Occasionally, I return to my hometown, Windsor, Ontario, to conduct reporting for various articles. However, few have felt as connected to my childhood as the story of Canada’s upcoming national urban park. This trip filled in some missing pieces from my past.
In an article I wrote, a bill currently in its final stages at the Senate, with funding allocated in the current federal budget, will transform a collection of lands surrounded by industry, highways, stores, and houses into a national urban park, likely within a year.
While the exact boundaries and name of the park are still being determined, one area expected to be included was a place I frequented as a child. Located a few blocks from my family’s home in a neighborhood developed between the 1950s and 1970s, the park was known as Rankin Bush, presumably named after the street that once bordered it.
This park featured unique elements like crumbling sidewalks and overgrown, unpaved roads weaving through the forest. These paths were perfect for biking, playing ball, and conducting experiments with homemade gunpowder that usually resulted in a small fizzle. Stories about older kids doing mysterious activities in the park at night were abundant, but I cannot confirm their accuracy.
During my high school years, I learned that these sidewalks and roadways were remnants of a planned company town meant to support a steel mill project that never came to fruition due to the Great Depression. Today, a section of the unfinished mill near the Ojibway Nature Center will play a significant role in the new national park. The project’s failure inadvertently preserved sections of tallgrass prairie and woodlands in an area dominated by industry and agriculture.
My recent research for the article shed light on the grand scale of the failed project. U.S. Steel had allocated 75 million Canadian dollars for the mill and town, equivalent to about $1 billion today, with plans to employ 16,000 individuals.
However, I was unaware of the challenges the project faced from its inception. The steel company established the town of Ojibway in 1913, purchasing 1,400 acres of land. Unfortunately, World War I halted progress, and subsequent economic downturns delayed the project’s restart.
A 1920 article in The Border Cities Star, the precursor to The Windsor Star, exaggerated the slow construction pace by comparing it to the construction of the pyramids.
During my childhood, little was known about the Indigenous people of the area, except for their involvement in the War of 1812. The closest Indigenous community, the Walpole Island First Nation, was over 120 kilometers from Windsor, with their connections pointing east toward London and Toronto.
The Caldwell First Nation, descendants of the Indigenous people in Windsor and Essex County, were effectively invisible without a land base. Their struggle for justice was outlined in a 1988 publication prepared for the federal government.
This spring, the Caldwell community reached an agreement with Parks Canada to collaborate on the new urban national park’s establishment and management.
A ceremony at Point Pelee National Park marked this agreement. Point Pelee, a sandy point jutting into Lake Erie southeast of Windsor, served as the Caldwell First Nation’s home until the mid-19th century.
Despite government sympathy in the past, the Caldwells lost their land to settlers through illegal means. Efforts to reclaim their territory began in the early 20th century and culminated in a settlement in 2011.
On Saturday, the Caldwell First Nation will celebrate the end of their near-invisibility by establishing a home on 198 acres of land near Leamington, finally owning land after almost two centuries of displacement.
Los primeros de sus miembros se mudarán oficialmente a los primeros 28 de un total planificado de 150 casas adosadas, recuperando su base de tierra.
Trans Canadá
Esta sección fue compilada por Vjosa Isai, una reportera e investigadora en The Times en Toronto.
Nativo de Windsor, Ontario, Ian Austen fue educado en Toronto, vive en Ottawa y ha informado sobre Canadá para The New York Times durante más de dos décadas. Síguelo en Bluesky en @ianausten.bsky.social.
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