Sure, you probably knew that Almonte is a super-cute community on the banks of the Mississippi River (no, not that Mississippi River). And perhaps you knew that it makes a great day-trip destination from Ottawa—it’s only 29 kilometres from the Canadian Tire Centre, after all. However, you might not know some of the following facts about this Lanark County town.
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The inventor of basketball grew up here
Okay, you might have known this, too, since Dr. James Naismith and the small museum dedicated to him got a brief spurt of publicity in 2019. That’s when the Toronto Raptors won the NBA championship and people were keen for details on Canada’s long basketball history. Naismith was born in Almonte in 1861 and graduated from the town’s high school in 1883, then earned a degree in physical education from McGill University. Later, while working at the YMCA International Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts, he invented a new game involving throwing a ball into one of two peach baskets nailed high on the gym wall. The rest is history.
It’s very cycling friendly
Almonte is one of the hubs of the Mississippi Mills Bicycle Movement, which advocates for better cycling infrastructure and organizes Mississippi Mills Bicycle Month each June. The movement’s website is a great source of area cycling maps and tips.
Almonte hosts an annual VW bus festival
That’s right, fans of the favoured transportation of 1960s hippies and their latter-day wannabes: The iconic VW bus gets its very own celebration called BusFusion in Almonte each June. Activities and amusements usually include live music, tie-dye workshops, a puppy parade and more.
You can hike in the woods or stroll through the town
The Naismith museum that I mentioned earlier is housed in the Mill of Kintail. That picturesque stone mill is the heart of the Mill of Kintail Conservation Area, where 6.5 kilometres of pretty hiking trails are open year round. If a demure stroll is more your style, check out the Riverwalk, which winds through central Almonte along the Mississippi River.
You can visit a textile museum
The Mississippi Valley Textile Museum (MVTM) is located in the annex of a former woollen mill dating back to 1867, which is now a National Historic Site. Beginning in the 19th century, Almonte was home to a number of textile mills, powered by waterfalls on the Mississippi River. Today, the MVTM tells that story through exhibitions and workshops. The museum is also home to an extensive collection of antique coverlets (sewn or woven bed coverings) and hosts the popular Fibrefest needlework and textile festival each September.
Almonte was the site of a Second World War-era tragedy
In Almonte on the snowy night of December 27, 1942, a troop train packed with soldiers travelling from Red Deer to Halifax crashed into a passenger train filled with families returning to Ottawa from Christmas celebrations. Thirty-nine people died as a result of the accident; Ottawa Citizen journalist Bruce Deachman wrote a moving story about the tragedy on its 75th anniversary in 2017.
Trains stopped running through Almonte in 2011, when the Ottawa Valley Railway line was dismantled. The rail bed is now part of the Ottawa Valley Recreational Trail.
You can take a food walking tour
Long-time readers of this website will know that I’m a big fan of the Good Food Tour, a walking tour company that started with tours of Almonte and has since expanded to Carleton Place as well. From spring through fall, depending on the tour, you might sample anything from butter chicken pizza to award-winning chocolate bars.
You can learn about really old rocks
At the Metcalfe Geoheritage Park in Almonte, you can learn about geological history via the 22 rock samples on display. Some date back to the Ordovician age, roughly 440 to 490 million years ago, when this region was at the bottom of a warm, shallow ocean. However, those rocks are just youngsters; other samples in the park are from the Precambrian era, some 1 billion to 2.5 billion years ago. The older rocks are metamorphic, formed by high temperatures and pressures.
Almonte was named for a Mexican general
When locals were searching for a new name to cover the adjacent communities of Ramsayville and Victoriaville in the 1850s, they first tried to rename the combined village “Waterford.” However, there was already a place with that name elsewhere in what was then called Canada West (now Ontario), so the post office told them they had to come up with a different idea.
At the time, a Mexican general-turned-diplomat named Juan Nepomucene Almonte was all over the newspapers due to his prickly relationship with the U.S. government, to which he was Mexico’s ambassador at the time. Since Canada West and other British colonies north of the United States were also a bit wary of American expansion plans, many were fans of the outspoken Almonte. They figured his name was short and easy to pronounce—even though to this day the town is pronounced AL-mont and not, as the general himself would have said, Al-MON-tay—and so it became the only Canadian community known to be named for a Mexican general.
Officially, it isn’t called Almonte at all
Everyone calls it Almonte, and until 1998 it was a separate community. But on January 1, 1998, Almonte and the nearby townships of Pakenham and Ramsay were amalgamated into a new entity called the Town of Mississippi Mills.
Where to stay in and around Almonte
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[…] Take the Good Food Tour of local restaurants and shops, or check out the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum. You’ll find lots more inspiration in my complete day trip guide to Almonte and 10 things you didn’t know about Almonte. […]
[…] 10 things you didn’t know about Almonte […]
[…] Want to learn more? Check out my post, “10 things you didn’t know about Almonte.” […]
[…] 10 things you didn’t know about Almonte […]
[…] about two other Lanark County communities: 10 things you didn’t know about Carleton Place and 10 things you didn’t know about Almonte. And here’s another spot quite close to Perth: 10 things you didn’t know about Smiths […]