RAQ

RAQ (Rarely Asked Questions) about Prescott, Ontario, Canada

Prescott, an historical town of almost 5,000 people, is nestled alongside the mighty St. Lawrence River smack dab between Cornwall and Kingston. The nearest "city" is Brockville. Being right on the US border, it also shares a close relationship with Ogdensburg, (the 'Burg) New York. The two are connected by the Prescott-Ogdensburg International bridge.

Why would I want to go there?

It's a nice place to retire to.
There are several historical sites.
It's quiet (most of the time).
It's easy to get away from (and to get to).
The people are friendly and the town is usually pretty tidy.
The schools are top-notch.
There's a great computer store (Prescott Computing, what else?), a Tim Horton's AND a Burger King. (Not all in the same place, of course. If they were, Dave would never get any work done.)
You can use the world-class marina there.
The idyllic river is an internationally-acclaimed Mecca for SCUBA divers. There are several wrecks (the old sunken ship kind, not the kind wandering the streets) within swimming distance.

What more could you ask for?

Tell me about the sites and sights

	Fort Wellington is the "Fort" in "Fort Town", one of Prescott's many nicknames. It was never actually used in wartime but it sure makes a nice bookend for the town. This is quite a nice and complete site about the Fort by Parks Canada.
	The Battle of the Windmill, The Forwarder's Museum and The Blue Church. The windmill has been a lighthouse for about a hundred years now. The Forwarder's Museum displays artifacts from Prescott's historical forwarding trade (taking cargo off of one boat and putting it on another), and the Blue Church was once painted green.
	Even though it's not exactly on-topic, the Thousand Islands (only 20 km away) have a nice site. I have to remind them to change the spelling of the name of Boldt Castle.
	I normally wouldn't do this, but there are a couple of very interesting Web sites about Ogdensburg that have some photos of Prescott (from the "other" side). See www.ogdensburg.org and Ted Como's Photo History. This is a worthwhile site on its own.

How do I get there?

	Here is a MapQuest map of our favourite diminutive metropolis.
	By car: Prescott is on the Highway 401 that runs from Montreal on the East and Windsor-Toronto in the West. The new 4-lane highway 416 from Ottawa is finished. From the United States, New York Interstate 81 gets you close to the Thousand Islands Bridge. Cross the river at Gananoque and head east on the 401.
	By bus: there are buses. Voyageur runs daily routes east and west. The bus from Ottawa makes the trip on Fridays and Sundays. Check Voyageur's site for details.
	By train: VIA rail makes one stop in each direction every day. (Well, almost every day.) Trains stop at 20:14 (8:14pm) going west and 21:21 (9:21pm) going east. For more details, try VIA Canada's site.
	By air: Forget it. The closest commercial airport is Ogdensburg. US travelers would have more options flying in to Syracuse. The Ottawa airport is closer to Prescott than Pearson International is from most of Toronto.
	By boat: American visitors often buzz over (literally) from the 'Burg. Don't forget to report to customs, guys.

Show me a map

	Here's a small map of the general region, showing Prescott's relationship to Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal.
	Here's another one, showing the southern part of Leeds and Grenville Counties and Northern New York.
	I stole this one from Prescott Tourism but they shouldn't mind. I'm disappointed they don't point out the location of the Tim Horton's. It's on Edward Street, north of the overpass, across from the IGA.
	See the Prescott Gallery for more detailed current and historical maps.

Is there any more information on the Internet?

	There's an official Town of Prescott site with some basic information, pictures and some details on the Prescott Public Library.
	The Prescott Journal is now on line with local news stories, classifieds and links to local information.
	Take a look at the 360� views of Prescott at http://www.c360view.com.
	Prescott Tourism has a nice web site with lots of details.
	Neptune has done a lot of research on the local SCUBA sites. The site has tons of details on Prescott's dive attractions.
	Hey, the high school has a home page.
	Prescott Historic Seaway Iroquois Cardinal Morrisburg Ogdensburg Soldiers. This is was a minimalist site with a couple of links and a few paragraphs of text. In need of a spell-check, too. Keep checking it out, it has potential.
	The biggest event (besides the ice storm) in the past ten years or so, was the recent 40th anniversary of the local high school (South Grenville District High School, or SGDHS). I was there. It was an enlightening experience to see my classmates after 25 years. The people that coordinated the reunion, Canadian Reunions, ~~have~~ had a web site.
	Brockville's Recorder and Times usually has loads of news and classifieds about the Prescott area.
	Another Eastern Ontario site has a "mini-profile" of the South Grenville area.
	There's a nice campground, too.

What about businesses on the Internet and e-commerce?

Give me a break. This is a small town struggling to keep an even keel in tough economic times. This is not the ideal time for innovation. Albeit, some cyber-businesses have sprouted:

	Sandra Lawn, former mayor of Prescott, not only has a park named after her, she has her own domain name: www.sandralawn.ca. Awesome!
	Doyle's, that bastion of fashion, is alive and well into it's third generation. Other then moving to the Internet (I guess the dotCom crash hit here, too. There is no evidence that they are pursuing their e-commerce plans), the store has been in the same location since 1911. Say hi to Tom and his dad Joe. (They're right there, standing in front of the store.)
	Jan Iacurci is one of the most prolific real-estate agents in town.
	Kriska Transportation is a large, relatively new trucking company, centered in Prescott.
	Novaflow Systems, Inc., is a process engineering company which specializes in designing, manufacturing and installing systems used to automatically dispense liquids for the ink, chemical, dye and paint industries. There is was a funky game on their Humour at Work Page. I guess they took it off when the employees were spending more time with the game than the production line.
	Welcome To Blue Heron Productions. Patti McCurdy had a Web Page design business.
	Deep Water Designs Creative Graphics had a Web page.
	Plans and Preliminary Designs ~~have~~ had a site on house plans, etc. The site has complete information for building your own house.
	The Rosamond House Bed and Breakfast used to be just the big house next to Kelly's Bay (and they used to have a Web site).
	There's one motel I have found so far. Another house for sale.

For more links, see the ODP category Regional/Canada/Ontario/Towns/Prescott/ I'm the volunteer editor there. I have also added over a dozen nearby towns including Cardinal, Spencerville, Maitland, Russell, Iroquois, Winchester, Morrisburg, North Augusta and Athens.

Strange but true:

There is a town called Prescott in Wisconsin, USA. It has a Prescott Journal, an IGA and a Prescott Public Library. Call the Twilight Zone. If it wasn't for the Internet, we would never know these things. Bruce has been at the Prescott, Arizona IGA. Ask him about it.

Historical notes:

August 15, 2001 (two years!!!). WebJump ceases operation, forces relocation of Prescott Ontario's Other Page to http://www.geocities.com/prescottont. It will be years before anyone finds it.

August 13, 1999. Today, Friday the 13th is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Alfred Hitchcock. I added some pretty funny anagrams of 'Prescott Ontario' (that's rearranging the letters in a word to make other words). I also added a banner to the main page - it helps get exposure.

April 16, 1999. The site has been thoroughly spell-checked. I added some nicknames and started the Prescottisms page.

April 2, 1999. After a long break, I have made a few additions. Check out the Lee McKnight pages: A few photos of Lee and his soon-to-be legendary list of Prescott Nicknames.

August 21, 1998. View some historical pictures on the new Prescott Gallery Page. Martin Bordt (my bro) asked for some info on Prescott's first radio station CFLC.

News Flash! July 31, 1998. I got word from the Prescott Journal that they have their web site up and running. It's a start with lots of local news.