ONTARIO
Brampton
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From an industrial area, to a nature park, to a trolley-park
amusement area, then to a modern recreational park, Eldorado's
history runs in a similar manner of many old amusement parks in Canada.
Originally grist and saw mills sat on the land around the Credit River upon which was built a dam to provide power. After they went out of business the property was sold. It's not known when this happened, but several persons owned the land after the mill owners, so the exact year the park started has not surfaced. The space became a nature park which took its name from the grist mill. It appears at some point that one or more of the owners allowed access to the area before a purchase was made to put in amusements. It's not clear if the whole property was purchased or only a portion. It's also not known what happened to the dam, but several sources mention a lake, so it may have been left if the lake had been created by it.
Regardless, on April 14 in 1917 an electric streetcar line by the Toronto Suburban Railway (TSR) opened between Toronto and Guelph. (Oddly, the first street car to arrive in Guelph was not until August 12.) The line ran through the Eldorado area on its way between the two communities. In 1918 (1920s from another source), the Canadian National Railway took over the streetcar line and ran it as part of Canadian National Electric Railways (CNER) after the TSR's parent company went bankrupt.
Tim Scammell of New Maryland, New Brunswick, who
brought this park to the attention of the CEC, says:
"Eldorado was originally owned by the Canadian National Railway.
It bought the land and turned it into an amusement park for a stop
on its electric line which they had taken over from the Toronto
Suburban Railway. It ran from about Keele and St. Clair in Toronto
to Guelph via fields and valleys, of which most are long gone."
"CN had hoped to gain passengers for the line by building the park
for families to go to. I have heard that there were rides of some
types, but anything I have seen is mostly picnic grounds.
Railway references indeed show that a 51- or 52-ha park was opened by CNER near Churchville on 100 hectares of land already owned by it. This was under the name of `Eldorado Suburban Park Company, Limited'. The area had apparently been being used by people taking an excursion and spending time in the park for some times before the amusements went in. CNER wanted to entice new ridership -- especially on Sundays when passenger business was slow. A dance hall, dining hall and picnic shelters were built, a carousel and ferris wheel were installed, and the grounds were cleaned up. Opening year was 1925.
Initially, the increased business helped as the line had been running a deficit -- $145 went out for every $100 coming in. In fact, on opening day, extra cars and increased frequency of service were added to deal with the crowds. However, within a few years, passenger service began to decrease as more people bought automobiles; plus the economic depression that started after the 1929 stock market crash caused financial hardship and reduced the number of park goers. Since freight traffic was also low because trucking had cut into that business, CNER was losing too much and allowed the line to go into receivership. Service was discontinued on the date of 1931, August 15. Possibly, the park could have closed that season due to no train service available. However, one source says the park went on until 1935. Perhaps there was enough car and bus business to continue the operation.
The latter date above may be confused with the final disbursement of the streetcar line's assets. This happened after the receivership officially ended once a deal to pay shareholders 25 cents on the dollar concluded. The line was dismantled in the fall of 1935, and/or spring of 1936. Assets were taken into Canadian National's other operations, sold off, or scrapped. The rails remained until during World War II when they were sent off for usage in Europe, except for a short run that still exists today within Naivelt Park.
Contributor Brian Westhouse of Rexdale, Ontario says:
"The Electric Trolley line had wooden poles out that way.
The paper mill in Georgetown purchased the right of way in
the 1930s to use a wooden pole line as an emergency source
of power. I remember seeing the pole line east of Credit
River north of Highway 401. If there are any poles left,
there are no wires on them. The Halton County Radial
Railway in Rockwood is on the old route."
Date Discrepancies
A topic of confusion regards the sale of Eldorado land, and this ties in with the uncertainty about the amusement park's running dates. One source states that property was sold to a Jewish holding company which wanted to expand a small children's summer operation. At first called `Camp Kindervelt', it had been running for some years in another location, and its lease was about to expire. The year given for the sale is 1925. If this date is correct, CNER may have done this to help fund construction of its new amusement park.
However, a history of the camp states that the site at Eldorado was not purchased until 1936. The new one, called `Camp Naivelt', opened there that year on June 28. This tallies well with the demise of the rail line. The new area also housed the children's camp (by then known as `Camp Kinderland') as the Camp Naivelt organisation had taken on its operation in 1928. Kinderland's lease expiry year was 1935.
From this information, it appears that CNER might have sold a portion of the Eldorado land they owned to someone in 1925, who in turn sold it to the holding company ten years later. Another wrinkle is that other sources believe the holding company bought the land directly from Canadian National.
The question is: Did the amusement park run until 1935 or not? Regardless, Camp Naivelt sources list buildings, some of which also appear in amusement park articles. Did one or more survive to become part of the Jewish park?
Camp Naivelt continued from the 1930s into the 1960s. In 1970, part of its land was sold to become a public park. Today the latter has walking and hiking trails, picnic areas, sports courts and fields, a playground and pool, and a golf club. Naivelt still operates on its remaining property.
Tim Scammell concludes his comments:
"Although I live in New Brunswick, I try to locate traces of
the line and amusement park whenever I am back in Ontario.
In 2004, I did find concrete sections in several areas of hills,
but I have no idea for what they were used -- possibly as
bases for power poles."
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