Taddle Creek

Taddle Creek. . , Prior to colonization and urban development altering the landscape, the land Toronto now occupies was teeming with waterways that flowed through marshes and forests of pine and oak trees. Taddle Creek ran for six kilometres across land that remains the traditional territory of Indigenous Nations including the Wendat and Haudenosaunee and is part of the Treaty 13 lands and territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. Small rivers like Taddle Creek are known as zibjinsan in Anishinaabemowin, the language spoken by the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. Davenport Road, located north of here, follows the route of an Indigenous trail between the Don and Humber Rivers that connected to a wider travel network. The rivers of this area played a vital role in the lives of Indigenous peoples as springtime gathering places. Families would fish with gill nets, spears, and weirs for salmon and trout. Wild rice and berries near waterways provided abundant food and wildlife., As Toronto expanded around it, the southern section of Taddle Creek supported some of the city's earliest farms and industries. One of the first industries to use the creek was the city's first brewery, which Robert Henderson opened around 1800. The creek flowed roughly south through the University of Toronto grounds, where it was dammed in the 1860s to create McCaul's Pond. Students boated, fished, skated, and socialized there. As the city grew, industrial and residential waste was dumped in the creek and it became a public health hazard. Taddle Creek was buried in sections and directed into the sewer system, which moved the pollution problem to Lake Ontario. By the mid-1880s, Taddle Creek was almost completely buried except in the Wychwood Park area. Today, traces of the creek remain visible in the University of Toronto's Philosopher's Walk ravine. Many depressions in the land and deviations in the street grid are subtle clues to Taddle Creek's former presence.