring (device), a mechanical device that stores energy * Spring (hydrology), a natural source of water * Spring (mathematics), a geometric surface in the shape of a ...

. Additionally, the park featured a refreshment booth, a

baseball diamond A baseball field, also called a ball field or baseball diamond, is the field upon which the game of baseball is played. The term can also be used as a metonym for a baseball park. The term sandlot is sometimes used, although this usually refers ...

and a

, as well as two

pavilions In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings: * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...

, swings, boardwalks and docks. The

nickname A nickname is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place or thing. Commonly used to express affection, a form of endearment, and sometimes amusement, it can also be used to express defamation of character. As a concept, it is ...

"Mosquito Park" came to be assumed for the park, as

mosquito Mosquitoes (or mosquitos) are members of a group of almost 3,600 species of small flies within the family Culicidae (from the Latin ''culex'' meaning " gnat"). The word "mosquito" (formed by ''mosca'' and diminutive ''-ito'') is Spanish for "li ...

s thrived in the area due to the surrounding

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

s. In 1916, Idylwild Park was closed permanently. It has been suggested that the growing popularity of the

automobile A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with Wheel, wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, pe ...

, the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and the establishment of Riverside Park in the nearby Town of Preston contributed to the closure of the park.

Present day

The landscape of the site has since either grown over,

eroded Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as Surface runoff, water flow or wind) that removes soil, Rock (geology), rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust#Crust, Earth's crust, and then sediment transport, tra ...

or been developed. The gates, pavilions, bridges and other structures are no longer present. The mosquitos, however, remain. A portion of the former site, along the southern bank of the Speed River, is now part of a

conservation area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...

that is owned and managed by the Grand River Conservation Authority.Jacob. 2004. The City of Cambridge's Mill Run Trail passes through, making use of the dismantled rail-bed.Mill Run Trail brochure. Corporation of the City of Cambridge. The islet and most of the northern bank are

private property Private property is a legal designation for the ownership of property by non-governmental legal entities. Private property is distinguishable from public property and personal property, which is owned by a state entity, and from collective or ...

. A nearby

subdivision Subdivision may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Subdivision (metre), in music * ''Subdivision'' (film), 2009 * "Subdivision", an episode of ''Prison Break'' (season 2) * ''Subdivisions'' (EP), by Sinch, 2005 * "Subdivisions" (song), by Rus ...

, Idylwild Estates, is named after the park.

Citations

{{reflist

References

*Bean, Bill. "Poem in the Woods". ''The Guelph Mercury''. pG1. 2005-11-05. *Jacob, Katherine. "Mill Run Trail, Cambridge". ''Grand River Country Trails 2''. p57. 2004. Grand River Conservation Foundation.
Mill Run Trail
Brochure. Cambridge Trails Advisory Committee. Corporation of the City of Cambridge.
Mill Run Trail web-page
Corporation of the City of Cambridge.
Grand River Information Network.
Grand River Conservation Authority web-site.
maps.google.ca

External links

at trainweb.org

at Coaster Enthusiasts of Canada Heritage sites in Ontario Grand River Railway History of Cambridge, Ontario

History

Present day

See also

Citations

References

External links