A formerly much larger (but now small) creek (known locally as "The Crick") which once powered mills fed by Fish Lake, flows through the center of town and has now been protected under the Demorestville Conservation Area.

It also boasted the county's first grammar school, a newspaper, The Criticizer, and the first canning factory in Ontario to process tomatoes (founded by magnate Wellington Boulter).

In the early part of the century Demorestville was considered the most prominent city west of Kingston and was at the time larger than both York (now Toronto) and Meyer's Creek (now Belleville).

[1] In 1898 a phone line was built between the Grant Sprague's farm on neighbouring Big Island three kilometres away which drew people "wanting to see this modern marvel".

Much like the Biblical story, "Sodom" was all but destroyed in a massive fire near the turn of the twentieth century, and with the mills gone and local businesses decimated, few chose to remain and the town was never rebuilt.