Whiteoaks Lorne Park Area – 425 million Years Ago to Present

The Whiteoaks Lorne Park area has been on the equator, under ice, submerged in lake water, located near a resort destination and inspired a bestselling series of novels ! Read on to find out more.

425 million years ago, North America was part of one huge land mass and Rattray Marsh, just south of Whiteoaks Lorne Park, was at the equator. (1)

  • 12,000 years ago, glaciers two kilometres high scraped across Whiteoaks Lorne Park. (2)
  •  As glaciers receded, the lake (then known as Lake Iroquois) flooded its banks with Whiteoaks Lorne Park underwater as the shoreline lapped up to what is now Mavis Road and Dundas Street. (3)
  •  Over the next 500 years, the lake slowly receded to form the current shoreline allowing WhiteOaks Lorne Park landscape to develop.
  •  10,000 years ago, aboriginal North Americans lived and hunted in the area, and it remained this way for over 9,000 years. (4)
  •  The first Europeans in the Whiteoaks Lorne Park area may have occurred in the early 1600’s. (5)
  •  August 2, 1805, Treaty 13-A, known locally at the First Purchase, turning over some 70,784 acres of land, excluding 1-mile on each side of the Credit River to a depth of six miles, marked today by Eglinton Avenue; Treaty 19, known locally as the Second Purchase, was signed on October 28th, 1818, turning over some 648,000 acres, all land north of the 6-mile line (Eglinton Avenue); and Treaties 22 & 23, known as the Credit Treaties, signed on February 20th, 1820, turning over land within the 1-mile reserve on each side of the Credit River as set aside in Treaty 13-A, with the exception of a 200 acre parcel of land and the establishment of a Crown-owned Credit Indian Reserve.Current day Indian Road marked the 1805 1-mile border. (6)
  • 1806. The land where Whiteoaks Lorne Park is today was surveyed as part of a Cadastral Survey of Toronto Township (or the Township of Toronto) under the direction of Major Samuel Wilmot (also referred to as the Old Survey and as Wilmot’s Survey). Land grants within this survey where made available in late 1806, with the first land being granted in the Whiteoaks Lorne Park area in 1807. (7)
  •  In 1820, a reserve was created located where Mississaugua* Golf and Country is today, but over time, the majority re-located to the New Credit First Nation Reserve near Hagersville where Mississaugas continue to reside today. (8)
  •  In 1879, Lorne Park 30 hectare resort area (now known as Lorne Park Estates) was established south of the Lakeshore. The Resort took the name Lorne Park before the village did, even though settlement north of Lakeshore Road was much earlier, however no centralized village developed until later. Early settlers would have relied on services, schools, churches, and mail in the nearby villages of Clarkson, Sheridan, Port Credit and/or Erindale. (9)
  •  The farming village north of Lakeshore (and the resort) were named after the Marquis de Lorne, Governor General of Canada from 1878-1883. (10)
  •  The village received its name when the first Post Office opened in 1892. (11)
  •  The village of Lorne Park and Whiteoaks were made up of six lots. See map below. (12)
  •  Lorne Park was never incorporated nor were exact boundaries established . (12)
  •  Whiteoaks takes its name inspiration from the works of Mazo de la Roche (author of Jalna series or also known as the Whiteoak Chronicles), as do many other street names. Like Lorne Park, the exact boundaries are unclear . (12)
  •  In, Whiteoaks, Lorne Park and throughout Mississauga, we are constantly building new heritage, as heritage does not just mean old buildings. Nor does it just mean individual buildings as Old Port Credit and Meadowvale Village are recognized as heritage districts. It also means recognizing important cultural landscapes like Lorne Park Estates or our friends just to the south at Rattray Marsh, and as we all now know, the former equator.
  •  Walk, run or ride your own heritage trail. In addition to the web sites noted above, you can also visit the new City of Mississauga web site that brings all culture and heritage properties, 2 districts and cultural landscapes into one place at: http://www.cultureonthemap.ca/mapcms/com/index.html

Thanks to Heritage Mississauga historian Matthew Wilkinson and local historian Richard Collins for their contribution to the above.

Book References (available at your library or can be purchased at Heritage Mississauga http://www.heritagemississauga.com/page/Gift-Shop)

(1) page 39, The First 10,000 Years

(2) page 3, In the Footsteps of the Mississaugas

(3) page 3, In the Footsteps of the Mississaugas

(4) page 59, The First 10,000 Years (my summary)

(5) page 27, In the Footsteps of the Mississaugas (my summary)

(6) page 50, In the Footsteps of the Mississaugas with further content from Matthew Wilkson

(7) per Matthew Wilkson

(8) page 59, In the Footsteps of the Mississaugas

(9) page 175, The Lost Village of Mississauga with further content from Matthew

Wilkson

(10) page 176, The Lost Village of Mississauga

(11) page 176, The Lost Village of Mississauga

(12) as provided by Matthew Wilkinson and Richard Collins

*this is the correct spelling of the golf course

Other source material can be found at www.mississauga.ca/hertitagepartners and encourage readership of “Lorne Park: Dreams of Long Ago”, by Verna Mae Weeks.

Find what concession and lot number your house now resides on!

The map below represents outlines the original concession lines and lot numbers of Whiteoaks, Lorne Park, and surrounding area.(12)