Back Roads of Ontario

by Ron Brown
(Toronto, Ontario, Canada)

I have been fortunate enough to have been able to share my favourite places through my books, Back Roads of Ontario and Top 115 Unusual Things to See in Ontario.

Although "unrated", I would recommend a visit to Petrolia. Many of the ornate downtown buildings date from the prosperous oil days of the late 1800's and the beautiful Grand Trunk train station has been preserved as a library.

Magnetawan on the old pioneer Nipissing Road yet exudes a pioneer flavour. Its church was the subject of an A.J. Casson painting

Cobalt is Ontario's "most historic town" and retains many of the old boomtown buildings and headframes of the great silver rush of the early 1900s. The museum offers tours and Brooksies is a wonderful family restaurant

The Cree community of Moosonee is Ontario's only seaport accessible by land on the Polar Bear Express train service. Here, on Moose Factory Island, are the remains of an old Hudson's Bay Post and a modern Cree-run Ecolodge. Be sure to take in the Cree stained glass windows in the RC Cathedral.