Ontario Abandoned Places will be rebranded as Ominous Abandoned Places

Uhthoff (ghost town)

Unknown Ghost Town in Severn, Ontario, Canada

Aug 03 2009

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Location # 780

Uhthoff is the sister ghost town of Foxmead. Both villages became ghost towns after the railway lines were lifted. Foxmead is marked by signs while Uhthoff is not.

The village had 3 shingle saw mills close by, a post office, blacksmith, Orange Hall, a store, a church and a flag station on the railway line. 6 homes existed on the east side of Uhthoff Line. The station was originally a stop on the Midland Railway, and is named for Fesser Uhthoff & Co., London, England. At the time the railway was built (1875), this firm was its agent for cargo in London.

The mills closed in 1905 but limestone quarry operations then opened here and continue in a huge pit. By 1911 the CPR began a railway near the quarry. This became "New Uhthoff". The old Midland Railway tracks had been removed by 1968 and later the CPR tracks were lifted too. These are still visible as trails to this day.

To get here take Hwy. 12 north from Orillia to Fairgrounds Rd., turn right and head north to Thorburn Rd. Uhthoff was located in the Thorburn Rd. and Uhthoff Line area.

A few homes remain, a very old cedar fence on the south side extends a long way and the old railway lines run clear through the old and new Uhtoff hamlets.

Apparently today there is a hockey team called the "Uhthoff Nationals" but I can guarantee they don(a)t play games in the hamlet as there is certainly no arena nearby. They must play in Orillia.

I found the remains of what I think was the Orange Hall on Uhtoff Line just south of Thorburn Rd. and just north of the old tracks.

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8 months ago

Neither uthoff or foxmead are ghost towns anymore. Repurposed as new homes are here now

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8 months ago

ghost towns still exist if no abandoned homes exist within them, they're a town or townsite that once had significantly more people/town related things (post office, train station, local factory/whatever industrial/general store, etc) than it does today

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9 years ago

I was in the area on Friday and stopped to check out the old train car. Too bad the weather is still not great or I would have really gone exploring! The quarry looks like it would make for a very interesting walk in the summer as well.

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12 years ago

I copied that from this article a pretty good read http://www.okthepk.ca/dataCprSiding/cprNews/cpNews60/89010100.htm

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12 years ago

Sometimes we meet with combinations of names. Trying to solve the origin of the name UHTHOFF (Ontario) on the Port McNicoll subdivision some years ago, I found that it was named after one of the London bankers of the parallel Midland Railway (now Canadian National). He was in partnership (Fesser, Uhthoff & Co.) with another banker who gave his name to FESSERTON on the same line.

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12 years ago

There was another old box car about 60 feet west of that one, the lunch room/office for CN employees working at the quarry. Both were former freight cars modified for work train service and finally here. The other car has been removed to a property near Uptergrove.

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12 years ago

I worked at Uhthoff as a CN car mechanic in the late 70s and late 80s inspecting and servicing railway stone cars. We only used that car for storeage of wood excelsior for packing hopper doors and slope sheets of cars to prevent fine crushed stone particles from leaking out of the loaded cars.

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12 years ago

Stopped for photos of the "crazy building", it's actually a long abandoned railway car which began life as a boxcar and was converted for work train service (often done by railways with obsolete equipment), it is visible from Thorburn Rd located on the site of former CN railway yard at Uthoff Quarry. The quarry itself is still active although railway operations ceased in the early 1990's.