The Don River is a watercourse in Ontario, Canada, that empties into Lake Ontario, at Toronto Harbour. Its mouth was just east of the street grid of the town of York, Upper Canada, the municipality that evolved into Toronto, Ontario. The Don is one of the major watercourses draining Toronto (along with the Humber, and Rouge Rivers) that have headwaters in the Oak Ridges Moraine.
The Don is formed from two rivers, the East and West Branches, that meet about north of Lake Ontario while flowing southward into the lake. The area below the confluence is known as the "lower Don", and the areas above as the "upper Don". The Don is also joined at the confluence by a third major branch, Taylor-Massey Creek. The Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) is responsible for managing the river and its surrounding watershed.
Toponymy In 1788, Alexander Aitkin, an English surveyor who worked in southern Ontario, referred to the Don River as Ne cheng qua kekonk.City of Toronto Toronto Golf History. Accessed March 24, 2007 Elizabeth Simcoe, wife of Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe, reported in her diary that another name used was .Robertson, J.R. 2001. The Diary of Mrs. John Graves Simcoe. Toronto, Ont. Prospero Books. This is an Anishnaabe phrase meaning 'the river coming from the back burnt grounds', which could refer to an earlier forest fire in the poplar plains to the north. The name Don River was given by Lieutenant Governor Simcoe because the wide valley reminded him of the River Don in Yorkshire, England.
History
Humans are believed to have first arrived in the Don River area approximately 12,500 years BP, most likely as nomadic hunters. While there is little archaeological evidence in the Don valley itself, regional finds in the Great Lakes St. Lawrence area have revealed that permanent settlements started to occur about 6000 BP. The most significant recorded find is known as the "Withrow Site". It was discovered in 1886 during road building just east of Riverdale Park. It contained human remains and other artifacts dating back to about 5000 years BP.
Wendat longhouse villages were developed along the river starting in the 1300s when corn became a staple food. In the 1700s, the Mississaugas moved into the region, seeing the Haudenosaunee withdraw south of Lake Ontario. The French were the first Europeans to visit the region, trading at posts in the area. In the 1760s, the French were displaced by the British after the fall of Quebec.
The British and the Mississaugas concluded the problematic Toronto Purchase treaty in 1787. Believing the purchase to be a rental of the area, and not the release of their rights to the land, the Mississaugas surrendered most of the land that would become York, and then Toronto, and York County to the British. After a land claims process, the surrender of aboriginal title to the Toronto Purchase lands was eventually concluded in 2010 for financial considerations.
After the founding of York in 1793, several mills were constructed along the lower Don. One of the first was at Todmorden Mills. These mills initially turned out lumber, flour and paper products. By the 1850s, there were more than 50 mills along the Don and its tributaries."When the Don Valley was cottage country".Toronto Star, September 4, 2016, page IN4. The Lower Don was becoming an industrial setting. Petroleum storage facilities, poultry and pork processing plants were constructed along the banks of the Don. In 1879, the Don Valley Brick Works opened. Polluted effluent from these factories and the growing city nearby was turning the Don and its marshy mouth into a polluted hazard.
There were two prominent hills that were north of Bloor. "Sugar Loaf Hill" at Bloor Street was a conical hill removed during the construction of the Prince Edward Viaduct (commonly referred to as the Bloor Viaduct). "Tumper's Hill", near Don Mills Road, was flattened in the 1960s during the construction of the Don Valley Parkway.
In the 1880s, the lower part of the Don south of the former Winchester Street bridge was straightened (east of the original mouth) and placed in a channel to create additional harbour space and industrial dock space for boats. Known as "The Don Improvement Project", the straightened river was also supposed to divert the polluted waters into the Ashbridges Bay marsh. This proved unsuccessful so the mouth was turned 90 degrees west where it empties into the inner harbour. This short extension of the harbour is known as the Keating Channel. The channel north of Lake Shore Blvd. East ceased being navigable when the Gardiner Expressway was constructed in the 1950s. Large boats can no longer enter the Keating Channel due to the removal of the Cherry Street lift bridge and it's replacement by the Cherry Street North bridges.
During the early part of the 20th century the river and the valley continued to be neglected. 31 separate sewage treatment facilities were constructed along the river. Over 20 sites in the valley and adjacent ravines were used as landfills for garbage and industrial refuse. In 1917, the Don Destructor was built beside the river, just north of Dundas Street East. The incinerator operated for 52 years, burning about 50,000 tonnes of rubbish annually.
The Don River caught fire on at least two occasions in 1931 and 1943 because of industrial pollution from the McColl-Frontenac and British American Oil refineries.
