There are 128 posts filed in Canada (this is page 2 of 13).
These images are from the <span class="removed_link" title="https://www.realtor.ca/real-estate/23535949/1235-1259-3rd-avenue-e-owen-sound">Realtor (real estate site)</span>. I have taken photos of the Owen Sound Court House before, but only the outside. Now it is for sale. Priced to sell, low, because it needs a fortune spent on it. If you look at the listing (while the link is still there) you can see the rotting wood from water damage in the roof. I'm sure that's just the start of it.
First, I found his site, <a href="http://www.ontarioexplorations101.com/">Ontario Exploration 101</a>, via the Curlie listing which had come up as a broken link to check. The link works, if you go past the web browser warnings of gloom and doom. People may miss all his posts because they start from the navigation bar, under the word "more...". Not the navigation people are used to. At first the site appears to be a one page wonder. Once you hit upon the content, there is a LOT of it. Mostly about abandoned mines in Ontario.
I found more. There is a gallery of his images and more written content at mindat.org. There is a network people can join, a Mining Database.
I don’t know why the web browser (Firefox) is warning people away from his site. It would take days to read everything there. I hope it is all saved somewhere. Sites, personal projects like this, tend to disappear one day without notice. Abandoned and then lost.
Somehow I often catch people at a crossroads in their life. This time Jerm IX, Jeremy Bertrand, is evolving from his old persona and into something else. Leaving much of the old Jerm IX behind. I found his note about this on his Facebook account, the day after he posted it.
I haven’t especially tried to find him before this. I’ve seen his urban exploration photos from around Ontario on Flickr and his Jermalism and Abandonment Issues blogs. Also, for a short time a JermIX web domain. It just happened that I photographed an interesting place which I looked up (to see what it was) and found his post as the best source, with more photos taken years ago. His was more than a post about exploring an old place. He had written about himself, his past and the future he was looking forward to. Leaving behind Jerm IX is now a part of that.
So this is posted as a little tribute to Jerm IX and a thank you to Jeremy with wishes for good things in his future.
Interviews found online:
Peterborough Examiner – Peterborough, meet Jerm IX
Peterborough Examiner – Inside the Mind of Jerm IX
Kawartha Now – artNOW July 2016
Electric City – Jerm IX Writes on Walls
<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59256" src="https://strangeontario.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/watermarked450-1.jpg" alt="" width="4608" height="3456" /> <img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59294" src="https://strangeontario.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/watermarked488-2.jpg" alt="" width="4608" height="3456" /> <img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59306" src="https://strangeontario.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/watermarked500-1.jpg" alt="" width="4608" height="3456" />It was biting, bitterly, cold and windy at this little cemetery, called the Kinghorn Cemetery. Located north of Toronto. I like the gravestones with flowers, or something else unique and pretty but not especially religious. This cemetery seemed to have more stone flowers than most, considering the small size of the place.
<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-58989" src="https://strangeontario.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/watermarked221-1.jpg" alt="" width="3456" height="4608" />I visited here a few years ago but the gate was locked. This time it was open so I went inside and photographed every gravestone, details of the engraving and sculpture and all around the angel in the back corner. This is located in Burlington and cared for by the city. It isn’t hard to find but likely gets missed by people driving by. It is being crowded out by valuable shopping mall real estate, but it is still there.
<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-58796" src="https://strangeontario.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/watermarked390-1.jpg" alt="" width="4608" height="3456" />A house on a hill. I think this was along Jane Street if you travel long enough north of Toronto. I haven’t been keeping track. Not remembering where places are is the best way to not share location information and see the old places vandalized. This one will be torn down at some point. The real estate is too desired for an old ruin to be left alone for long.
Access is not strongly blocked. Enough to give the message that this is not for the public to wander in. So I stayed on the public side of things and took photographs from the road and the bottom of the hill. Others have likely gone farther and explored inside. It doesn’t seem respectful when there is a pretty fresh lock on the gate.
<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-58793" src="https://strangeontario.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/watermarked543-1.jpg" alt="" width="4608" height="3456" />This house I only photographed from the road. The access to it was on private property, not abandoned at all. I’m kind of shy and like many people this past year, I’ve been feeling less than social and exuberant at the idea of being friendly. So I didn’t take photographs from the driveway at the house of the property owner. The stone houses are still my favourites. I like this photo, kind of spoiled by focusing on the tree, but more interesting to leave something of mystery, not yet seen. Of course, I did take better photos. This is the the I like best for posting.
<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-58700" src="https://strangeontario.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/watermarked25-1.jpg" alt="" width="3456" height="4608" />This is not open now, as so many small and local businesses are shut down. But, they were selling coffee. The building needs some TLC but it isn’t abandoned. I like the old stops along main streets in small (very small in this case) towns. One thing I noticed here were the birdhouses nailed up on the roof (I’m sure there is a correct word for that part of the building, I just don’t know it). Who made the birdhouses, who put them up there, and did birds ever live in them?
<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-58693" src="https://strangeontario.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/watermarked7-1.jpg" alt="" width="4608" height="3456" />Not fair to say it was lost. I noticed a white cow at the shed to the side. It didn’t stay long, not shy, just not that interested. The farm house is like many others you can find in rural Ontario. But, pretty sure no one still lives in this one. There was a small rusted sign along the side of the driveway, but nothing I could still read on it. I liked being out in the early Spring, after the snow had melted. You wouldn’t know whether it was Spring or Fall, without some sign of green coming or going.
<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-58780" src="https://strangeontario.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/watermarked94-1.jpg" alt="" width="4608" height="3456" />Pat doesn’t live here but his animals do. He was working at the back when I found the old house. He invited me to take all the photos I liked, but he doesn’t want people bothering the animals when he isn’t there. The old house is home to goats, turkeys, chickens and ducks.