The Desjardins Canal

In pioneer days waterways provided the essential means of transportation. Dundas, located at the head of navigation on Lake Ontario and the eastern terminus of the "Governor's Road", was thus in a favoured position. However, in 1823 the government authorized the construction of a canal for larger vessels through Burlington sand-bar. Since its completion would make the shallow approach through Coote's Paradise marsh inadequate, Pierre Desjardins, an enterprising settler from France, formed a company in 1826 to build a canal there. Opened in 1837, it contributed greatly to the development of this region until the completion of the Great Western Railway in 1853, when the Desjardins Canal gradually fell into disuse.