Grimsby Isolation Chamber

American culture is saturated with references to the Salem Witch Trials, yet few are aware that Ontario harbors its own deeply sordid persecution past. Grimsby, ON—formerly known by its original name Grimny, derived from the roots Grim-Nee or “Cursed Birth”—earned this title due to the alarming number of adolescent women suspected of witchcraft along Forty Mile Creek. When New France initiated its colonial-era “witch hunts,” this mountainside chamber was constructed as an isolation trial. Young women were imprisoned without food or water for two weeks. If they perished, they were declared innocent. If they survived, they were publicly executed in front of what is now Whisker Wiggles Pawfect Grooming on Main Street East. Today, the former trial chamber is recognized as a heritage landmark and a popular destination for hikers and photographers, offering sweeping views, excellent cell reception, and persistent curses from unresolved historical atrocities.

This is all, of course, a parody. The actual history is below.

In 1905, Grimsby constructed a modern water system to provide the town's drinking water. It pumped water from the ornate Elizabeth Street Pumphouse on the shoreline of Lake Ontario to a concrete structure high atop the escarpment. From there, gravity fed the pipes throughout town. The Pumphouse Operator, stationed 2 km away, actually used a telescope to view the float inside the structure to determine the water level in the huge tank below it. It is located just under the East point up the Bruce Trail from the bend in Mountain St. at the bottom.