King's Highway 96, commonly referred to as Highway 96, 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 ...
on
Wolfe Island and the main street of
Marysville, the island's main village. Together with
Highway 95, the routes were the only King's Highway not connected to the rest of the network by a fixed link. Today it is under the jurisdiction of
Frontenac Islands Township as
Frontenac County
Frontenac County is a county and census division of the Canadian province of Ontario. It is located in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario. The city of Kingston is in the Frontenac census division, but is separated from the County of Front ...
does not have a county road system.
Route description
Highway 96 was a short highway that travelled in a generally east–west direction across
Wolfe Island. The route began at 2nd Line Road, immediately west of the ferry connection to
Simcoe Island
Simcoe Island is a small island approximately long, and across at its widest point, in Lake Ontario, just off Wolfe Island, close to Kingston, Ontario, and Amherst Island.
The island is almost completely farmland and can be reached by ferry ...
. From there it travelled east, passing through
Marysville where it connected with Highway 95 and the summer ferry to
Kingston, named the
Wolfe Islander III
''Wolfe Islander III'' is the ferry currently serving between Kingston, Ontario and Wolfe Island. She can hold approximately 55 cars, and is end-loading. The length of the car deck is 61 metres (200 feet). The vehicle height restriction ...
; the ferry docks further east during the winter months and Dawson Point.
Unlike the private ferry service at the southern tip of the island, the Wolfe Islander III is operated by the
Ministry of Transportation
A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government ag ...
and can be used free of charge.
From Dawson Point Road, just east of Marysville, the highway continued east across the island. It zig-zagged south and east several times, passing the Wolfe Island Tourist Information Centre and heading towards its eastern terminus at a cul-de-sac facing the
St. Lawrence River
The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connecting ...
.
Beside the ferry services, there is no other link between Wolfe Island and the mainland, making the two routes on the island the only King's Highways that were not connected to the rest of the network by a fixed link.
History
Highway 96 was established on May 22, 1935, when the
Department of Highways assumed several existing concession roads.
Highway 96 was the second King's Highway on Wolfe Island, Highway 95 having been established the previous year.
The route remained generally unchanged, except for the addition of gentler curves, until its decommissioning on January 1, 1998.
It was subsequently transferred to the municipality and designated as County Road 96.
Highways 95 and 96 originally connected to the remainder of the Ontario highway system via ferry crossing to Ontario Street in
Kingston, which was a
connecting link in
Ontario Highway 2
King's Highway2, commonly referred to as Highway2, is the lowest-numbered provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario, and was originally part of a series of identically numbered highways which started in Windsor, stretch ...
. The removal of the local portion of that road from the provincial highway system in 1998 nominally disconnects 95 and 96 from the provincial King's Highway network.
Major intersections
See also
*
List of numbered roads in Frontenac County
This is a list of numbered municipal roads in Kingston and Frontenac County, Ontario
Frontenac County is a county and census division of the Canadian province of Ontario. It is located in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario. The city of ...
References
;Footnotes
{{Ontario King's Highways
096