Etobicoke Creek, Early May 2017, High Water?, Marie Curtis Park, Etobicoke, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Etobicoke Creek in Marie Curtis Park, Etobicoke, Toronto Near Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
The Etobicoke Creek flows from north to south in the Greater Toronto Area, emptying into Lake Ontario. The creek's headwaters are in Peel Region (Caledon, Brampton, and north Mississauga). Its tributaries include Little Etobicoke Creek in Mississauga, and Mimico Creek. The creek flows down from Caledon through the middle of Brampton, just east of Main Street / Hurontario Road. When it passes Shopper's World (north of Hurontario and Steeles), it turns eastward, flowing to Toronto Pearson International Airport in the Malton area of northeastern Mississauga. From there it flows southward again, along the border between Mississauga and Toronto. The creek then reaches Lake Ontario at Marie Curtis Park in southern Etobicoke (in Toronto's west end).
The name Etobicoke comes from the Mississauga word wah-do-be-kang (wadoopikaang) meaning place where the alders grow. This name has been applied to both the creek and to the west end Toronto suburb of Etobicoke. The Mississauga are an Anishinaabe Algonquian-speaking First Nations, or indigenous, group of people who are related to the Ojibwa (Ojibwe). The southern Ontario, Greater Toronto, and Lower Great Lakes areas were formerly inhabited by Iroquoian-speaking farmers. But by the late 18th century, the Iroquoians had moved on, and most of southeastern Ontario was inhabited by the Algonquian-speaking Mississaugas. It was the Mississaugas who sold most of the land in southeastern Ontario to the British in the late 18th century. This paved the way for the establishment of the colony of Upper Canada as a home for Anglo-American Loyalist refugees from the United States (people who had fought for Britain during the American Revolutionary War). Upper Canada later became the province of Ontario. The Mississauga people, of course, have lent their name to the city of Mississauga, part of their former homeland. Today Mississauga First Nations people have a number of reserves in Ontario.
In Toronto and surrounding areas, much of the low-lying land around rivers, creek, and lake shore is parkland. Many of these flood-prone areas were turned into parkland as a result of flooding in southern Ontario caused by Hurricane Hazel in 1954. That storm destroyed homes and killed people living in areas near waterways, so the government banned building in these flood-prone areas. Marie Curtis Park was one of the parks created after the storm, which destroyed houses and cottages that used to be on the site where the park is today. The park is made up of deciduous forest with some meadow, savannah, thicket, woodland, marsh, sand dunes, and a beach along the lakefront. Etobicoke Creek flows through the park into Lake Ontario.
Tags: Etobicoke Creek, Peel Region, Toronto, Caledon, Brampton, Mississauga, Etobicoke, South Etobicoke, Lakeshore, Lake Ontario, Marie Curtis Park, Little Etobicoke Creek, Mimico Creek, Toronto Pearson International Airport, creek, river, stream, waterway, brook, drainage basin, Ojibwa, Ojibwe, Mississauga First Nation, Anishinaabe, Algonquian, Iroquoian, Iroquois, beach, marsh, meadow, deciduous forest, ducks, swans, mallards, geese, goose, Canada goose