Saturday, May 31, 2008

Dunnville, Ontario

Harvard Mark II, Dunnville, OntarioDunville, Ontario is a community in the city of Haldimand County (2006 pop. 45,212) on the north shore of Lake Erie.

The construction of a dam and canal designed to feed water from the Grand River to the new Welland Canal fostered the development of a settlement here during the late 1820s.   A town plot, named Dunnville after John Henry Dunn, Receiver General of Upper Canada, was laid out and, following the opening of the Feeder Canal to navigation in 1829 the community thrived as a transshipment point and industrial centre.   By 1832 it contained three store houses, a grist, fulling and carding mill and three saw mills.   After the completion of the Second Welland Canal in 1845, Dunnville gradually lost its position as an active Lake Erie terminus for that waterway, but it continued to prosper and in 1860 assumed the status of a village.

Location of Dunnville, OntarioIn 1940, a Royal Canadian Air Force Service Flying Training School on 400 acres outside Dunville opened. From then until the school closed in 1944, 2436 pilots were trained. 47 were killed in training and they are memoralized by a Harvard Mark II airplane.

Today, Dunville is promoted as a retirement and tourist community with condominiums and marinas along the river.