Toogood Pond Park is a 33.3-hectare park located in the neighbourhood of Unionville, in Markham, Ontario, Canada that is best known for Toogood Pond. The pond is home to many Canada geese, ducks, fish, and plants. The park is owned and operated by the Corporation of the City of Markham, and is maintained by the city's Parks Department.
History
At the intersection of Carlton Road and Main Street Unionville, a flour mill, the Union Grist Mill, was built at around 1840. Toogood Pond, earlier named Willow Lake and often referred to only as "the pond", was formed when a dam was placed across Bruce Creek, a tributary of the Rouge River, to make a mill race to provide water to power a flat mill wheel for the grist mill. In the 1930s, during a flash flood, the mill race was washed away, and the mill was destroyed by fire four years later in 1934 and never rebuilt.
The Toogood family bought the property around 1939 after moving from Alberta. In 1953, in response to Mr. Toogood's concern that children might drown while swimming in the pond, local service clubs established the Unionville Swimming Club, with the aim of providing supervised swimming and Red Cross swimming and water safety lessons.
In the 1980, the City of Markham acquired the property and the area now became Toogood Park.
Plant species
Black-eyed susan
Giant hogweed
Sumac
Manitoba maple
Norway maple
Weeping willow
Bull thistle
Wild burdock
Oxeye daisy
Common milkweed
Poison ivy
Dog strangling vine
Garlic mustard
White ash
Cattails
Improvement projects
A Sediment Removal and Restoration project was recently undertaken, which included removing sediment, restoring the shoreline, and the planting of native plants species.
Skating on the pond
Though many locals were accustomed to ice skating on the frozen pond during winter, Markham's city council voted to ban skating on the pond in late 2015 due to maintenance complications.
In 2016, Markham considered to hire an engineer to monitor the condition of ice on Toogood Pond. In November of that year, city council decided to not continue with the decision and announced that users of the park can skate at their own risk.
See also
Milne Dam and Reservoir - man-made lake created by flood control dam on Rouge River in Toronto Clairville, Reservoir - man-made lake created by flood control dam on Humber River in Toronto G. Lord Ross Dam and Reservoir - created by flood control dam along Don River in Toronto