Ontario Exploration | Exploring old, sometimes forgotten or hidden, Ontario places.

Windsor, Ontario for Urban Explorers

August 18, 2020July 5, 2020 by Laura

Group Description This group is for all those photos of Windsor, Ontario that exhibit the current state of property in the city. Abandoned homes, brownfields, vacant stores, empty factories, etc. The current commercial vacancy rate in downtown Windsor is an astonishing 24%. The residential vacancy rate is the highest in the country, and has been rising since 2005. Businesses are closing left and right, and our leaders don’t seem to understand the importance of a vibrant downtown. A lot can be said about this subject, but this group’s purpose is to SHOW our leaders what is happening across our city. Add your photos of blight in Windsor, and hopefully we can illustrate to the powers that be that immediate action is needed.

Rooftopping Versus Skywalking

August 18, 2020June 17, 2020 by Laura

Rooftopping is not about hanging yourself from the edge of a building.

Skywalking has been promoted in the media as rooftopping, incorrectly. Urban exploration is not about taking silly risks with your life. Urban explorers take photographs, are careful as they explore, don’t litter or vandalize and they make it home again to upload their photographs. Taking photographs is not to prove you were there, or show how much of a thrill seeker you are. The photos document the place you visited, not the fact that you, in particular, were there.

Rooftopping is not performance art. Some explorers like to be underground in tunnels, drains and other types of big holes in the ground. Some (maybe the same people) like to be far above ground, to see everything from a new angle and look at all the city lights. The first rooftopping photo was taken in Toronto, Ontario. The photograph showed the city far below with the photographer’s shoes hanging over the edge of the tall building they were sitting on. (Note, sitting on, not hanging or dangling from). If you enjoy dangling yourself from a crane join a circus or take up construction and learn how to do it safely. Have some care and respect for yourself and be here (relatively undamaged) for your own further adventures, tomorrow.

I Think About Canadian Prehistory

August 18, 2020May 20, 2020 by Laura

The following is cut and pasted from information at the UBC site. A little prehistory, as much as we seem to know so far. Funny how the present time is relearning the past.

9000 B.C.
Native peoples are living along the Eramosa River near what is now Guelph, Ontario.

5200 B.C.
The Sto:lo people are living alongside the Fraser River near what is now Mission, B.C. (Some say they may have been as early as 9000 B.C.)

5000 B.C.
Native peoples have spread into what is now Northern Ontario and Southeastern Québec.

2000 B.C.
Inuit peoples begin to move into what is now the Northwest Territories.

500 B.C.
Northwest Coast native peoples begin to flourish.

1000
Leif (the Lucky) Ericsson visits Labrador and L’Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland.