DeCew Town is located along the edge of the Niagara Escarpment between DeCew House and DeCew Falls. Settler John DeCew built several mills on 200 acres of land he purchased in 1792 on the escarpment above 12 Mile Creek. DeCew was captured by American Patriot forces and imprisoned in Philadelphia. DeCew escaped in 1814 and returned home to active service with his regiment, the 2nd Lincoln Militia. After the war, he rebuilt his sawmill and constructed a stone grist mill at DeCew Falls. Other pioneer services followed, and a small settlement called DeCew Town developed in the kilometer of road west of DeCew House towards DeCew Falls. These buildings formed the nucleus of a village called DeCew Town. DeCew House as mentioned before is a location with great historical significance, the house was built by John DeCew, DeCew House was the destination for Laura Secord when she set out on her celebrated trek from Queenston over the rough terrain of the Niagara Escarpment in June of 1813 to warn the British military of an impending American attack. The building was seriously damaged by fire in 1938, and there are only a few stone walls left now. The foundation of DeCew House has been preserved as a memorial and a park site (Greenbelt).

Municipality: Thorold

Local area name: Fonthill

Other identifying names or descriptions DeCew House Heritage Park

Latitude and longitude: 43.107649358600000, -79.250268525900000

Physical Dimensions

Length:1.18/ km, From DeCew House to DeCew Falls

Width: Unable to find the exact number, because there are no information on the specific area for DeCew Town.

Surface Area: Unable to find the exact number, because there are no information on the specific area for DeCew Town.

Elevation:

Highest 175m/ lowest point 157m

DeCew Town, was originally founded by John DeCew in 1792, settler John DeCew purchased 200 acres of land along the edge of Niagara Escarpment, he built his house, the famous DeCew House in 1808, and several mills in the area. However the Town didn't form until DeCew escaped and returned home after he was captured by the American Patriots in the War of 1812. DeCew Town was located between the DeCew House and DeCew Falls (Greenbelt DeCew Town). The main feature of DeCew Town is DeCew House, The house was originally built in 1808 by John DeCew, DeCew House is a location with great historical significance as mentioned previously in the abstract (Greenbelt DeCew House). The Town vanished around the 1860s, around 30 years after DeCew sold his property and left. I'm glad that the landscape didn't turn into a waste, people made made very good use of the land afterwards, with the creation of Lake Gibson/ Lake Moodie, and Morningstar Mills, also the St. Catharines Water Treatment Plant. The DeCew House has been turned into a Monument/Heritage Park.

Map 1: Location of the DeCew House Heritage Park (Source Google Map)

Figure 1a: Google Street view of the DeCew House from DeCew Road. (Source: Google Street View)

DeCew Town is covered by large, matured trees right now (See Figure 3a), if you walk on the DeCew Road, from DeCew House Heritage Park to DeCew Falls, it almost feels like walking on a Boulevard, because both side of the road is covered by large trees. Since the DeCew House has been turned into a Heritage Park now, there are also a lot of trees in the park. Back in the days when the DeCew House was still there, there were trees around the house, especially in front of the house, there were very tall trees in the front, those trees were cut down after the House was destroyed.On the left side of the park it was all farm land, there were no trees, right now the left side of the park is all covered by trees, it's like a small forest.

There will always be animals in the park, DeCew House Heritage Park is no exception, you can always find squirrels, birds in the area. Right next to the park is Lake Gibson, you will always find people fishing there, "fishermen will find a variety of fish including sucker, bullhead, largemouth bass, pumpkinseed, drum, smallmouth bass and carphere" (Hook and Bullet).

Some flora and fauna that were found within the Lake Gibson area are, swamp rose-mallow, Bald eagles, red-tailed hawks, ospreys, ducks, geese, swans.

There aren't that much ecological information specifically for the area that the DeCew Town covered, since DeCew Town is apart of the Niagara Escarpment, and I found some information of the ecology within the Niagara Escarpment, I looked up the information for the south side of the Niagara Escarpment because DeCew Town was located on the south side of the Escarpment. So flora in the south, Cucumber-tree, Paw-paw, Green Dragon (Arisaema dracontium), Tuckahoe (Peltandra virginica), American Columbo (Frasera virginiana) Rand's Goldenrod (Solidago glutinosa ssp.randii) and Roundleaf Ragwort (Senecio obovatus) (Ontario's Niagara Escarpment). Ferns and orchids are the most popular two types of plants within the Escarpment, for ferns, there are 50 species recorded, including Wall-rue (Asplenium ruta-muraria), an Appalachian species rare in Canada. Most of the world population of the North American subspecies of Hart's-tongue fern (Phyllitis scolopendrium var. americana) occurs along the Escarpment (Ontario's Niagara Escarpment). For orchids there are 37 species recorded in the northern parts of the Escarpment, including Calypso Orchid (Calypso bulbosa), Ram's-head Lady-slipper (Cypripedium arietinum) and Alaska Rein Orchid (Piperia unalascensis).

Niagara Escarpment includes 72% of all birds recorded in Ontario, (of which 200 species have shown evidence of breeding in the Niagara Escarpment). Of the breeding species, 25 are considered nationally or provincially endangered, threatened or vulnerable, including Bald Eagle, Red-shouldered hawk, Black Tern, Louisiana Waterthrush and Hooded Warbler. (Ontario's Niagara Escarpment). There are also 55 mammal species and 34 species of reptiles and amphibians recorded. Rare species include the endangered North Dusky Salamander, the threatened Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake, the vulnerable Southern Flying-squirrel and the rare Eastern Pipistrelle (Ontario's Niagara Escarpment).

The Niagara Escarpment was formed over 500 to 400 million years ago during the Ordovician and Silurian Periods belonging to the Paleozoic Era. At the time there were a large area in North America including the Great Lakes Basin and Southern Ontario, was covered by warm shallow water. "The Escarpment can attest to its origins in warm tropical-like waters because of the fossil remains of primitive warm water organisms embedded in its composition as well as its limestone composition" (Ontario's Niagara Escarpment). As with any large body of water, this ancient sea was fed by rivers, those rivers carried materials such as sand, silt and clay along its course. These materials were deposited and over time compressed into sedimentary rock strata (Ontario's Niagara Escarpment).

Within the DeCew Town area, DeCew Falls is the main geological feature, DeCew Falls formed after the creation of the Niagara Escarpment 450 million years ago, Decew Falls cascades 22 metres (72 feet) into a bowl-shaped amphitheatre just behind the mill. The Decew Formation is a fine grained grey dolostone of the silurian age (approximately 443 to 417 million years ago). The rock here can be found in a thickness of up to 12 feet. The strata is underlain by the rochester shale, making it a cave bearing formation. The shale is somewhat impervious to water, so the water within the rock pools above the shale. The waters constant movement erodes and dissolves tunnels below (Greenbelt DeCew Falls).

DeCew Town is a part of the Fonthill community, I looked up some information on the soils in Fonthill, soil in Fonthill is mainly reddish-hued coarse sandy loam and gravelly sand, but on another soil map for the Niagara Region I was able to find the exact soil type for the area around the DeCew House. As shown in Figure 4a and 4b the soil in the area is mainly lacustrine silty clay. (Brock Map Library)

To the east side of the DeCew House Heritage Park right next to the Bruce Trail is Lake Gibson, Lake Gibson was created by human in 1904, the Lake was created to store water in a reservoir for hydroelectric power generation at the Ontario Power Generation Decew Falls 1 and 2. Lake Moodie is located to the northwest side of Lake Gibson, it's a small part of the Lake Gibson. The lake was created by flooding the shallow valley of Beaverdams Creek. Almost all of the water supply to these lakes comes from Lake Erie via the Welland Canal (Greenbelt Lake Gibson). Since Lake Gibson was created by human there are almost no major physical changes to the lake, but there are changes in the water level and flow, because of the sudden changes in the water level and flow, access to the lake is prohibited (Greenbelt).

DeCew Town is sitting at the top of the Niagara Escarpment, With the higher elevation, temperatures warm gradually in the spring, encouraging later bud-burst and avoiding risks of frost. In the fall, the escarpment slopes trap warm lake air and allow for an extended season for grape maturation. (VQA Ontario).

