Ontario has giant sand dunes that look like they belong in a desert, but they’re sitting on the shore of Lake Ontario.
At Sandbanks Provincial Park in Prince Edward County, massive dunes rise beside West Lake, some reaching nearly twenty metres high. Their story begins more than ten thousand years ago, when glaciers, changing lake levels and powerful winds reshaped this part of Ontario.
But the strangest part came later.
After settlers cleared the vegetation holding the dunes in place, the sand began moving across roads, farms and buildings. Ontario eventually tried to stabilize the dunes by planting trees, while, remarkably, part of the same dune system was later leased to a cement company for just one dollar a year.
In this Hidden Canada documentary, we explore how the Sandbanks formed, why Lake Ontario once sat more than one hundred metres lower than today, how shifting dunes changed Prince Edward County, and why parts of this remarkable landscape are still moving toward West Lake.
📍 Location: Sandbanks Provincial Park, Prince Edward County, Ontario, Canada
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Chapters:
00:00 — The Boy Who Asked About a Buried Village
02:24 — Ontario’s Giant Sand Dunes
03:45 — Where All the Sand Came From
05:22 — When Lake Ontario Fell 100 Metres
06:43 — How the Lake Rose Again
07:45 — How the Sandbanks Formed
09:09 — The Ice Age Sand Beneath Ontario
11:23 — Why the Dunes Are Still Moving
13:01 — When People Destabilized the Sand
14:27 — Roads, Farms and Buildings Buried
15:37 — The Brick Factory Story
17:06 — Ontario Tries to Stop the Dunes
18:23 — The $1 Cement Lease
20:26 — The Political Fight Over Sandbanks
21:30 — How the Quarry Finally Ended
22:17 — The New Threat to the Dunes
23:17 — Lake Ontario Floods Sandbanks
24:54 — What Happens to the Dunes Next?
#HiddenCanada #Ontario #Sandbanks #PrinceEdwardCounty #LakeOntario #CanadianHistory #Canada #Geology #CanadianGeography
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Have you ever been somewhere in Canada that looked completely out of place for the region? Drop the location below, I’m looking for places that deserve a future Hidden Canada episode.
Stop mispronouncing the bay of quinte. You're not from South East Ontario, it's pronounced 'quinty'. I rest my case your honor.
Visited one of the south Carolina barrier island parks. They had built walkways over the dunes, and the fine for being on a sand dune was huge.That way , they kept the dunes in natural conditions.
Maybe sandbanks should try that
belleville comes first
Very good..just subbed in. One of my degrees is in physical geography so this is right up my alley..thx and cheers
It's called Lake America.
I enjoy your channel. I can see the bay of Quint"E" from my living room. Is Pancake Hill on Oak Hills?
i live 10 minutes from the county in trenton ontario in trenton in the middle of town there is a big mountan , mount pelion it is big but mostly sand it makes no sence because all the water front here is rock an dirt????
i was in high school in the 80,s we retreived 3 brick carts and a railroad track restored 2 carts which went to the outlet park with the track , for some reason they dissappered so im told . also i had family work at the brick factory and the lake shore lodge ,,
"There once was a girl whose heart was a frown, 'cause she was crippled for life and couldn't make a sound. One day she decided to die. She drew her wheelchair to the edge of the shore and to her legs she smiled you won't hurt me no more. Suddenly, a sight she had never seen before made her jump up and say, look, a golden winged ship is coming my way, and it didn't have to stop, it just kept on going, and so castles made of sand slip into Lake Erie, eventually". Jimi Hendrix, third verse, "Castles Made of Sand", with a variation.
Since when do vehicles in Canada drive on the left-hand side of the road? 9:27
Interesting ❤
It's not the "Bay of Quint" it's the "Bay of Quintee" 🙄
You forgot to mention anything about the bombing zone where Trenton Air Force base used them for practice bombing runs with live bombs and ammunition.
There are still unexplored bombs under those sandy beaches….around Concecon and west beach.
Get the pronunciations correct.
I just moved to Northern Ontario , missing this interesting area . Thank you for the history lesson.
You never mentioned lake on the mountain ,sand banks was very dangerous as a young person ,the bank would shift into the lake outlet was the place to go and outlet .lived at camp Picton
Where I live near ottawa, theres towns built on sand , theres sand everywhere up here
Went there all the time in the 60's and 70's.Stopped at KFC in Belleville on the way home to Stirling!
Love me my sandbanks (Outlet Beach) during the summer, spent so much time there this year! It's beautiful. Great place for poutine too just up the road at a chip truck it's close to Quebec poutine and all the Quebecers visiting sandbanks give it great reviews.
Sandbanks is a beautiful beach, but the road to get there is thin 2 lane.
12 years I have researched a non consensus angle on what happened 12,800 years ago, looking at the multitudinous effects of an event called the Younger Dryas Impact.
Eventually I uncovered an effect that along the south of Canada has gone unrecognized. My research is still ongoing. The topic here I am tentatively including in my evidence. No two places globally has the same effects. This one seems to fit. I am saving this YT.
Lake America you mean
The fascinating part is that the dunes became dangerous only after people removed the vegetation that made them stable. Once the roots disappeared, a glacial landscape that had taken thousands of years to form started swallowing farms, roads and buildings within generations. I film overlooked places and the physical history still shaping them on my own channel, so this is exactly my kind of story. Brilliantly explained too. The dunes aren’t just scenery. They’re Ice Age geology still moving, with human decisions written directly into the sand.
Well done. With your research, I can piece together some of the questions I've had since my first visits there in 1972.Thanks.
Born, raised, and now live, in PEC. Thank you for this.
Also: Bay of Quinte = Kwin-tee. Related to old indigenous word "Kente" (Ken-tay).
The timeline in this video doesn't make sense. This is the first place I know of which claims that a precursor to Lake Ontario was a closed basin for 4,000 years.
Wow, love this, I grew up in Westlake, played at the outlet and on the dunes every summer, also watched the lodge burn down, it almost set a bunch of the trees on fire.
Vivian Forest York Region ..large tract(2600 hectares) below the Oak Ridges Moraine cleared for farming had to be replanted with pine to control sand erosion…now a park….
LAKE AMERICA!
a lot of these sand bars are restricted to walk on because they dont want them degrading.