Crooks Hollow - Greenville

I had written a little about the history of Crooks Hollow as a developing industrial boom-town in the early 1800's founded by James Crooks, who was a visionary. (see link for Darnley Ruins).

But even long before James Crooks inhabited this land, this historical trail of Crooks Hollow attracted early settlers here as well.  About a hundred years earlier, King George III of England granted some land to some Early United Empire Loyalists who had fled the United States coming from Niagara to the western part of Lake Ontario, shortly before the end of the American Revolution.   

 

If you want to delve even deeper into the historical past of Crooks Hollow, there are plenty of good reading on the history of the Natives that settled in the area, hunting and fishing in Spencer Creek, that was between 1650-1700's.  During this time there was plenty of feuding  between Hurons and the Iroquouis.  A third tribe emerged as well known as the "Neutrals" because they refused to fight.  Eventually the great war between the Natives ended in and around what is now known as Dundurn Park.  In this battle, the "Neutral" Nation vanished completely.


Present day the historical Crooks Hollow trail is enjoyed all year long and is free for everyone.  The trail is about 1.5 km long and is nestled in a crook of this peaceful and beautiful small town, the Crooks Hollow.

Darnley Cascade-Hamilton

Darnley Cascade once powered the Grist Mill in the early 1800's.  Today water flows over layered rocks and is measured as the highest above sea level of all the waterfalls in Hamilton at 223 metres, although its drop is a mere 4 metres making it the smallest of cascades in Hamilton.


You can see remnants of the old Grist dam and off into the horizon is the newer Christie dam.  Darnley was a name given by the man who founded Crooks Hollows, James Crooks.  He was a Scotsman whose hero was Lord Darnley.

In 1911, the Crooks sold the mill to the Stutts. (see Darnley ruins).  Some to this day call it Stutts Falls.  

I don't know if it was the gloomy gray skies, or the wind whistling through the trees around me, but I felt very melancholy to think that tragedy had occurred in a setting so beautiful.