List of Ontario Tourist Routes
This is a List of Ontario Tourist Routes throughout the province, which are designated to highlight places of cultural, environmental, or social importance.
Although many municipalities, cities, and counties still sign these tourist routes, others may have chosen to discontinue them with the highways they followed, rendering them as historical footnotes.
The African-Canadian Heritage Tour (ACHT) is a designated trail along several county and city roads, and provincial highways.
[1] The route turns north along County Road 9 (Howard Avenue) back to Windsor, Ontario.
It follows this road to its terminus in Dresden, where the Uncle Tom's Cabin Historic Site can be found.
The Algonquin Route was created as part of the Yours to Discover campaign by the Ontario provincial government, beginning in 1980 and continuing through the 1990s.
It passes through the towns of Geraldton, Longlac, Hearst, Kapuskasing, Smooth Rock Falls, Cochrane, Iroquois Falls, Kirkland Lake, New Liskeard, North Bay, Huntsville, Bracebridge, Gravenhurst, and Orillia, before terminating at Highway 400 in Barrie.
The Golden Highway continues in Quebec as Route 117 through the city of Rouyn-Noranda before terminating in Val-d'Or.
The 1972 designation originally included various spur routes and connections to destinations such as Niagara Falls, Stratford, Sarnia, Ottawa-Hull and Sault Ste.
As the route is now mostly county road, signage has been maintained in some areas, removed in some and left to simply fade to illegibility in others.
[13] Recent signage bears a white-on-brown wheel and the words "Heritage Highway - Route des Pionniers", the latter being a version of the French language translation of "Heritage Highways, Sur la Route des Pionniers" used in the original 1972 joint promotional effort with Québec.
This designation was made to honour the United Empire Loyalists, who first settled that area of Ontario.
The official designation was presided over by Queen Elizabeth II, when she visited Kingston during Ontario's bicentennial celebrations.
Highway 33 now ends at Bloomfield, and the Loyalist Parkway continues as Prince Edward County Road 33 toward Stirling.
It then curves east then south to Dresden, meeting the African-Canadian Heritage Tour route.
This route is still signed, Lambton CR 21's name north of Rutherford is "Oil Heritage Road".
The Talbot Trail is an historically significant overland route completed in the 1820s along the north shore of Lake Erie.
The building of the route of almost 500 km (310 mi) in length was overseen by Colonel Thomas Talbot.
Its original intent was to provide a continuous land route for settlers and military personnel between the Niagara region and Detroit, aiding in the development of the Talbot Settlement.
The route begins in Windsor and travels southeast and then east through Leamington, Wheatley, Blenheim and St. Thomas.
East of Aylmer, it leaves Highway 3 and follows County Road 38 (Heritage Line) proceeding through the village of Straffordville.
The trail continues on Pelee Island, and along County Road 20 on the mainland; both meet in Leamington, Ontario at the intersection of Seacliffe Drive and Erie Street, formerly part of Highway 77.
A spur along Fourth Avenue and Ontario Street connects wineries in the west-end of the city and Downtown St. Catharines to the northern route, while another spur crosses through central Niagara-on-the-Lake and the community of Virgil, connecting both routes to the Niagara Parkway.
The primary routes reconvene in the Olde Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake where Regional Roads 89 and 55 meet, not far from the mouth of the Niagara River.
Newer signs are purely dark blue with white grapes, with the text "Wine Route" written below.
[19] The route is found in Eastern Ontario, along the oldest continuously operated canal in North America.
