Spring Creek in High Park

Although it is not identified as such, the creek’s course is clearly marked on early maps of the area, rising west of Keele Street and north of Bloor Street, near the intersection of present-day Annette and Medland Streets. It flowed generally south, being joined by another branch flowing through today’s Baird Park. The main stream continued past Glenlake Avenue, then crossed Keele Street to continue down along the east side of Keele. Here it was joined by several small tributaries flowing from the east.

The creek flowed across Bloor Street through a low-lying swampy area (the Bloor-Keele intersection is still a saucer-shaped-depression) and turned westwards into the original Ridout property near what is now the northeast corner of High Park. It then flowed southwards towards Lake Ontario. Several tributaries joined it along the way, both from the west and from the east. The course of these side-streams can be clearly seen in the Park along Deer Pen Road, at Howard Park Avenue and through the present Adventure Playground in the Park.

The creek ended in a marshy area at the original lakeshore (The Queensway today), and from here it drained to the lake. A remnant of this widespread wet area is the Lower Duck Pond at the southeast corner of the Park.

Managing Stormwater and Sedimentation

Over the years, the course of Spring Creek within High Park has been rerouted to free up more picnic area. The lakefront has also been considerably extended. The creek still, however, empties into Lake Ontario. The majority of its volume flow today is stormwater from a 250-hectare catchment area north and northeast of the Park. (A smaller catchment area feeds Wendigo Creek on the west side of the Park, flowing from there to Grenadier Pond and Lake Ontario.)

To remove some of the debris (dirt, leaves, paper, plastic and other waste) picked up from roofs, driveways and streets in the catchment area, two sedimentation ponds were created in the 1950s at the point south of Bloor Street where Spring Creek flowed from a culvert into the Park. These ponds allowed settling out of some of the undesirable material in the water. (The Lower Duck Pond itself is a natural sedimentation pond.) In addition, a number of weirs were placed along the stream to reduce flow velocity and control erosion.

By the 1990s, however, it was recognized that the upper sedimentation ponds (now known as Howard and Ridout Ponds) were undersized and inefficient. They have since been expanded, including an added oil/grease trap, to about double their size with a corresponding increase in settling efficiency. They do nothing, of course, to reduce e.coli from animal waste, dissolved phosphorus and metals and the salt in winter time, all of which are carried directly down the creek to the lake.