Merlin is a small

farming Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

community inhabited by 750 residents located in Southwestern

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. It lies five kilometres due north off the shores of

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has t ...

in the municipality of

Chatham-Kent Chatham-Kent ( 2021 population: 104,316)Tilbury Tilbury is a port town in the borough of Thurrock, Essex, England. The present town was established as separate settlement in the late 19th century, on land that was mainly part of Chadwell St Mary. It contains a 16th century fort and an ancie ...

while Aberdeen Street travels east from the main intersection toward the

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

of South Buxton. Merlin is the hometown of country music singer

Michelle Wright Michelle Wright (born July 1, 1961) is a Canadian country music artist. She is one of the country's most widely recognized and awarded female country singers of the 1990s, winning the Canadian Country Music Association's Fans' Choice Award twice ...

Facilities

The town was once home to both a

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

and

elementary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...

. However, after enrolment fell below 100 students, Merlin District High School, located on William Street and home to the Merlin Mustangs, closed around 1980 and was subsequently torn down. Merlin Area Public School, home of the Merlin Colts, still operates at the northern edge of town, on Erie Street. The school opened in 1968 and has a present enrolment of approximately 250 students. The Merlin Library is located on Aberdeen Street, and has

book A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physical arr ...

internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

access, and resource sharing agreements with other public libraries throughout

Chatham-Kent Chatham-Kent ( 2021 population: 104,316)Ontario Provincial Police The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) is the provincial police service of Ontario, Canada. Under its provincial mandate, the OPP patrols provincial highways and waterways, protects provincial government buildings and officials, patrols unincorpo ...

detachment located at Blake and Erie Street South (now Merlin Road) but the police station was closed in the 1990s. The building is now occupied by the Chatham-Kent Fire Department. The

Kinsmen A kinsman is a male relative (see kinship). The term kinsman (or plural kinsmen) may also refer to: Places in the United States *Kinsman, Illinois *Kinsman, Ohio *Kinsman Township, Trumbull County, Ohio *Kinsman Mountain, in the White Mountains ...

, who have a charter in Merlin, maintain the Merlin Kinsmen Park, which has a

playground A playground, playpark, or play area is a place designed to provide an environment for children that facilitates play, typically outdoors. While a playground is usually designed for children, some are designed for other age groups, or people ...

, splash pad, shelters and two

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

diamonds. A community centre and another baseball diamond are located on the east side of the town and are maintained by the municipality of Chatham-Kent. Adjacent to the park, there is a cenotaph commemorating Canadian participants in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Merlin is also home to the

Royal Canadian Legion The Royal Canadian Legion is a non-profit Canadian ex-service organization (veterans' organization) founded in 1925. Membership includes people who have served as military, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, provincial and municipal police, Royal ...

, Branch 465. For local amenities, Merlin has three eateries—Erie Café & Variety, The Garage, and Flame & Frostbite—two general stores, and a branch of

Canada Post Canada Post Corporation (french: Société canadienne des postes), trading as Canada Post (french: Postes Canada), is a Crown corporation that functions as the primary postal operator in Canada. Originally known as Royal Mail Canada (the opera ...

. Merlin is also Home to the Summer's Gold Honey Company, Chatham-Kent's only CFIA registered Honey packing facility. Summer's Gold Honey Company offers both wholesale and retail honey and hive products including but not limited to Honey, beeswax, candles, soap and lip balm. Tours of the facility are available upon advance request. There is a reputedly haunted house in Merlin. The residence is featured in a yearly local "Ghost Walks of Chatham".

Industries

The town of Merlin, and the adjacent townships of Tilbury East on its west side, and

Raleigh Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the seat of Wake County in the United States. It is the second-most populous city in North Carolina, after Charlotte. Raleigh is the tenth-most populous city in the Southeas ...

to its east (no longer officially townships since the formation of the municipality of Chatham-Kent in 1998) maintain farming as the primary industry. A significant alteration to the local landscape started in 2007 with the construction of 44 wind turbines by Kruger Energy. The wind turbines were constructed in

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

and are each capable of generating 2.3 megawatts (MW) (total 101.2 MW) of electricity.

Natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

wells were once part of the area to the west, in the former Tilbury East township, with the raw gas going to a

Union Gas Union Gas was a major Canadian natural gas company based in Ontario. Its distribution arm serviced approximately 1.5 million customers in northern, southwestern and eastern Ontario. Union Gas has been a subsidiary of Enbridge since February 2017 ...

pumping station at Port Alma. With the capping of the wells and the closing of the pumping station in the 1980s, Union Gas sold the facilities and the main pumping building is no longer in Port Alma, but some maintenance sheds and an office building still remain.

References

External links

Chatham-Kent website
{{authority control Communities in Chatham-Kent