6 Super Interesting Things You Didn't Know About Mississauga
Sauga City!
The city of Mississauga has grown so much over the past few years, with its downtown core looking more and more like Toronto everyday. And while Mississauga is often Toronto's forgotten-about younger sister, there's definitely quite a bit about the city that anyone would find interesting.
Read also '8 Bizarre Things You Probably Didn't Know About Toronto'.
Here's a few facts about Mississauga you can totally tell your Toronto friends:
1. There's an elephant buried somewhere in Mississauga.
Yup, you read that correctly. In 1912, a Toronto undertaker, A.W. Miles, established a country home and private zoo in Mimico, but was soon forced to relocate Miles Park Farm just west of what is now Erindale. Out of his many different animals, the most popular was a Burmese elephant named Tootsie. On February 14th, 1943, a fire struck the farm and 70 animals, including Tootsie were killed. Toosie's bones are still buried on the property, perhaps in modern Brookmede Park .
2. There's a Japanese park in Mississauga and a Mississauga park in Japan.
For those of you not familiar with Mississauga, any resident can tell you that Kariya Park is a beautiful spot that is covered in traditional cherry blossom trees that bloom in the Spring. What residents might not know, is there is a Mississauga park in Kariya, Japan, a city located between Tokyo and Kyoto. Since 1981, the two cities have had a sister-city relationship and they exchange cultural gifts frequently.
3. Colonel Sanders of KFC used to live in Mississauga.
Mr. Finger-licking-good himself once used to reside in Sauga City. He moved there in 1965 to oversee his Canadian franchise. He lived in a bungalow at Melton Drive in the Lakeview area until 1980. He could often be found at the KFC location at the bottom of Tomken Rd and also made several donations to Trillium Hospital.
4. The city of Mississauga is bigger than Detroit, Denver, Boston, Washington and Vancouver.
Mississauga is actually one of the biggest cities in Canada in terms of population. Known by few, it has considerably more people (766 000) living in it than Detroit (688 000), Boston (656 000) , Washington (660 000), Denver (650 000), and Vancouver (600 000). That's right, more people living in Sauga, than there are the US capitol.
5. TL Kennedy Secondary School has bomb shelter
Since TL Kennedy was built right after the World War 2 in 1953, it still has a bomb shelter that is located in the basement near the office. Back then it was mandatory for schools to have a bomb shelters. it was then turned into a rifle range in the 50's and in the 80's once again transformed into a football storage room.
6. Hazel McCallion was the world's oldest mayor
Before completing her political career in 2014, Mississauga's mayor 'Hurricane' Hazel McCallion was the world's oldest mayor. She served as mayor for 36 years until the age of 93!
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