Ontario Road Maps - 1953 Imperial Esso Map Details
1953 Imperial Esso

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Folded Dimensions: 5" W X 7H"

Open Dimensions: 29" W X 21" H

Date Location: Legend

 

Cover Description: Red banner across top.  Color drawing of the Peace Tower and Parliament Buildings in Ottawa.

Date Code: 46-11-52-P

Scale: Southern Ontario Side: 1" = 14.5 miles

           Northern Ontario Side: 1" = 28 miles

 

Main Legend Side Features: Legend, Map of Southern Ontario, Cover Description, Touring Service Description, inset map of Eastern Ontario, Index of cities, town & villages of Southern Ontario.

Opposite Side Features: Legend & Map of Northern Ontario, Index of cities, "For Happy Motoring" information, front and rear cover, maps and descriptive write-ups about Ottawa and Toronto, mileage chart and a write-up on the Province of Ontario.

 

Other: Lithographed in Canada  by General Drafting

Note:

North Arrow Used on This Map.




Map Enlargements - Click on title below to see full sized map

Eastern Ontario Insert

James Bay Insert

Ottawa & Vicinity

Toronto & Vicinity


Datecode

Click on above Mileage Table to see

 full sized version.


There are three written descriptions  on this map as follows; The Province of Ontario, Toronto and Ottawa.  They have been reproduced below;


The Province of Ontario

 

From the Ottawa-St. Lawrence Rivers to the Manitoba border, Ontario stretches some 1,200 miles,  and embraces an area of over 412,000 square miles-more than half again as large as Texas. It is Canada's second province in size, and within its vast area are thriv­ing cities and sleepy villages, mighty waterways and quiet lakes disturbed only by the splash of beavers.

 

Ontario is without peer for the tourist or sportsman. Among so many attractions it is difficult to single out anyone spot more than another, or name any as outstanding for game or fish. Innumerable lakes, rivers, and streams have made the Province unsurpassed for fishing. Hunting, especially in the north, is another sport in which Ontario is continent famous.

 

Travel is second nature in Ontario where there is one car for each five persons.  For them and the more than ten million tourists who visit Ontario each season, 70,000 miles of highway lead the way to diverse topography, climate, and ways of life.   Excellent roads transverse the southern portion of the Province, and even in the almost virgin north improved highways exist.

 

One of Ontario's most important traffic arteries is the Queen Elizabeth Way, linking Toronto, Niagara Falls and Fort Erie (Buffalo). This highway takes the driver into the historic and attractive Niagara Peninsula. Points of interest near here include the world's largest hydroelectric plant at Chippewa, the mammoth Welland Ship Canal which joins Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, the incomparable, world renowned Niagara Falls, and the Alexander Graham Bell Homestead in Brantford, scene of the invention of the telephone.

 

From Trenton to Kingston, Highway 33 forms an interesting bypass for travellers, with a fine, smooth ride along Lake Ontario. Off shore, from Kingston to Prescott, lie the world-famous Thousand Islands, stretching for more than 50 miles along the broad St. Lawrence River. Accessible by highway, the islands are also traversed by leisurely boat cruises. The Thousand Islands bridge is open all the year, day and night.

 

Scenic Bruce Peninsula, where the bluffs on Georgian Bay are in sharp contrast with the sandy shores of Lake Huron, may be reached from the "Blue Water Highway." Stretching from Wallaceburg to Orillia, this road carries the motorist through a breeze blown land of inescapable charm.  Sarnia, with near-by Point Edward, is one of Ontario's busy Great Lakes ports.  At Wasaga Beach, the motorist may drive on a 100 foot wide bed of pure white sand.  Three provincial highways merge at Orangeville, a picturesque highland district and a famous trout fishing area. 

 

Midland, centre of Huronia, and nearby Penetanguishene are home ports of the "30,000 Island" steamers of Georgian Bay; and a few miles east is Port McNicoll, terminus for the C.P.R. Great Lakes steamships. This section of the bay is one of Canada's best fishing grounds. Near Midland is the famed shrine of the Jesuit Martyrs of 1639.

 

To the north lies Parry Sound, on a high rampart overlooking the harbour, the centre of the "30,000 Island" region-renowned resort area. Farther north are the French and Pickerel Rivers and Lake Nipissing, famous for its pickerel, bass, and lake trout, and accessible via Highways 11, 17 and 69.

 

Algonquin Provincial Park comprises nearly 3,000 square miles of the wildest bush and lake country in Ontario, no shooting is allowed here, but the fisherman may find Utopia among its hundreds of lakes and streams. Excellent hotels and camps are to be found in this unspoiled region. Game roams at will so motorists must drive with care on the excellent highway that traverses the park.

