The Dutch Settlement of Holland Marsh

Photo by Alan L Brown - April 27, 2004

Plaque Location

The Region of York
The Town of Newmarket
19254 Dufferin Street on the NW corner of Dufferin Street and Emma Road, 4.5 km north of Davis Drive

Plaque Text

The Holland Marsh consists of 2800 ha of reclaimed land in the Schomberg River Valley. Named after an early provincial official, this fertile area was drained between 1925 and 1930. John Snor, Canadian representative of the Netherlands Emigration Foundation, visited the sparsely settled marsh and proposed the relocation here of recent Dutch immigrants in Ontario. Assisted by grants from the Netherlands, Canada and Ontario, fifteen Dutch families, many from Friesland and Gronigen originally, settled on the marsh in 1934 and formed the nucleus of the community of Ansnorveldt. Later, Dutch farmers settled throughout the Marsh. Through skilled farming practice and co-operative management, the Dutch were the first group successfully to develop the Marsh as one of Ontario's most important vegetable growing districts.

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