Vaughan Culture
Which horror movie used the Kortright Centre as a set?
David Cronenberg filmed the Somafree Institute scenes of The Brood, released in 1979, at the Kortright Centre.
York Region trivia
Fun facts about Vaughan
32 facts and quiz questions about Vaughan, Ontario. Each one links to its source. A new fact of the day goes live every morning.
Fact of the day
Vaughan History
Why are some streets in Maple named after aircraft?
Maple had a small airport until 1987. The homes built on the site later got street names after aircraft such as Avro, Lockheed and Mustang.
Source: Wikipedia, Maple, Ontario
Vaughan Quiz
What was Maple called in 1852?
It was Noble's Corner, after first postmaster Joseph Noble. It later became Rupertsville, after a respected local doctor, before the name Maple took hold.
Source: Wikipedia, Maple, Ontario
Vaughan Nature
Why are there so many cedars around the McMichael gallery?
The McMichaels planted more than 500 cedar trees on the 100-acre property to recreate the landscapes the Group of Seven painted. Tom Thomson's studio was moved to the grounds in 1962.
Vaughan Quiz
How many Group of Seven members are buried at the McMichael?
Six members, among them Lawren Harris, A. Y. Jackson and Frederick Varley, rest in a small cemetery on the gallery grounds in Kleinburg.
Vaughan Culture
What did the McMichaels pay for their first painting?
Robert and Signe McMichael bought a Tom Thomson for 250 dollars in 1955. Ten years later they gave their collection and their Kleinburg land to Ontario.
Vaughan Quiz
True or false: Canada's first Legoland Discovery Centre opened at Vaughan Mills.
Legoland Discovery Centre Toronto opened at Vaughan Mills in March 2013, the company's first in Canada. The mall itself opened on November 4, 2004.
Source: Wikipedia, Vaughan Mills
Vaughan Places
Where does the name Vaughan Mills come from?
The developer named its malls with Mills. The name also has local roots: in the 1830s a sawmill on the Humber River gave the name Vaughan Mills to an area in west Vaughan.
Source: Wikipedia, Vaughan Mills
Vaughan Quiz
Who was Vaughan named after?
The township was named after Benjamin Vaughan, a British commissioner who signed a peace treaty with the United States in 1783.
Source: Wikipedia, Vaughan
Vaughan Quiz
How many people lived in Vaughan in the 2021 Census?
Vaughan counted 323,103 people in the 2021 Census, up 5.5 percent from 2016. It is the fifth-largest city in the Greater Toronto Area.
Sources: Statistics Canada, 2021 Census Profile, Vaughan, Wikipedia, Vaughan
Vaughan History
Who lived above the Humber River in Vaughan 500 years ago?
In the 1500s the Wendat village of Skandatut, home to about 2,000 people, overlooked the east branch of the Humber River near today's Pine Valley Drive.
Source: Wikipedia, Vaughan
Vaughan Sports
Which large sports body has its home in Vaughan?
Vaughan is home to the Ontario Soccer Association, with more than 400,000 registered players, and to the Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame and Museum.
Source: Wikipedia, Vaughan
Vaughan Quiz
True or false: the subway reached Vaughan before 2010.
Line 1 reached Vaughan Metropolitan Centre station on December 17, 2017. The station is the northwestern end of the line.
Vaughan History
Where does the name Thornhill come from?
Benjamin Thorne arrived from Dorset, England, in 1820 and ran a grist mill, a sawmill and a tannery. The settlement became Thorne's Mills, then Thorne's Hill, then Thornhill.
Source: Wikipedia, Thornhill, Ontario
Vaughan Quiz
Which street splits Thornhill between Vaughan and Markham?
Yonge Street is the boundary. Until 1931, Vaughan and Markham townships each ran their own half of the village.
Source: Wikipedia, Thornhill, Ontario
Vaughan History
What stood at Highway 7 and Jane Street before the city's new downtown?
Vaughan's new downtown sits on the site of Edgeley, a historic farming community. The 179-hectare district now holds most of the city's tallest buildings.
