Top 3 Abandoned Places In Oro-Medonte

There are so many abandoned places in Oro-Medonte! This is a list of the top three abandoned places in Oro-Medonte. Browse through all abandoned places in Oro-Medonte

1. CFB Edgar

CFB-Edgar- Defensive tool against USSR

 Edgar is located about 20 kilometers northwest of Barrie, Ontario.

On May 29th, 1951 a joint Canadian (RCAF) and American (USAF) project took place. Its purpose was to mount a defense against possible Soviet air threats against North America. It was estimated that by 1954, the USSR would have the capability to send long-range bombers. The project would see the construction of a series of radar bases all along the country to provide advanced warning of incoming aircraft.

CFB Edgar (site C-4 or call sign "Cupid") was built as a radar station for the Department of National Defense (DND) in November of 1950. It was completed in September 1952 under the command of HC Vinnicombe.

CFB Edgar was more than a radar facility

It consisted of three "Armco" huts, sixty-five married quarters, a school, heating plant, sewage disposal plant, fire hall, pump house, mess hall, barracks, and homes for the servicemen and women.

Facilities included a 10 bed Sick Quarters which provided medical and dental services; also a recreation building that housed a gymnasium, swimming pool, club room, general store, barbershop, and post office.

Protestant church services were held on the base in the school until 1953 when the recreational base was completed.

Three movies were shown per week. The admission for two movies was 25 cents for adults and 10 cents for a child. The third movie was free as it was either educational or medical.

A library with 200 books was available as was a skating rink for the hockey team.

Edgar operated as both an Early Warning (EW) and a manual Ground-Control Intercept (GCI) unit. All aircraft would be manually plotted onto a large plotting board. Initially, the hardware would allow for an 80-mile radius. Later upgrades would allow for a 200-mile radius up to 40,000 feet altitude. The manual system was upgraded during the 1960s with an automated system in October of 1961.

As of 30 November 1952, 154 officers, airmen, and airwomen were at Edgar. By December of 1961, the size of the base had grown to 184 military personnel and 89 civilians.

Edgar closed on March 20, 1964, as it fell redundant when other bases were upgraded. That November the station was sold to the Province of Ontario for $218,225. It is used as a training facility for handicapped adults. consisted of 84 residences, two office buildings, a swimming pool, bowling alley, baseball diamond, hospital, church, and a school, Shut down in 1999, and occasionally used for military and police training. Till 2011, it was demolished, and purchased, the owner plans to build several residencies, as of 2021, it is being constructed into residencies as per the plan called Eagles Rest Estates

Current leftovers of CFB Edgar

The main building of CFB Edgar that had radar for detecting missiles is destroyed along with the majority of the buildings, which have already been demolished. However, there still are some structures still standing, along with a sewer system you can climb down into. There is a gatehouse right by the entrance, a church straight ahead once you enter through the gates, a pump house/storage building if you follow the road going right at the entrance, a pump room at the very top of the hill built half into the terrain, and best of all a small complex of three building surrounded fenced in with barbed wire if you take an immediate left at the entrance. 

It isn't much interesting for about the first four structures, other than some machinery in the pump houses and a basement in the one at the top of the hill. The church is empty except for one pew in the larger room to the right and an excess of graffiti. The most interesting place is the complex of three buildings. There are a few ways to get to it, the first two involve cutting through the woods for a small distance until you get to the open field/meadow where the complex is. You can either walk left through the woods for about 200 steps or you can walk down the first road-going left when you hop the gate until you reach the telephone poles. Just turn left and follow the telephone wires through the trees and down the hill for about 50 steps until you reach the clearing.

 The last way is to follow the road going left until you take a final left onto a dead-end street. At the end of the street, a path leads to the clearing from the opposite direction of the other two ways. If you walk around the perimeter of the barbed wire fence you'll eventually find a section cut and peeled back big enough for a normal-sized person to fit through. There are concrete channels that snake through the complex that looks like water was supposed to run through them, as well as several deep pits that are now partially filled with water, there is one building with a basement that contains more pumps and machinery. The steps down to the basement are littered with old circular weather charts. Another building has a big pit that takes up most of the interior

. Most of the insulation that was on the ceiling has fallen into the pit. Finally, there is a smaller building with no basement. Also, there's likely no real need to worry but be wary of coyotes,

2. Shanty Bay- Underground Railroad

This village is not a ghost town per se, but has many ghosts from its historic past. The establishment of Shanty Bay was strongly influenced by the Underground Railroad. Many African-American refugees first settled near the water in shanties (small homes), contributing toward the name of the village. Lucius Richard O(a)Brien (1832-1899), the noted Canadian oil and watercolour landscape painter was from Shanty Bay. His father founded the village. Shanty Bay also has one of Canada(a)s oldest surviving churches, St. Thomas Anglican Church, built between 1838 and 1841 and dedicated in 1842. It has an historical marker.

Shanty Bay(a)s Underground Railroad History-

In the mid-1800(a)s the Underground Railroad had escaped slaves from the southern USA make there way into Simcoe County. The government set aside a tract of land in Oro Township for the fugitives. 150 African Americans were given farms on the 2nd line called Wilberforce Street. It was named after the British champion for the freedom of slaves. This occurred between 1819-1831.

Oro was intended to settle Black Loyalist refugees after the War of 1812. Black veterans who could be mustered to meet hostile forces coming from Georgian Bay were offered land grants. Among them were veterans of Captain Runchey(a)s Company for Coloured Men, which fought at Stoney Creek, Queenston Heights, Lundy(a)s Lane and St. Davids. Oro settlers also included free persons and the formerly enslaved.

Some of the black families did not take to farming the poor soil here and drifted to nearby towns. Many ended up at Shanty Bay, NE of Barrie on Lake Simcoe. Here they built small wooden cottages ("shanty(a)s") near the lake. The area from Lake Simcoe went north for 3 concessions from Shanty Bay along the 2nd Line and the 1st line called Wilberforce Street.

Oro Township got its name from a the Spanish name of the Gold Coast of Ghana in Africa, where many of the enslaved were taken from. The Oro African Methodist Church near Edgar served the blacks. Flos Township(a)s first settlers were 2 African American brothers, William and Ben Davenport, who took land south of Hillsdale in 1821.

One of the chief Canadian agitators against the American slave trade was Captain Charles Stuart. He retired in 1850 to a farm near Thornbury, after helping many runaway slaves. His home was at Lora Bay on Georgian Bay where he refused to allow any usage of products made by slave labour.

For a deeper insight into this forgtten chapter of Oro(a)s history: http://www.ourroots.ca/e/toc.aspx?id=4340

3. Take Me for Granite

Mysterious granite castle

Not a lot can be said about the castle’s history, except that it was built by Wrigley, and its family stayed there for decades and then used it as a hotel for the wealthy. It is a truly beautiful piece of architecture and attracts many photographers.

Fire couldn’t shake the granite castle

Not a lot of it remains, vandals caused a fire at the granite palace, causing damages, and yet the building stands quite strong. It is one of the most photographed places in the area, however, one must note that it is under private ownership, someone still takes care of the yard, grapevines have taken over the barn. The site pretty much remains absolutely beautiful throughout the year, looks better with a layer of snow on it.