Public Walk: Springmount Creek: Vanished but not vanquished

Date: Sep 23, 2026 at 10:00
Meeting Location: St Clair Ave at Earlscourt

Learn about the history and heritage of Springmount Creek, a waterway that was buried during the 20th century as the city developed.

Registration Required: Register on Eventbrite

Earlscourt was one of Toronto’s ‘Liberties’, an area outside of municipal boundaries, without municipal by-laws or services. Shacktowns grew up on small lots. They were cheap. One identifiable ‘shack’ is still standing close to where Springmount Creek once rose.

Learn what St Clair Ave have to do with slavery, how St Clair Ave West become the centre of Italian life in Toronto, and why the escarpment is called ‘the Iroquois Buffs’.

See madly tilted houses on Shaw Street. Remember the Christie Pits Race Riot of 1933.

And enjoy the unique beauty of the Springmount Creek Valley, a portion of the valley that survived the depredations of municipal engineers.

Walk Leader: Linda McCaffrey

Details: A 2.5-hour, 5 km linear nature and heritage walk over mostly paved surfaces with some steep slopes. Some stairs

Meeting Spot: North-west side of St Clair Ave at Earlscourt

This walk is only one of more than 140 that TFN will host this year alone! TFN members enjoy a complete listing of walks in our newsletter. Not a member? Learn more about the benefits of membership now!

Please tag any photos you take on this walk with #TFNWalk so that we can all live vicariously through your lens.

Toronto Field Naturalists wishes to acknowledge this Land through which we walk. For thousands of years, the Land has been shared by the Wendat, the Haudenosaunee, and the Anishinaabe. Toronto is situated on the Land within the Toronto Purchase, Treaty 13, the traditional and treaty Lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. This territory is also part of the Dish with One Spoon Wampum, a covenant agreement between Anishinaabeg, Haudenosaunee, Wendat peoples and allied nations to peaceably share the land and all its resources. Today, the Land is home to peoples of numerous nations. We are all grateful to have the opportunity to continue to care for and share the beauty of this Land.