Rivers run through it: Fun facts about York Region’s winding waterways

Yorkregion.com
July 23, 2018
Adam Martin-Robbins

York Region is home to numerous rivers and streams including the three major rivers that run south into Lake Ontario.

Here are some fun facts about five of York's winding waterways:

East Humber River

This river runs 63 kilometres from Richmond Hill’s Lake St. George, in the Oak Ridges Moraine, through King and Vaughan to Toronto where it joins the main branch then flows into Lake Ontario. Once lined with mills, the last one Hayhoe Brothers Mill in Woodbridge burned down in 2008 after 180 years in operation.

Local naturalist Michael White shows off rainbow darters stunned and captured to help determine the health of the Don River during the Mill Pond Splash. --Steve Somerville/Metroland

Don River

The east branch starts in the Oak Ridges Moraine flows through Richmond Hill, Thornhill then Toronto. The west branch begins near Maple running south into Toronto to merge with the east branch and pour into Lake Ontario. The Mill Pond Splash, held annually in Richmond Hill, educates people about challenges facing the watershed.

Jeremy Green fishes on the bank of the Rouge River where it flows south underneath a Highway 7 overpass in Markham. --Megan Ogilvie/Toronto Star

Rouge River

Comprised of two rivers, the Little Rouge and Rouge River, it begins in the Oak Ridges Moraine in the Richmond Hill and Stouffville area then winds through Markham, Pickering and Toronto to Lake Ontario. It passes through Rouge National Urban Park. Early settlers reportedly speared large salmon spawning as far north as Stouffville.

East Holland River

Starting in Newmarket, it runs through Holland Landing joining the West Holland River then flowing into Lake Simcoe. In 1904, MP William Mulock hatched a plan to build a canal with locks so barges could travel the river. Dubbed Mulock’s Madness by critics, it was eventually abandoned, but remnants remain.

Black River

Starting at an unnamed lake in Whitchurch --Stouffville, it runs through East Gwillimbury, Uxbridge and Georgina over the Baldwin Dam through Sutton into Lake Simcoe. Georgina resident Mike Nealon garnered an award in 2016 for his efforts to help prevent the spread of water soldier, an invasive aquatic plant, was discovered in the river 2015.