The History of the Turning Basin

The History of the Turning Basin. Terminus of the Desjardins Canal. The Desjardins Canal stretched from the Burlington Heights at the Head of Lake Ontario through the marsh towards Dundas and ended at this spot, which was called the turning basin. As the Canal itself was narrow, the basin allowed vessels to dock, unload and load their goods, and turn around for the return journey., As the Canal business began to decline the turning basin transformed into a playground where locals could swim and boat in the summer, and skate in the winter. Steamers now carried people instead of goods, making excursions to picnics at Burlington Beach and even towing floating bandstands., All this changed as the area around the Canal was developed in the early years of the 20th century. The Hamilton and Dundas railway cut off the Spencer Creek floodplain and in 1919 the Town built a primary wastewater treatment plant that dumped sewage into the Canal. As a result, the turning basin became a stagnant pool of odorous muck and what had once been the pride of the community was now an embarrassment., Various efforts to deal with the basin were delayed by the Great Depression and world war two and it was not until 1967 that the Town made the decision to fill in the turning basin and transform it into the park it is today.