Product Description

Uncovering the unexpected in Ontario -- from floating mansions to the province's very own Taj Mahal.

In his relentless quest to discover the unusual, Ron Brown has traveled nearly every road in Ontario. This book features 100 of the very best trips from his three best-selling "50 Unusual" collections: 50 Unusual Things to See in Ontario, 50 Even More Unusual Things to See in Ontario, and Ontario's Secret Landscapes: 50 More Visits to Unusual Ontario.

What's an unusual thing? "Anything that is unexpected. Something that shouldn't belong where you found it." Most locations are easy to reach from Ontario's major population centers, and a few are for more adventurous explorers. Locations include:

• North America's longest wooden bridge
• Ontario's Stonehenge
• The dune that ate the town
• Ghosts of the gold fields
• Boats in the air
• Holleford meteor crater
• Strange serpent mounds of Rice Lake
• The swamp that feeds the world
• Hell holes of Eastern Ontario
• Ontario's Taj Mahal
• Birdhouse City
• The floating mansions of Lemonville
• Magical Cyprus Lake grotto
• The country's smallest jail
• The eight-sided Main Street
• The mud church of Shanty Bay
• The telltale grave
• The world's shortest railway.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #51346 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-19
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

Review
Brown's books are always interesting and bring to mind adventures. (Lois Cooper Muskoka Today 20071116)

Few people know more about Ontario's oddities than Toronto-based author Ron Brown... [and] they're almost all here (Diane Slawych The Toronto Sun 200712)

[Brown's] efforts to celebrate Ontario's past and present wonders will attract a new generation of readers and travellers. (Linda Turk Thunder Bay Chronicle Journal 20071219)

Most locations are easy to reach from Ontario's major population centres, and a few are for more adventurous explorers. (Northern Life 20071102)

A great gift for the traveller who wants to see impressive sights close to home. (Joan Sutter Shelf Life 20071215)

Few people know more about Ontario's oddities than Toronto-based author Ron Brown.... They're all here in this new revised edition. (Diane Slawych Toronto Sun )

[Brown] collects the very best trips from the most unexpected and surprising sights in the province. (Andrew Armitage The Sun Times (Owen Sound, ON) )

[For] travellers who want to stay close to home but still enjoy an adventure. (Canwest wire story The Ottawa Citizen )

[Brown] has the gift of finding lots of things interesting and of them being able to write beautifully about those things. (Linda Turk Chronicle-Journal (Thunder Bay) )

About the Author

Ron Brown has written a dozen books on Ontario's ghost towns and roadside attractions (both natural and unnatural). He is a frequent contributor to CBC Radio, and his travel articles have appeared in North American newspapers and magazines. He lives in Toronto.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Introduction

Ontario is full of hidden treasure. Down village streets, in city lanes, and along quiet country roads lie its most unusual sights -- houses that seem to float, a river that disappears, log cabins in the center of a major city. All await the curious explorer. Monuments to murders, massacres and mysterious spy camps bring to life the lesser-known aspects of Ontario's hidden heritage.

This book features my pick of Ontario's top 100 unusual things to see. It combines the best features found in the 50 Unusual Things to See in Ontario series, updates them and adds new oddities as well. Most of the listings are easy to see and are available to the public, either through admission, or from a public vantage point.

There is no particular order to the arrangement of the chapters in this volume, and that, in the opinion of this random explorer, is as it should be. Head out and discover whichever treasure appeals at the moment. Temples, towers and quirks of nature offer insight into an Ontario that few even know exists. And that's what looking for treasure is all about.

Ron Brown, Toronto