Dufferin Islands

The picturesque Dufferin Islands are open year-round 24/7, so you can plan a visit here whenever you want! If you're more of a summer person, you should definitely visit this site between April and October for its famous loop trail where you can hike, bike, and do so much more! If you want to bask in the holiday glow of the cold season. However, do come by during winter to see the brilliant lighting displays and larger-than-life sparkling exhibits in the Winter Festival of Lights!

The scenic Dufferin Islands were not always a site that enticed tourists. History tells us that these islands (then known as Cynthia Islands and Clark Hill Islands) housed both an iron ore foundry and a grain mill, which were knocked down during the War of 1812. But the site's tourism potential went unnoticed until the nineteenth century when a natural gas well was unearthed along the shoreline of these islands, with gas bubbling and frothing to the water's surface.

The owner at that time realized that he could make capital out of it by turning the site into a tourist attraction. So he capped the place with a barrel with a pipe coming out of the top. The pipe was corked to allow the gas to collect there. When tourists came over to see the attraction, the pipe was uncorked and the gas ignited. 

The result was nothing short of spectacular, dubbed aptly the "Burning Springs". This was the very first tourist attraction of Niagara Falls which continued to draw lots and lots of tourists until it ran out of gas in 1884. In 1886, the Province of Ontario took over these islands during the construction of Queen Victoria Park and this site got its new name which remains famous to this day — the Dufferin Islands. 

The islands remained mostly unaltered and natural until, in 1902, the Ontario Power Company underwent construction on their lower hydropower base which necessitated drawing river water from an end just east of the islands. The result was drastic: the rerouting of water current almost diminished the flow through the islands. The power company had to compensate, and compensate they did by forging a string of artificial islands and cascades through negotiation with the Parks Commission. The work wasn't completed until the islands achieved a "natural" look. 

Now the Dufferin Islands are preserved by the Niagara Parks Commission which has transformed this scenic spot into a tourist destination consisting of four islands inter-laced with each other through walking trails joined by bridges. Water flowing through these idyllic islands runs towards the Toronto Power Station for the generation of electricity! The islands have their very own swimming area which is maintained for tourists to cool down during summer.