The original free-flowing stream was incorporated into the early Welland Canal system.
Once a vital and visible watercourse in St. Catharines, Dick's Creek is now somewhat obscure. Now located within the 19 hectare Canal Valley park system between Glendale Avenue, Westchester Crescent, Highway 406, and the Twelve Mile Creek, the wooded channel in Canal Valley alongside Centennial Park and a short section of blind channel adjacent to Highway 406 are all that remain visible of one of the Twelve Mile Creek's most important tributary streams.
The stream that flowed through his farm and into Twelve Mile Creek became known as 'Dick's Creek'. Richard Pierpoint sold his farm in 1806. In 1812, he successfully petitioned the government of Upper Canada to create the first all-Black infantry corps in the country, known as the 'Coloured Corps.' This unit fought in many major battles of the War of 1812. Pierpoint later moved to Garafraxa Township on the Grand River near Fergus, Ontario, where he died at age 93.
The area that we now know as St. Catharines was originally granted to Jacob Dittrick and John Hainer, former Butler's Rangers. The parcel was located at the intersection of two creeks, Twelve Mile Creek and Dick's Creek, at a point where the Iroquois Trail (presently St. Paul Street) crossed. Another early settler, Thomas Adams, built a tavern at the junction of the Iroquois Trail and another trail that ran alongside the creek, now known as Ontario Street. Eventually that tavern was sold to Paul Shipman, and the community became known as Shipman's Corners.
In 1824, William Hamilton Merrit promoted Dick's Creek as part of a revised route for the proposed Welland canal between the Welland River and Lake Ontario. Originally slated to cross the Niagara Escarpment near DeCew Falls, the revised canal route descended the escarpment near Merritton by a series of locks, and then used the channel of Dick's Creek to reach the Twelve Mile Creek. The Welland Canal was opened in 1829. Dick's Creek also received water discharged from the sophisticated system of millraces dug by the St. Catharines Waterpower Company, which supplied water from the upper reaches of the Welland Canal to many mills along the Canal's length.
The Dick's Creek section of the canal continued to be used for navigation until 1881, when a new, shorter alignment of the Third Welland Canal was completed between St. Catharines and Port Dalhousie.
With the abandonment of the Second Welland Canal in 1887 and the diversion of canal water into the Third Welland Canal, the Dick's Creek section gradually fell into disuse. By the turn of the 20th century, water-powered mills were all but gone, and the industrial importance of the creek declined. The lower reaches of the streambed were buried under the Glenridge Fill in 1955 to make way for new road construction, creating a permanently landlocked channel where Dick's Creek used to flow. Further filling and grading for Highway 406 created the blind inlet now visible adjacent to the Twelve Mile Creek.
Now containing shallow standing or slow-moving water for most of its length, the valley of Dick's Creek forms part of the 19 hectare Canal Valley park system between Glendale Avenue, Westchester Crescent, Highway 406, and the Twelve Mile Creek.
Dick's Creek was once a major waterway which defined the urban landscape of St. Catharines. Now hidden within the Canal Valley parklands and partially buried in a subterranean conduit, it is far less obvious - though its influence on the layout of the city can easily be seen on topographic maps.
Today, Dick's Creek can best be viewed on foot or on your bicycle. The best viewpoint for the main section of the creek is alongside Stage 3 of the Laura Secord Legacy Trail in Centennial Park. As you travel west on the gravel trail from the Oakdale Avenue parking lot through Centennial Park, Dick's Creek will be to your left, partially obscured by a fringe of trees and understory on its banks. However, you will be able to find a number of informal pathways that lead to the edge of the creek, where you will easily be able to see the flowing watercourse.
Dick's Creek curves west and southwest for just over a kilometre from the Oakdale Avenue parking lot, and then descends into a subterranean conduit under Highway 406. It re-emerges some 500 m to the southwest, just south of the intersection of Eastchester and Glenridge Avenues. This blind terminal section of Dick's Creek is contiguous with the waters of the Twelve Mile Creek, and marks the point where the two waterways originally converged.
Fraser, Don. 2001. Niagara's little-known trailblazer: A new book sheds light on one of our earliest settlers -- a black man who fought with the United Empire Loyalists. St. Catharines Standard (ON), Final, Spectrum, Saturday, February 17, 2001, p. E3.
Meyler, Peter and David. 1999. A Stolen Life: Searching for Richard Pierpoint. Natural Heritage Books. 141 pp.
A terminal section of Dick's Creek is visible to the east of the pedestrian overpass over Hwy 406
(overpass accessible south of the intersection of McGuire St. and St. Paul Crescent)
St. Catharines, Ontario. To see this section of the creek:
Latitude: | 43.153680746270325 |
Longitude: | -79.24386978149414 |