More than just a Steel City...

Oh Hamilton, how I love you...  A recent debate with a friend from college got me thinking about my home town and how great it is, and I realized that it's time to start sticking up for old Steel Town a lot more than I do.  Destined to be blindly labeled as 'the Armpit of Lake Ontario' forevermore - is that any way to treat the old girl?  After all she has done for us?

Yes, we get along just fine, Hamilton and I.  In fact, she's a lot like me, now that I think about it... She's a little bit crass, a little rough around the edges; she hides her true beauty and class under a tough, gritty exterior peppered with graffiti and heavy metals; she sticks out like a sore thumb and is as 'in your face' as she deems necessary for any given occasion... she's sometimes loud, sometimes obnoxious (or just plain noxious), but she knows how to party.  She doesn't always clean up after herself or follow through with the things she says she is going to do, but let's give her a little more credit for all the GOOD things she has to offer!!  (She's 164 years old, for pete's sake!)

Here is a smattering of local history and trivia that you may or may not already know about Hamilton, Ontario:

• At 125, the Hamilton area has more waterfalls than anywhere else in the world
• It is home to the Royal Botanical Gardens, the largest botanical garden in North America, which consists of 1100 species of plants growing on 2422 acres
• It is home to the first graded public school in Canada - Central Public School at Bay and Hunter Sts (my elementary school!)
• It was a stop on the Underground Railroad
• It has the highest per capita amount of green space of any city in Canada
• It is the home of the world's first Tim Horton's store, and the second Canadian Tire
• During the Battle of Stoney Creek in the War of 1812, 1300 British troops defeated the 3000-strong American army and kept Canada safe from hostile takeover
• Many films have been shot in Hamilton, including X-Men, Detroit Rock City, The Long Kiss Goodnight, Finding Forrester, The Incredible Hulk, Gone in 60 Seconds, The Time Traveler's Wife, Death to Smoochy, Strange Brew, and Canadian Bacon
• The 'Around the Bay' road race, established in 1894, is the oldest marathon in North America and attracts runners from all over the world
• In 1906, a railway porter named Billy Sherring traveled to Athens to face the world's best runners in the first Modern-Day Olympic Games.  He put all the money he had ($75 of his own earnings, and $90 raised by his running club) on a horse named 'Cicely', who came in first, giving Billy enough money to travel to Greece (Steerage Class) to compete.  He won the marathon and a set a new world record, with a time of 2 hours, 51 minutes.  (Billy's prize?  A 5' statue of the Greek goddess Minerva, and a goat... nice... ha ha)
• Canada's first Birth Control Clinic was opened in Hamilton in 1931 by Mrs. Mary Hawkins, at a time when it was illegal to even INFORM women about birth control
• In the 1920s, Hamilton had its own professional hockey team, the Hamilton Tigers.  The team was expected to win the Stanley Cup in the 1924-25 season, but a players' strike sparked its sale to New York, where it became the basis for the New York Rangers NHL team
• 25% of Hamilton's population is foreign-born, making it the Canadian city with the third highest proportion of foreign-born citizens (after Toronto and Vancouver)
• During the first World War, Hamilton raised $4.5 million for the war effort, and 10,000 men and women from Hamilton volunteered for service, more than any other Canadian city
• It is one of the busiest ports on the Great Lakes, and one of the largest sea ports in Canada
• The Bruce Trail, proposed by Hamiltonian Raymond Lowes in 1960 and completed in 1967, extends along the brow of the Niagara Escarpment from Queenston, through Hamilton and the Dundas Valley, to Tobermory on the Bruce Peninsula 740km away.  It was named as a World Biosphere Reserve by the United Nations in 1990
• 'The Hawks,' formed when Arkansas-born Ronnie Hawkins came to the city in the early '60s, featured Hawkins and several young musicians from all over Southern Ontario who worked out of Hamilton.  These musicians went on to become 'The Band,' one of the most successful groups of the 1970s
• It is Canada's largest steel centre, thanks to Stelco and Dofasco (Dofasco being the world's most profitable producer of steel), established in 1910 and 1912, respectively.  60% of Canada's steel is forged in Hamilton
• The city has over 130km of biking and walking trails
• Hamilton was known as 'Little Chicago' during the 1920's & 30's for its reputation as a mob town.  It was home to the infamous 'Perri Gang,' led by Rocco Perri and his wife Bessie Starkman, who started selling shots of whisky for 50 cents each out of their North-End grocery store after the Ontario Temperance Act brought prohibition to the province.  They soon became the biggest bootleggers in Southern Ontario (their house used to be located at the corner of Bay and Bold Streets, about 3 blocks from my house - my gran used to play there with Bessie's daughters from a previous marriage when she was a little girl!).  After Bessie was shot and killed in the driveway of their home, said by many to have been killed by gang members who resented taking orders from a woman, Perri fell apart and eventually disappeared in 1944.  It is widely believed that he can be found at the bottom of Hamilton Harbour...
• Hamilton became a training centre for the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1940.  15000 Air Force personnel from all over the British Empire were trained here
• Of the 5000 Canadian troops who participated in the Dieppe Raid in France during WWII, 550 were from Hamilton

Pretty interesting, no?  Thanks old girl... you'll always be 'home' to me...