Caledon

The Town of Caledon was created on January 1, 1974, through the amalgamation of the former Peel County townships of Albion and Caledon, the northern half of Chinguacousy Township, and the villages of Bolton and Caledon East. European settlement began in earnest in the 1820s, with mill villages developing along the Credit and Humber river systems.

Geography as identity

More than perhaps any other GTA municipality, Caledon's identity is inseparable from its landscape. The Niagara Escarpment — a UNESCO-recognized biosphere reserve — runs through the municipality, and roughly 80 percent of Caledon's land remains under some form of protection, spanning the escarpment, the Oak Ridges Moraine and the province's Greenbelt. The Cheltenham Badlands, an unusual eroded red-shale landscape now owned by the Ontario Heritage Trust, is one of Caledon's best-known natural landmarks and a direct product of this geology.

A deliberately rural counterpoint

Caledon's 2021 census population was 76,581. It remains part of the Region of Peel alongside Mississauga and Brampton, but continues to market its rural, low-density character — horse farms, conservation areas, small hamlets — as a deliberate counterpoint to its rapidly urbanizing Peel Region neighbours.

Sources

• The Canadian Encyclopedia — Caledon
• Town of Caledon — Cultural Heritage Landscapes Inventory