6 Things You Might Have Not Known Existed in Toronto

Toronto is a big place, so there’s bound to be things that are either hidden or that happened so long ago that they’re seemingly forgotten. Here are 6 things you might have not known existed in Toronto.

 

6. There Might Be a Monster Living in Tunnels Below the City’s Downtown Core.

Back in the late 70s, a person named Ernest, who has been called a drunk, a liar, and sometimes both, claimed to have seen what he thought was a ‘monster’ when he was in the tunnels below Cabbagetown looking for a lost kitten. The monster reportedly spotted Ernest, and hissed the words: “Get out! Get out!” Seriously. If that’s not definitive proof of a monster’s existence, I don’t know what is. Want more details? The people at Animal Planet put together a short documentary about it, which you can check out right here.

 

5. There’s a House Downtown that has been Split in Half.

While it may look like it’s a really straight-forward and literal way of settling a bad marital breakup, this house was actually split in half when one side was bought by a developer, and one side was owned by a person that just refused to sell.

 

4. There’s a Vibrant Fishing Culture.

When you think about things to do in Toronto, fishing probably doesn’t come to mind, but the city actually has a pretty vibrant fishing culture. Want to do some fishing for yourself? There’s tons of different places within the city to go, including the Toronto Islands, the Lower Humber River, and Ashbridge’s Bay Park. You can get more info about urban fishing on the City of Toronto website right here.

 

3. There are Fake Houses Throughout the City.

Toronto Hydro has a number of substations disguised as regular houses throughout the city. Toronto Hydro once had a policy in place that made it so that any substations that were built had to ‘blend-in’ to their surroundings, which is the reason these were built in the first place. In the last few years, many of them have been decommissioned, but there are still some of them operational and still standing, like the one above in Forest Hill.

 

2. There are Fake Rocks in Etobicoke.

This is a pretty weird one, but in a certain area of Etobicoke, on the streets, you can find several rocks lining the streets that look a little too perfect, some of which have wires coming out of them and going into nearby houses. If you lift up these rocks, you’ll see that they’re obviously fake, hollow, and covering a mess of wires coming out of the ground. The rocks are covering lines owned by Bell and hide their buried cable lines, which is why it isn’t uncommon to see holes drilled in them and wires running from the rocks into the adjacent houses. It’s a really odd sight to see, and it makes you wonder why they didn’t build proper boxes to hold them all.

 

1. There’s a Burial Site in High Park.

While I’m sure that almost everyone has been to High Park at least once or twice, few people know that there are people actually buried in a tomb there. But why is there a grave there in the first place? The graves mark the eternal resting place of John and Jemima Howard, residents of High Park’s Colbourne Lodge and the park’s original owners that donated the land to city when they died.

 

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So there you have it; 6 things you might have not known existed in Toronto. Did you already know about these? Do you know any places in Toronto that are a bit of a secret? Let me know in the comments below.

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