 

A vacationer's paradise is the high altitude 1,000-square-mile Muskoka Lakes district, one of the most famous summer resort areas in the Dominion. Some 14 golf courses, woodland trails, gigantic rocks to climb, swimming, sailing, and dancing draw the vacationer here. An interesting drive is to Port Carling where the canal locks lift boats and cruise steamers from the Muskoka Lake level to the higher waters of Lakes Rosseau and Joseph. 

 

In the near-by Lake of Bays region, a delightful steamship cruise or a novel one-mile overland ride on the shortest railway in the world awaits the tourist.

 

To the southeast lie the Kawartha Lakes, popular summer resort area, and farther north are the Halliburton Highlands, game and fish country with over 500 named lakes scattered about.

 

The Trans-Continental Highway passes through the Temagami Provincial Forest and skirts the lovely Lake Temagami.  In this 4,000,000­acre wonderland the tourist may fish, hunt, swim, camp or canoe.  Ontario had the honour of completing the, last link in the 4,195-mile highway, the Dominion's coast-to-coast automobile road.  The section between Hearst and Geraldton offers unsurpassed views of untouched areas, joins the fabled Temagami forest and the Nipigon country, areas with special appeal for the big game hunter, camper, or vacationist.  In Lake of the Woods, Rainy River, Red Lake and Dryden areas, the angler finds some of Ontario's best fishing waters; and the hunter, deer, bear, and a variety of smaller game. Although moose still inhabit many areas of the North, hunting is not permitted and· sportsmen are limited to use of the camera only at present.

 

Tourist attractions in Ottawa, the Dominion capital, and Toronto, the Provincial capital, are set forth below.


      Drawings from the

      Province of Ontario

      write-up area.


Toronto

 

TO THE WORLD, Toronto is synonymous with conventions, churches, music, and sport.  To the Canadian motorist, the name of the Dominion's second city is another word fur vacationland and recreation.

 

Yacht races, horse shows, skating carnivals hold the spotlight in turn; almost nightly in winter a big-league hockey game is on, and in the summer baseball is popular. Around the city are 32 golf courses, and four race tracks with meets each spring and fall.  Popular among vacationers are Sunnyside Beach Amusement Park, with its board­walk and huge swimming pool, and Toronto Islands, a short ferry trip from the business section, are favoured recreation spots.

 

Musts for sightseers are Casa Lorna, a towering old-world castle with tunnels and secret stairways; the beautiful Provincial Parliament Buildings; the University of Toronto; and the head office of the Canadian Bank of Commerce, tallest building in the British Commonwealth, from which a fine view is obtained.

 

Connected with the University is the Royal Ontario Museum.  Other attractions are the Toronto Art Gallery, Riverdale Zoo, Allan Gardens with rare plants, and High Park, a zoo and natural play­ground of more than 400 acres.

 

For the historical minded: Old Fort York with its original buildings and re­stored ramparts, Old Trinity Church and St. James' Cathedral.

 

Annually, the city is host to upwards of three hundred conventions. The Canadian National Exhibition, is held in late August and early September.  The Royal Winter Fair, in the fall, has grown to international importance.


Ottawa

 

QUEEN VICTORIA selected Ottawa as Canada's Capital primarily for its strategic situation Yet she could not have chosen a more beautiful location, for this is the meeting place of the Ottawa, Rideau and Gatineau rivers with the Gatineau Hills providing a green background to the north.

 

The Parliament Buildings are among the world's finest gothic structures.  Views from atop the Peace Tower are long remembered.  In the Tower are a Memorial Chamber - tribute to Canadian World War 1 dead - and a carillon on which concerts are played on Thursday and Sunday evenings in the summer.

 

Reminders of government functions are the Royal Mint and the Prime Minister's Residence on Sussex Street and the foreign embassies, many in the area bounded by the Rideau River and Canal and Laurier Avenue.

 

The landscaped Driveway offers access to many attractions.  At the eastern section are Rockcliffe Park and Rideau Hall, residence of Canada's Governor General.  Near the section along the Rideau Canal is the Victoria  Memorial Museum, housing the National Art Gallery and the National Museum, which is open daily.  The Driveway winds around Lansdowne Park, site of the Central Canada Exhibition in August, and leads to the Central Experimental Farm.,  Here also is the Dominion Observatory, open to the public Saturday evenings.

 

Looking towards the future, railway tracks will be relocated, parkways added and harmonious government buildings constructed as part of the National Capital Plan.