Monday’s Featured Non-Fiction: Ontario’s Ghost Town Heritage by Ron Brown

Autumn is a good season to get outside and explore, and Ron Brown’s books are great guides to many of the roadside attractions in Ontario. He has written over a dozen books, including Top 100 Unusual Things to See in Ontario (2005), Backroads of Ontario (2003), and Ontario’s Secret Landscapes (1999). His most recent book, Ontario’s Ghost Town Heritage (2007) is well-illustrated with photos and maps. It includes the best 80 ghost towns in Ontario described in Brown's previous books. Each essay explores a town, some abandoned, some still populated, whose former glory makes it an interesting destination.

Ontario’s Ghost Town Heritage
by Ron Brown
Boston Mills Press, 2007
256 pages
$19.95

Ontario historian Ron Brown visits vestiges of once-thriving towns and villages. Some still maintain small resident populations, while others exist only as abandoned buildings and foundation ruins. All have in common that they are “ghosts” of their former greatness and that their images evoke their lost legacies. Sketch maps by the author guide the reader within each geographic region.

Ron Brown is a frequent contributor to CBC Radio, and his travel articles have appeared in numerous North American newspapers and magazines. He lives in Toronto.