Vaughan Places
How did the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre get its name?
In 2009 the city asked the public to rename its planned downtown, then called the Vaughan Corporate Centre. Nearly 1,600 names came in, and Vaughan Metropolitan Centre won.
Vaughan Quiz
What is the centrepiece of Canada's Wonderland?
Its sister parks in the United States built copies of the Eiffel Tower. The Vaughan park built a large artificial peak, Wonder Mountain, instead.
Source: Wikipedia, Canada's Wonderland
Vaughan Numbers
How many roller coasters does Canada's Wonderland have?
The park has 18 roller coasters among its 68 attractions, tied for second-most of any park in the world. In 2022 it drew about 3.8 million visitors.
Source: Wikipedia, Canada's Wonderland
Vaughan History
Which famous park builder looked at Toronto and said no?
Walt Disney looked at the Toronto area before he chose Florida for Walt Disney World. The short warm season was the main reason he passed.
Source: Wikipedia, Canada's Wonderland
Vaughan Quiz
When did Canada's Wonderland open?
Premier Bill Davis opened the park on May 23, 1981, and Wayne Gretzky helped raise the flag. It was the first major theme park in Canada and is still the largest.
Source: Wikipedia, Canada's Wonderland
Vaughan History
What did the Abell Agricultural Works in Woodbridge build?
John Abell's foundry built steam-powered farm machines such as traction engines and had 200 workers by 1874. He moved the business to Toronto in 1885 when he could not get a railway siding.
Source: Wikipedia, Woodbridge, Ontario
Vaughan Quiz
What was Woodbridge called before 1855?
The village was Burwick, after builder Rowland Burr. When it asked for a post office in 1855, another Burwick already existed, so it took the name Woodbridge, after a town in England.
Source: Wikipedia, Woodbridge, Ontario
Vaughan Nature
Where is Vaughan's old-growth sugar bush?
Baker's Woods, a 31-hectare old-growth forest and sugar bush at Bathurst Street and Highway 7, is part of Sugarbush Heritage Park.
Source: Wikipedia, Vaughan
Vaughan Quiz
Who was the first European to pass through Vaughan?
French explorer Étienne Brûlé travelled the Humber Trail in 1615. Settlers only began to arrive after the townships were laid out in 1792.
Source: Wikipedia, Vaughan
Vaughan Numbers
Which Ontario municipality grew fastest from 1996 to 2006?
Vaughan did. Its population rose by 80.2 percent in those ten years, and it nearly doubled between 1991 and 2006.
Source: Wikipedia, Vaughan
Vaughan Numbers
Which large Canadian city had no hospital until 2021?
Vaughan was the largest city in Canada without a hospital until Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital opened in June 2021. The 350-bed hospital is called Canada's first smart hospital.
Source: Wikipedia, Vaughan
Vaughan Culture
Why was a Kleinburg festival named after binder twine?
The Binder Twine festival goes back to 1890, when Charles Shaw Jr. handed out binder twine to local farmers. It drew about 25,000 people a year.
Source: Wikipedia, Kleinburg
Vaughan Culture
Which 1960s TV series was filmed in Kleinburg?
The Forest Rangers was filmed at the Kleinburg studios from 1963 to 1965. Movies such as The Fly were also shot there.
Source: Wikipedia, Kleinburg
Vaughan History
Where does the name Kleinburg come from?
Settler John Nicholas Klein built a flour mill on the Humber River in 1847. The settlement became Kleinsburg, berg meaning hill, and by 1890 the name was Kleinburg.
Source: Wikipedia, Kleinburg
Vaughan Quiz
Which Canadian author lived in Kleinburg for nearly 50 years?
Pierre Berton lived in Kleinburg until his death in 2004. He helped save the old Kleinburg railway station, which was moved into the village in 1976.
Source: Wikipedia, Kleinburg
Vaughan Quiz
How big is the Kortright Centre for Conservation?
The Kortright Centre opened in 1979 on 325 hectares, with 16 km of trails. Each spring it holds a Maple Syrup Festival.