History of the Heritage Trail: Escarpment and Railroad

History of the Heritage Trail: Escarpment and Railroad. . For the majority of your walk on the Heritage Trail, the Niagara Escarpment looms in the southern distance as a giant wall of woods. This UNESCO listed geographical feature is a treasure of environmental, historical, and indigenous significance. An escarpment is a landform where one flat area of land is separated from another flat area, with a sudden drop in elevation (in this case, a cliff or large hill) in between. This ridge of rock was exposed some 12,000 years ago as the Laurentide Ice Sheet melted and eroded away softer terrains of the landscape. However, the layered (sedimentary) rock content of the escarpment is truly ancient, dated at approximately 420 million years old! , The remarkably flat landscape you see around you is an ancient lake bed, which now provides some of the richest soils in the country for tender fruit agriculture. In 1854, this flatness also allowed the birth of the Erie and Ontario Railroad that transported both passengers and goods from downtown Niagara-on-the-Lake to Niagara Falls, which then linked up to the Great Western Railway. It continued to operate until the mid-1950s. , Did you know: , - Indigenous peoples have utilized the Niagara Escarpment and the Niagara River as a reliable navigation route for thousands of years , - The Bruce Trail Canada's longest marked hiking trail at about 890 km long. It follows the backbone of the Niagara Escarpment from Niagara-on-the-Lake to Tobermory , - 12,000 years ago, Niagara Falls once fell over the Niagara Escarpment at the current day Queen-Lewiston border bridge , The gate you can see in the wall was actually a railroad stop In approximately 1873, Henry Livingstone Lansing of Buffalo, New York, purchased the property and named it Woodlawn. With his connections in the railroad industry, he was able to secure a railroad stop on his property. , In 1909 George Rand Sr., a banker also from Buffalo, purchased the property as a summer residence and renamed it Randwood. It is Mr. Rand who had the brick and stone wall constructed around the property. The railroad stop with the iron gate was incorporated into the wall. Prior to the rising popularity of the automobile and the construction of new and improved roads, having a railroad stop beside your property must have been a great convenience for the Rand family and their guests. When the train was making daily trips to Niagara this corridor would have looked completely different. No homes to the west, Just mainly farmland and no trees or brush along the tracks. Today it has been transformed into a beautiful recreational trail.