10 things you didn’t know about Almonte, Ontario

9.2K

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.

This post contains affiliate links.

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 taste vodka made from milk sugar

Almonte is home to Dairy Distillery, which makes vodka and cream liquors from milk sugar, a byproduct of milk production that would otherwise go to waste. The vodka, which seems a bit thicker and sweeter than regular vodka to my uneducated palate, is outstanding. And the cream liquors are lovely on the rocks or in hot chocolate. Tours are available on Saturdays; see the company’s website to book.

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 Municipality of Mississippi Mills.

Where to stay near Almonte

If you like learning about cool places to visit in Eastern Ontario, West Quebec and beyond, subscribe to my free weekly e-newsletter!