During the winter time DeCew Town is warmer compare to other opened areas within the Niagara Escarpment, there are few reasons that caused the DeCew Town to be warmer in the the winter. First, DeCew Town is right next to the lake, water has a high specific heat, during the cold season, when the lake is warmer than the air, onshore winds bring the warmth inland (Skilling, 2014). With the help of the Lake Gibson, the temperature around the area is higher. Second, the area is now being covered by several small forests (See Figure 4c), it's always warmer by the trees, because the trees provides the protection from the strong wind.

During the summer time the temperature in DeCew Town is the opposite to the how it is during the winter time. The climate is relatively cooler than other areas within the Niagara Escarpment. Lakes also have effects on the climate during the summer time, on warm days when winds are light, the heated air over the land rises, allowing the cooler and denser air over the lake to flow onshore, delivering a cooling lake breeze (Skilling, 2014). Just like the winter time, forests is also a factor during summer time, the reason why it is cooler by the woods is because of evapotranspiration. Forests will tend to be cooler in drier summer conditions because, in general, you get more evapotranspiration from trees than from shallow-rooted vegetation and annual grasses die off in summer. The evapotranspiration cools the area. (Earth Science, 2015).

Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the Iroquoian-speaking Chonnonton, or "people of the deer," lived in the region that now includes St. Catharines, between the Grand and Niagara rivers (Historica Canada, 2015). Since St. Catharines is right next to Thorold, so I assume that they also lived in Thorold. The area that became the DeCew Town afterwards was probably an open space, because Thorold was settled in 1780s (Historica Canada), and settler John DeCew came and purchased the land in 1792, developed the land and built his sawmills and his house, so before he bought the land, the 200 acres of land should be undeveloped open field. In the Air photo of 1934 there were still a lot of open land field shown on the map, it's hard to tell what those open land fields are used for through the Air Photo, I assume those are farm lands, because there were people living there and they need foods to eat, so they need to farm themselves.

So after settler John DeCew bought the land, the land was mainly used for industrial, and residential purposes. DeCew built one of the first sawmills in the region, he also built his house in 1808 for living. DeCew House is a place with grate historical significance, during the War of 1812 DeCew House was the used as the British Military Headquarters during the time when DeCew was captured by the American Patriots, and also the house was the final destination for Laura Secord when she set out on her celebrated trek from Queenston over the rough terrain of the Niagara Escarpment in June of 1813 to warn the British military of an impending American attack (Greenbelt DeCew House). After the War of 1812, DeCew returned home in 1814 and rebuilt his sawmill and constructed a stone grist mill at DeCew Falls (Greenbelt DeCew Town). He started doing other pioneer services after the war, and a small settlement called DeCew Town developed in the kilometre of road west of DeCew House towards DeCew Falls. These buildings formed the nucleus of a village called DeCew Town (Greenbelt DeCew Town). However DeCew Town didn't last for a very long time after DeCew left, it vanished around 1860s, all that's left was the DeCew House. The house was sold to David Griffiths in 1833, whose descendants lived there for over 100 years. They were told to leave after the first time that the house was damaged by fire, then the Ontario Hydro took over the house for the expansion of the DeCew Falls Generating Plant, in 1950s the House was eventually destroyed completely by fire (see figure 5a and 5b for before and after the fire), after that the DeCew House was turned into a heritage park by Ontario Hydro.

The only "building" (monument) that's left from the original DeCew Town is the DeCew House, the house was built in 1808 by John DeCew, the two story house had limestone walls 66 cm thick. Unfortunately the house doesn't exist anymore because it was damaged by fire twice, causing very serious damage and eventually destroyed the house, all that's left now are few stones from the original house. After the first fire the house was bought by the Ontario Hydro, the government of Ontario announced that they will restore the house to it's original condition and make into a measure, but nothing was done. All they did was, after the second fire, they took down the remaining walls to the lower window level, and mounted a plaque on the rare wall, opposite of the main entrance. I wouldn't say that the original DeCew House had been preserved well, for a place that has such historical significance it should have been turned into a museum, or at least restored back to it's original form. That way people will learn more about the house, there's no doubt that it's always better to actually see for yourself rather than only read what people wrote about it. But don't get me wrong, the plaque is awesome for those who wants to learn the history of the place, but for those who wants to learn more it I think having the house there would really help.

