Ontario Highway Series - Highway 2 Traditional Geocache
Ontario Highway Series - Highway 2
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This series of geocache hides is meant to provide you with a bit of the past history of the highways of Ontario which made up or were a part of the Ontario Highway system. Many of these highways have been downloaded by the province to lower tier municipalites or portions of the highways have been downloaded as they no longer form a necessary component of the highway system.
Highway 2 is the oldest highway in existence in the Province of Ontario. Highway 2 also has the lowest assigned highway number of a provincial highway that was ever assigned. There has never been a Highway 1 in the Province of Ontario. Highway 2 came into being in 1917; but was in existence as 'The Governor's Road' in 1794. I do remember a stretch of highway east of Thamesford through to Woodstock being named as Governor's Road but at that time Highway 2 ran southeast from Thamesford to Ingersoll and then via Beachville and into Woodstock. Highway 2 ran across the province from the Quebec/Ontario border to the City of Windsor which made for a long journey for anyone crossing the province. The highway was the lifeblood of southern Ontario until Highway 401 was built during the 1950's and early to mid 1960's, being completed in eastern Ontario in time for Canada's centennial and the Expo World's Fair held in Montreal in 1967. As an oldster I recall the construction of the 401 in eastern Ontario. Interestingly the Thousand Islands Parkway which now exists in the Gananoque area was originally intended to be the route of the 401. Highway 2 extended over 800 kilometers from east to west, most of it a two lane road, and being a historic highway it did traverse the downtown core areas of most cities and towns. Today all but one short section of Highway 2 has been downloaded to the lower tier municipalities with the lone remaining section leading from the Thousand Island Parkway to the 401 east of Gananoque, distance of just over 4 kilometers, a far cry from the former 800 kilometers plus of the former provincial highway 2. Most section of the former highway is now known as County Road 2 in the counties which took over the former highway with the exception of Essex County. Locally and not too far to the west of the location of this geocache is the section of the current road with the lowest traffic count in the province for the former provincial highway, that section being between Wardsville and Middlesex County Road 14 (Glendon Road)..
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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