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Garrison Creek rose in two small streams north of St. Clair Avenue West. The eastern branch, the Humewood Reach, had its source near Vaughan Rd. at Valewood Ave. The western branch, the Springmount Stream, had its origin near Earlscourt Ave. and Morrison Ave., west of Dufferin St.. These branches joined just north of Davenport Road at Mount Royal Ave. and flowed south through what are now Christie Pits, Bickford Park, Fred Hamilton Park, and Trinity Bellwoods Park, to enter Toronto Bay at Fort York. It was 7.7 km long and had several tributaries. In the upper portions of the watershed where it passed through farms owned by members of the Bull family, it was also known as Bull’s Creek. The creek had its beginnings about 12,000 years ago when the last remnants of the Wisconsinan Glacier melted off the Toronto area. The glacier had wiped the land clear of forests and left deep deposits of glacial drift (sand, clay, gravel and stones) perhaps 200 feet thick. At that time, the St.Lawrence valley was still blocked with glacial ice and Garrison Creek entered post-glacial Lake Iroquois, the forerunner of Lake Ontario, at what is now Davenport Road. Here the waves of Lake Iroquois washed against the glacial drift and created a steep shore bluff through which the creek carved a deep valley as it entered the lake. As the great ice sheet continued to melt, the St Lawrence valley became free of ice and the waters in the Ontario basin dropped to a lower level. Garrison Creek then cut a longer course across the newly-drained lands to what is now Lake Ontario.
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