In the 1910s through to the early 1930s, the Don Valley was used as a camping site by the homeless. These sites were commonly referred to as the "hobo jungle" of the valley. Campers at the hobo jungle were often harassed, arrested, and raided by police.
In 1946, a plan by the Shirriff company to demolish pioneer dwellings in the area of Todmorden Mills led outraged citizens to form the Don Valley Conservation Association volunteer organization. The Association's opposition was successful in causing Shirriff to abandon the project in 1947. The Association continued its activities, planting tree seedlings, halting the picking of wild flowers, particularly trilliums and preventing vandalism. The Association held educational events to educate the public about the Don Valley, including special trains through the valley, and a recreation of Lt. Governor Simcoe's journey up the Don by canoe. The Association also advocated for the building of trunk sewers to stop the run-off of pollution into the Don.
After World War II, rapid urban expansion occurred in the northern reaches of the watershed. At the same time, interest in conservation led to the formation of conservation authorities across Ontario for watershed management. Authorities were established to manage watersheds, and the Don Valley Conservation Authority was established in 1947. The authority had limited powers, and was funded by local municipalities which had to pay for specific land purchases. For example, a 1950 plan to build a large conservation area on the East Don River at Milne Hollow at Lawrence Avenue never came to fruition over the high cost of development.
In 1954, Hurricane Hazel struck the Toronto area. Most of the damage occurred in the Humber River area. While there was some flooding, substantially less rain fell over the Don Watershed and there was no loss of life. However, the impact of the hurricane led to changes for the conservation authorities in the Toronto region. In 1957, the DVCA, along with other Toronto-area conservation authorities, was reformed into the Metro Toronto and Region Conservation Authority and given a mandate to construct flood control features as well as acquire property in the Don and other valleys to prevent a future re-occurrence of the disaster. Large tracts of industrial land adjacent to the river were added to the regulatory floodplain. This meant that the MTRCA had a veto on any developments that were not flood-proofed. The MTRCA became the TRCA in 1998.
In the 1950s and early 1960s, the Don Valley Parkway (DVP) was constructed through the Lower Don to serve growing commuter traffic. The project was a large civil engineering project. Homes, farms, and cottages in the valley were expropriated. Two hills within the valley were leveled and the soil used for grading the highway. The railways and the river were re-routed, Don Mills Road was improved and the Eglinton Avenue and Lawrence Avenue concession roads were extended across the valley. At the intersection of Lawrence and the Parkway, the remains of the old village of Milneford Mills were removed. Bayview Avenue was extended south into the valley along the west bank of the valley.
Increasing development reduced the natural areas of the watershed. This impacted the Don with increased pollution, heavy flooding, and turbid sediment laden waters. The combined result meant that by the 1960s the river had become a neglected, polluted mess. In 1969, Pollution Probe held a much celebrated "Funeral for the Don" to highlight the plight of the river.
Efforts to restore the Don gathered steam in 1989 with a public forum at the Ontario Science Centre which was attended by about 500 people. The result was the formation of the Task Force to Bring Back the Don, a citizen's advisory body to Toronto City Council. Their mandate and vision was to make the Don "clean, green, and accessible". Since then they have hosted garbage cleanups, tree plantings, and help to create or restore eight wetlands in the lower reaches of the valley, including Chester Springs Marsh, a site south of the Bloor Viaduct. Other groups also became active including Friends of the Don East. In 1995, the MTRCA created the Don Watershed Regeneration Council to coordinate restoration efforts throughout the watershed.
In 1991 Bring Back the Don released a document called "Bringing Back the Don" which laid out plans for restoration, including a renaturalized mouth of the Don. In 1998 a plan to revive Toronto's waterfront was initiated. One of the four projects mentioned was a natural mouth for the Don River. In 2001 an environmental assessment was started to look into a natural mouth of the Don. The project was also coupled with a plan to handle a major flood modeled on the expected output from a Hurricane Hazel size storm. In 2007, the Toronto Waterfront Development Corporation (now WaterfrontToronto) held a design competition that looked at four different configurations for the mouth of the Don. The winning bid was made by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates. The environmental assessment was completed in 2014 and construction began in 2016. In 2024, Waterfront Toronto announced that it had connected the Don River to the new mouth of the river channel and completed the creation of a new island, Ookwemin Minising. For the first time since the 1880s the Keating Channel was no longer the primary outlet for the river into Toronto Harbour.
Since the cessation of industrial pollution and the cleanup efforts by various groups, the river has regenerated to the point where a number of species of fish have returned to the river, and there is a limited sports fishery.
Wonscotonach Parklands (Don River Valley Park)