Hidden Natural Wonder And Shops Near Niagara Falls

The scenic beauty of Niagara Falls beckons many travelers who spend all their vacation days really close to the American and Canadian sides of the massive waterfall. Travelers are often unaware of other nearby natural wonders in Ontario, including Ball’s Falls, a 30-minute drive from the Canadian side of Niagara Falls.

The Niagara Geopark describes Ball’s Falls as “a historical ghost town centered around an impressive 19th-Century grist mill situated on Twenty Mile Creek at the edge of the Niagara Escarpment.” The ghost town, located within a 200-acre conservation area with unique walking trails, is also known as Glen Elgin, a village that’s decorated in Victorian style for the holiday season.

Photographers and nature lovers “will love the incredibly breathtaking view of the majestic Twenty Mile Creek as it plummets over both the upper and lower falls,” the Niagara Pensinsula Conservation Authority says. “The falls tumble delightfully over high cliffs and can be viewed at close proximity from above or below.”

A recent visitor posted on Tripadvisor this month that Ball’s Falls is “gorgeous” and a “fantastic spot for photos and exploring.” The area “has amazing trails, beautiful waterfalls and water everywhere.”

Ball’s Falls, according to the Nigara Pensinsula Conservation Authority, “has been lovingly maintained to its mid-19th-Century industrial hamlet atmosphere, featuring the original Ball family home, an operating flour mill, a lime kiln, a church, a blacksmith shop and a carriage shed.” The mill supplied flour to British troops during the War of 1812.

Visitors can read more about the history of Ball’s Falls on a heritage plaque outside the Ball family home.

The falls is rain-fed, so its appearance “can change dramatically with the seasons, from a raging torrent in the spring to a thin veil in late summer and fall,” the conservation authority says.

The village of Ball’s Falls, according to the Greenbelt Indigenous Botanical Survey conservation group, was founded in the 19th Century by the Ball family — German immigrants who initially settled in America. During the Revolutionary War, they fought on the side of the loyalists to the English crown and moved to Canada at the end of the war.

Many centuries before, the conservation group says, “indigenous presence and occupation of the Twenty Mile Creek valley” dates back to 4,000 B.C.E. Archaeologists have documented that the southwestern shores of Lake Ontario and Ball’s Falls were home to the Attiwandaron (Neutral) Nation from 900 B.C.E. to 1,500 B.C.E.

From 1647 to 1651, the Attiwandaron (Neutral) Nation suffered from epidemics brought over from Europe and subsequently dispersed and joined other indigenous nations, the conservation group says. The Haudenosaunee Nation moved into the area and used the footpaths and trail systems.

Today, Ball’s Falls lies in the Carolinian forest zone and is composed of deciduous and mixed-wood forests, the conservation group says. Twenty Mile Creek, which flows through the 200-acre conservation area, provides moisture for various plant species, including jewelweed, sedges and lady fern. Hemlock dominates the slopes of the Twenty Mile Creek valley, accompanied by hickories, red oak, black walnut, black maple, dogwood, red elder and mountain maple.

When visitors have had their fill of the natural beauty, nearby Jordan Village offers shopping, restaurants, a bakery, a winery and inns in the heart of Niagara Benchlands wine country. Cave Sprng Vineyard specializes in riesling wines and has an underground wine cellar. Wine Spectator and Wine Enthusiast magazines gave high scores to three of the vineyard’s rieslings last year.