Ontario Abandoned Places will be rebranded as Ominous Abandoned Places

Darnley Mill- Crooks Hollow

Historic Location Ghost Town in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Feb 08 2010

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Recent status Historic Location
Location # 1085

Hazards of Darnley Mill- Crooks Hollow

Some buildings are located on private property so beware, trespassers will be punished.


Darnley Mill- Crooks Hollow

A collection of old mills and other buildings in the general area of Christi lake and the town of Dundas in the City of Hamilton, specifically along Crooks Hollow road. Remains of a couple of mills (Darnley's Paper Mill) as well as remains of old dams and housing foundations at the ghost town of Crook's Hollow.

Grist mills, built in 1811, were one of the earlier mills and business ventures of its time, it was a collection of mills, including a sawmill, a cooperage, a general store, a blacksmith shop, a linseed oil mill, a carding mill, and a distillery.

 In 1826 the grist mill was converted and became Upper Canada's first paper mill. due to a decrease inefficient use of hydropower, it was sold to Thomas Helliwell and it was sold to various people throughout history, included a sawmill, a cooperage, a general store, a blacksmith shop, a linseed oil mill, a carding mill, and a distillery.

Unfortunate events at the mill.

After 1878, James Stutt took over the business, later in 1885, an explosion took place in the mill, the roof was damaged due to the accident, however, that wasn’t the worst thing that happened that day, the explosion killed James Stutt’s children in this accident. 

Final days before the fire

The mills were a great community pillar, providing livelihood to several houses, and leading development of the whole area, however in 1943, a fire engulfed the building and caused it tremendous damages, thus causing huge repair costs, and leaving owners with no choice but to abandon it.

Once, a very prominent landmark, and a community pillar, not only abandoned by owners but also the community near it, as time passed, people moved to different places for new opportunities. 

Lost wife of Darnley mills ghost

Numerous ghost stories around the area of the mill and it has been reported that a man has been seen wandering the path to the mill from the new dam in search of his wife.

Comments

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10 years ago

None of the address are revealed in any of my blogs so I don't see how this is a problem.

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10 years ago

make that 7 out of 10 now!

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10 years ago

If what riddimryder said is true, then that kind of publishing is directly putting any future visitors at greater risk. Just my 2 cents.

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10 years ago

@Kenndruuh 6 of the 9 locations posted on your blog are marked as Full Member locations here. Why are you name/location dropping so openly? Kinda defeats the purpose of full member locations!

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10 years ago

More history on my blog!:) http://urbexdiaries.blogspot.ca/2013/09/darnley-grist-mill-hamilton-on.html

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10 years ago

The waterfall was beautiful! Definitely worth the trip.

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11 years ago

I see fences and signs in the photos. Is there regular security patrol. Anything out of the usual urbex to be aware of once over the fence?

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11 years ago

anyone know if there is somewhere a car could be hidden

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12 years ago

Spooky stuff!!!!

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12 years ago

yah... i like the paranormal stuff...but youre right Adriana.

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12 years ago

I think all this paranormal crazy stuff should be kept on a paranormal site .. Lol

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12 years ago

The Hamilton Paranormal folks saw some orbz and posted it on their site, so...it must be true.

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12 years ago

I'm curious as to why a mill would be haunted. Was there a death here? Why would ghosts hang around the mill & not say the local hardware store?

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12 years ago

I had my very first paranormal experience here. I was taking pics with two other friends when out of nowhere I felt as if a finger had poked me in the back. I thought it was one of my friends, but that was impossible because one was about 6 feet to my right and the other who I thought had poked me was way around the corner to the left taking pics through an old spot where a window had been in the