Ontario is Canada's most populous province and its most industrially complex — and it left behind an extraordinary concentration of abandoned places. A WWII prisoner-of-war camp where German officers were held in a Bowmanville estate. A vast correctional complex in Northern Ontario that housed thousands of inmates on a working farm. Silver mining ghost towns in the boreal forest north of Lake Superior. Here are 5 of the best abandoned places in Ontario, selected from our Abandoned Places Map Canada — 2,500+ GPS locations across Canada.
Why Ontario Is a Hidden Gem for Abandoned Buildings & Urban Exploration
Ontario's urbex landscape spans from the suburban fringe of the Greater Toronto Area to the boreal mining towns of Northern Ontario — a geographic and historical range that encompasses Victorian industrial ruins, WWII military infrastructure, Northern Ontario resource extraction ghost towns and the institutional legacy of Canada's largest provincial government. No other Canadian province offers this breadth of abandoned heritage.
1. Camp 30 – Bowmanville, Ontario — WWII German Prisoner-of-War Camp That Held the Highest-Ranking Enemy Officers in North America, 1940-1945 (Known Location)
Camp 30 in Bowmanville was no ordinary prisoner-of-war facility — it held the most senior German military officers captured in WWII, including U-boat commanders and Luftwaffe generals, in a converted private school estate on the shores of Lake Ontario. The camp was the site of the "Bowmanville Riot" of 1942 when German officers resisted a Canadian order to shackle their men — a riot that briefly made international headlines. The original estate buildings, the barracks added for the camp's expansion and the distinctive camp perimeter infrastructure are now in advanced decay on the Bowmanville site, designated a National Historic Site. The most historically extraordinary abandoned place in Ontario.
🔗 Learn more: Wikipedia – Camp 30 Bowmanville
2. Burwash Correctional Centre – Sudbury Area, Ontario — 1914 Prison Farm Complex, 10,000 Acres, Closed 1975, Barracks and Farm Buildings Still Standing in Northern Ontario Bush (Known Location)
Burwash Industrial Farm was one of the most unusual correctional institutions in Canadian history — a 10,000-acre working prison farm complex north of Sudbury where inmates grew food, raised livestock and operated a complete agricultural and industrial operation from 1914 until its controversial 1975 closure. The buildings — barracks, farm structures, the administration complex and the chapel — still stand in the Northern Ontario bush, slowly being reclaimed by the boreal forest. One of the largest and most historically distinctive abandoned institutional complexes in Ontario, and one of the best-documented abandoned places in the province among the Canadian urbex community.
🔗 Also read: Top 5 Best Abandoned Places in Canada →
3. Cobalt Mining District – Northern Ontario — 1903 Silver Rush Town, Headframes and Mine Infrastructure Still Standing in the Boreal Forest (Known Location)
The discovery of silver at Cobalt in 1903 triggered one of the most explosive mining booms in Canadian history — a town of 10,000 appeared almost overnight and Cobalt briefly produced more silver per square mile than any area on earth. When the richest veins were exhausted in the 1920s, many operations closed; the headframes, shaft houses and mine processing buildings still stand throughout the Cobalt townsite and surrounding bush. The Cobalt Mining Museum and several heritage properties preserve the surface infrastructure of a boom that created fortunes and destroyed them within a single generation. One of the most historically significant abandoned mining districts in Ontario. Exact location available on our Abandoned Places Map Canada.
4. Abandoned Northern Ontario Paper Mill – 1920s-1940s Pulp and Paper Complex on a Shield River, Turbine House and Digester Tower Still Standing (Exclusively on Our Map)
A 1920s-1940s pulp and paper mill complex on a Canadian Shield river in Northern Ontario — the turbine house built over the original river dam, the massive digester tower and the chemical processing buildings still standing above the river in various states of boreal forest reclamation. Ontario's pulp and paper industry was the economic backbone of dozens of Northern Ontario communities for a century; mill closures since the 1990s have left an extraordinary concentration of abandoned industrial infrastructure across the Shield. One of the best abandoned places in Ontario for Northern Ontario industrial scale photography. Exact location available on our Abandoned Places Map Canada.
5. Abandoned Ontario Psychiatric Hospital – 1880s-1900s Kirkbride Campus, Ward Buildings and Underground Tunnel Network, Southern Ontario (Exclusively on Our Map)
A late 19th-century Ontario psychiatric hospital built on the Kirkbride Plan — the bat-wing ward buildings extending from the central administration tower, the underground tunnel network connecting the structures and the self-sustaining farm campus infrastructure of a Victorian-era institutional design that was meant to cure mental illness through therapeutic architecture and agricultural labor. Ontario built a network of these institutions between 1850 and 1910; deinstitutionalization closed most of them between 1970 and 2000. One of the most architecturally powerful and most historically significant abandoned places in Ontario. Exact location available on our Abandoned Places Map Canada.
Safety Tips for Urban Exploration in Ontario
- Northern Ontario wildlife: boreal forest sites near Burwash, Cobalt and Northern Ontario mills are black bear and moose territory — always make noise when approaching any wooded abandoned site
- Asbestos: universal in pre-1980 institutional and industrial construction — always wear an FFP2 mask in any enclosed space
- Never explore alone — always bring at least one other person and let someone know your exact location
The urbex code applies everywhere: "Take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints."
❓ FAQ – Abandoned Places in Ontario
What is the most famous abandoned place in Ontario?
Camp 30 in Bowmanville — a WWII prisoner-of-war camp that held the most senior German military officers captured in North America, including U-boat commanders and Luftwaffe generals, in a converted private school estate on Lake Ontario. The 1942 "Bowmanville Riot" briefly made international headlines when German officers resisted a Canadian shackling order.
What was Burwash Industrial Farm?
A 10,000-acre working prison farm complex north of Sudbury, operational from 1914 to 1975. Inmates grew food, raised livestock and operated a complete agricultural economy across the Northern Ontario Shield. Closed controversially in 1975; the barracks, farm buildings and chapel still stand in the boreal forest and are one of the most extensively photographed abandoned institutional complexes in Ontario.
What was the Cobalt silver rush?
The 1903 discovery of silver at Cobalt, Ontario triggered one of the fastest and most explosive mining booms in Canadian history — a town of 10,000 appearing within years and Cobalt briefly producing more silver per square mile than anywhere on earth. The boom collapsed as veins were exhausted in the 1920s, leaving behind headframes, shaft houses and processing infrastructure that still stand throughout the Cobalt townsite.
🎯 Summary
Ontario's abandoned buildings range from a WWII POW camp that held Luftwaffe generals to a 10,000-acre boreal prison farm and a 1903 silver rush town whose headframes still stand in the Northern Ontario bush. Each of these 5 abandoned places in Ontario captures a different layer of Canada's most complex provincial history.
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