The Town Of What?

Last Updated on: 25th September 2013, 11:22 am

I’m surprised this town didn’t make it into the towns mentioned in Steve’s worst town names post. I was looking at the Greyhound site, and stumbled on something that made me do a double take. Among the places in Ontario that the big grey dog stops is a town called Swastika!

Noooo!

Yup!

Still don’t believe me? Have a good, long, hard look at this map then!

Most Ontarians probably would never hear of it. It’s way up north by Kirkland Lake, and was founded around a gold mine, the Swastika gold mine to be exact, which was staked in 1907. Apparently, it is inhabited by some pretty stubborn folk. In World War II, the government tried to rename the town Winston, but the townsfolk would have none of it, insisting they named their town Swastika long before the nazis took over the name and symbol. They even ripped down provincial signs with the new name on them and put the old town signs back up. To this day, it’s still Swastika.

Wow, there’s a town you don’t want to mess with! They even made the government shut up and go away. From time to time, they get Jewish folk writing screaming letters to them. But they just explain they’re not a flock of nazis and don’t even think of changing their name. In an era of political correctness, this is refreshing to see.

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