As mentioned previously the house has been turned into a heritage park, the park now has been preserved pretty well in my opinion. the park is mainly for recreational uses, examples would be: picnicking, hiking and fishing. access to the adjacent waterways for boating, wading or swimming is prohibited due to sudden dangerous changes in water levels and flow rates (Greenbelt DeCew House). There are a few buildings that were constructed after the town vanished, examples like the Morningstar Mill was constructed in the 1872, and the St. Catharines Water Treatment Plant in 1925. These two buildings have been preserved pretty well, they all pretty much stayed the same as how they were before. Morningstar Mill is now a tourist destination, tourists can go there and see how the mill works, also have a glance at the gorgeous DeCew Falls. The St. Catharines Water Treatment Plant is now the major water treatment plant in the Niagara Region, to make sure the quality of the water is safe.

Before when DeCew Town still exist, the area was owned by John DeCew himself, DeCew sold his property and left in 1833, the DeCew House was sold to David Griffiths, whose descendants lived there for over 100 years. In 1943 the property was purchased from David Griffiths by Ontario Hydro for expansion of the DeCew Falls Generating Plant in 1943. The DeCew House is now owned by The City of Thorold. DeCew House is really the only thing that's left from DeCew Town, DeCew's stone grist mill was put up sale but it was never sold, because it was in the ruins by the mid 1860s, The other enterprises in DeCew Town likely met the same fate. (Greenbelt DeCew Town).

The reason why the DeCew House now looks so different from the original house has a little to do with the changes of ownerships, especially the second time, when the house was purchased by Ontario Hydro, after the first fire the house was seriously damaged and the descendants of David Griffiths were told to leave the house. Ontario Hydro announced the plans to restore the house into it's original form and turn it into a museum, but nothing was done (Greenbelt DeCew Town).

Since DeCew House is now a Heritage Park, public access is permitted, the park is a grate place for a family picnic, This stunning park is often requested for use as a wedding location or for wedding photographs (City of Thorold).

The area that the original DeCew Town covered is now surrounded by several other land uses, these land uses were constructed after the town vanished and some of them were touched on a little bit in the previous sections.

On the right hand side of the DeCew House Heritage Park is the very famous hiking trail, Bruce Trail, the trail follows the edge of the Niagara Escarpment. "The Bruce Trail is the oldest and longest marked hiking trail in Canada. It is 840 km long, with over 440 km of side trails. Every year more than 400,000 visits are made to the Trail as people walk, snowshoe, watch wildlife, take photographs and admire the glorious scenery of the Escarpment" (Ontario Trails, 2012). The Bruce Trail was named a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve by the United Nations in 1990, one of the only twelve such reserves in all of Canada (Ontario Trails, 2012).

Right next to the Bruce Trail is Lake Moodie and Lake Gibson, these two lakes aren't natural, Lake Gibson was created in the 1904 to store water in a reservoir for hydroelectric power generation at the Ontario Power Generation Decew Falls 1 and 2 (Greenbelt Lake Gibson). Lake Moodie is located to the northwest side of Lake Gibson, it's a small part of the Lake Gibson.

If you walk along to the west of DeCew Road, you will find the St. Catharines Water Treatment Plant on the right hand side of the road, the St. Catharines Water Treatment Plant was built in 1925 to make sure the municipal water quality is safe, it is the largest water treatment plant in the Niagara Region (Greenbelt Water Treatment Plant).

On the edge of the area that the original DeCew Town covered, right beside the DeCew Falls, there is Morningstar Mill. Morningstar Mill was also constructed after the DeCew Town vanished. "Morningstar Mill is a rural industrial heritage site owned by the City of St. Catharines and operated in partnership with the Friends of Morningstar Mill. It features a working grist mill rebuilt in 1872, and the home of the Morningstar family restored up to 1933" (Morningstar Mill). Morningstar Mill is now a tourists destination for tourists to visit and see how does the mill work.

