Looking Down Binkley Hollow

Ancaster Creek is the thread that binds the torn quilt of this river valley together. At Binkley Hollow, where Osler Drive passes over the creek, "37,000 tons of fill were used" in 1965 for road widening, altering the waterway there forever.

The much abused lands adjacent to the creek have a tough time further downstream on the approach to Cootes Paradise as the floodplain at McMaster University was lost to paved parking a few years later the same decade. Efforts to restore at least some of the wetland function are underway over at Restore Cootes.

This valley view (above) is from the vantage point of the Henry Binkley Cemetery on Desjardins Avenue, looking downstream with McMaster parking just out of site through the trees. There were three Binkley farms, one on the west side of the creek in Dundas, one closer to McMaster on what is now Sanders Blvd, and another north of this site. The Binkleys were among the first settler families in the area, purchasing 800 acres in 1803.