King's Highway 59, commonly referred to as Highway 59, was a provincially maintained highway in the

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

province of

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 C ...

. It connected

Long Point Provincial Park Long Point Provincial Park is a provincial park on the northwest shore of Lake Erie near Port Rowan, Ontario, Canada. The park is part of a sandy spit of land called Long Point that juts out into the lake. It covers part of the area of Long P ...

in Norfolk County to the town of

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

in Perth County, passing through the city of

Woodstock Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock. Billed as "an Aq ...

in Oxford County en route. Several smaller towns also lined the highway, notably Courtland,

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders ...

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

and

Tavistock Tavistock ( ) is an ancient stannary and market town within West Devon, England. It is situated on the River Tavy from which its name derives. At the 2011 census the three electoral wards (North, South and South West) had a population of 13 ...

. Highway 59 featured junctions with Highway 3, Highway 2, Norfolk County Highway 24 and the

concurrent Concurrent means happening at the same time. Concurrency, concurrent, or concurrence may refer to: Law * Concurrence, in jurisprudence, the need to prove both ''actus reus'' and ''mens rea'' * Concurring opinion (also called a "concurrence"), a ...

routes of Highway 7 and Highway 8. Highway 59 also had an interchange with

Highway 401 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 provinc ...

. Highway 59 was established in 1937 between Highway 3 and Highway 2. In 1961, several highways were renumbered, establishing the final alignment of the route and tripling its length. As part of the mass highway transfers performed during the late 1990s, Highway 59 was decommissioned entirely in 1998.

Route description

The route of Highway 59 followed what is now Norfolk Highway 59, Oxford County Road 59 and Perth County Road 107. The majority of this route travels through rural farmland and small communities, which dominates southwestern Ontario, although there are several notable towns encountered along the highway, including Courtland, Delhi, Norwich, Woodstock and Shakespeare. In the south, the highway begins at the entrance to Long Point Provincial Park, an important

bird sanctuary An animal sanctuary is a facility where animals are brought to live and to be protected for the rest of their lives. Pattrice Jones, co-founder of VINE Sanctuary defines an animal sanctuary as "a safe-enough place or relationship within the cont ...

that serves as a migratory waypoint before and after birds cross

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 h ...

. Several National Wildlife Areas are also located along the surrounding shoreline. The highway passes through the community of Long Point, then curves northwest. It intersects Norfolk County Highway 24, formerly Highway 24, midway between Long Point and the town of Langton. It encounters Highway 3 approximately east of

Tillsonburg Tillsonburg is a town in Oxford County, Ontario, Canada with a population of 18,615 located about 50 kilometres southeast of London, on Highway 3 at the junction of Highway 19. History Prior to European settlement, the present site of Tills ...

in the community of Courtland where it turns east and travels concurrently with it for to the town of Delhi. At an intersection just west of that town, the route continues northwest to the community of Summerville, then curves north to pass through the town of Norwich. Five kilometres (3 mi) north of there, the route curves west and bisects the community of Burgessville. It then curves back to the north and travels straight towards Woodstock. After crossing Highway 401, the route enters Woodstock, where it is known as Norwich Avenue, Dundas Street and Vansittart Avenue. Dundas Street was also formerly Highway 2, but it was transferred to the County of Oxford at the same time as Highway 59. North of Woodstock, Highway 59 proceeds due north through the communities of Perry Lane,

Tollgate A tollbooth (or toll booth) is an enclosure placed along a toll road that is used for the purpose of collecting a toll from passing traffic. A structure consisting of several tollbooths placed next to each other is called a toll plaza, tollga ...

, Willow Lake, Huntingford,

Strathallan Strathallan is the strath of the Allan Water in Scotland. The strath stretches north and north-east from Stirling through Bridge of Allan, Dunblane and Blackford to Auchterarder in Perth and Kinross. Strathallan is also the name for one of the ...

and Hickson before eventually curving northeast near the Oxford–Perth boundary to pass through the town of

, turning north. Approximately north of Tavistock, the route ends in the town of Shakespeare at an intersection with the concurrent routes of Highway 7 and Highway 8. North of this intersection, the roadway continues as Perth County Road 107.

History

Highway 59 was established in 1937 when the Department of Highways (DHO) assumed the Delhi–Woodstock Road. This road was designated on August 25. The route remained unchanged until the early 1960s, when several highways were renumbered effective December 19, 1961. Highway 19 between Woodstock and Shakespeare was redesignated as Highway 59, while Highway 100 between Thamesford and St. Marys was redesignated as Highway 19. On July 20, 1961, Highway 59 was extended south from Courtland to Long Point Provincial Park along Norfolk County roads 8 and 8A, which the DHO rebuilt in the years prior. A concurrency was also established along Highway 3 between Courtland and Delhi. These extensions nearly tripled the length of the highway to . The route remained this way for nearly four decades. However, on January 1, 1998, as part of budget cutbacks, several highways were transferred to local jurisdiction. Highway 59 was transferred the counties of Norfolk, Oxford and Perth, decommissioning the route entirely.

Major intersections

References

{{Norfolk County, Ontario, state=collapsed 059 1937 establishments in Ontario 1998 disestablishments in Ontario Roads in Norfolk County, Ontario Transport in Oxford County, Ontario Transport in Perth County, Ontario Transport in Woodstock, Ontario