City of Thorold

70 Front Street North
Thorold, Ontario
Tel 905-227-1911

Dave Akrigg
Operations Manager (Parks and Trails)

Email dave@thorold.com

Niagara Escarpment Commission

99 King Street East, P.O. Box 308
Thornbury, ON N0H 2P0
Telephone: 519-599-3340

Fax: 519-599-6326
Contact for Niagara Region: Martin Kilian
Phone: 905-877-7524
E-mail: martin.kilian@ontario.ca

DeCew Falls

2710 DeCew Road
St. Catharines, Ontario
L2R 6P7

St. Catharines Water Treatment Plant

2700 DeCew Road
St. Catharines, Ontario

Telephone: 905-684-5353

Regional Municipality of Niagara

Dept. of Public Works
Water and Wastewater Treatment Division
John Campbell Administrative Building
2201 St. David's Road
Thorold, Ontario
L2V 4T7
Tel 905-684-5353

Greenbelt. (n.d.). DeCew House. Retrieved November 11, 2016, from: http://www.niagaragreenbelt.com/listings/55-histor...

Greenbelt. (n.d.). DeCew Falls. Retrieved November 11, 2016, from: http://www.niagaragreenbelt.com/listings/73-natura...

Greenbelt. (n.d.). DeCew Town. Retrieved November 11, 2016, from: http://www.niagaragreenbelt.com/listings/55-histor...

Greenbelt. (n.d.). Lake Gibson. Retrieved November 11, 2016, from: http://www.niagaragreenbelt.com/listings/76-parks-...

Greenbelt. (n.d.). St. Catharines Water Treatment Plant. Retrieved November 11, 2016, from: http://www.niagaragreenbelt.com/listings/59-indust...

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VQA Ontario. (n.d.). Niagara Escarpment. Retrieved November 11, 2016, from: http://www.vqaontario.ca/Appellations/NiagaraPenin...

Earth Science. (2015). Temperature near the forest. Retrieved November 11, 2016, from: http://earthscience.stackexchange.com/questions/31...

Historica Canada. (2015). St. Catharines. Retrieved November 9, 2016, from: http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/s...

Historica Canada. (2015). Thorold. Retrieved November 9, 2016, from: http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/t...

Hook and Bullet. (n.d.). Lake Moodie Fishing. Retrieved November 5, 2016, from: http://www.hookandbullet.com/fishing-lake-moodie-t...

Ontario Trails. (2012). Bruce Trail. Retrieved November 7, 2016, from: http://www.ontariotrails.on.ca/trails/view/bruce-t...

Ontario's Niagara Escarpment. (n.d.). Flora & Fauna. Retrieved November 8, 2016, from: http://escarpment.org/about/ecology/flora/index.ph...

Thorold, Ontario, 1989. [Soil Map]. (2016), Generalized Soil Map Regional Municipality Of Niagara. Retrieved from: https://brocku.ca/maplibrary/digital/soils-Niagara on November 8, 2016.

Fonthill, Ontario, 1989. [Soil Map]. (2016), Generalized Soil Map Regional Municipality Of Niagara. Retrieved from: https://brocku.ca/maplibrary/digital/soils-Niagara on November 8, 2016.

DeCew House, 2016. [Air photo]. (2016). Google Maps

DeCew House, 1934. [Air photo]. (2016). Niagara Air Photo Index. Retrieved from: http://www.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html... on November 8, 2016.

DeCew House, 1954. [Air photo]. (2016). Niagara Air Photo Index. Retrieved from: http://www.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html... on November 8, 2016.

DeCew House, 2013. [Air photo]. (2016). Niagara Navigator. Retrieved from: https://maps-beta.niagararegion.ca/Navigator/ on November 8, 2016.

This Local Landscape Report was prepared by [Walter Zhou] for the Brock University course TOUR 2P94: Human Dominated Ecosystems on November 11, 2016.

All copyrights for cited material rest with the original copyright owners.