Professor's Lake
Professor's Lake is a spring-fed artificial lake located in Brampton, Ontario, Canada. Beginning in 1918, the area where the lake currently exists was used as a sand and gravel facility supplying construction aggregate for construction projects in the northwest area of the Greater Toronto Area. In total, the facility produced approximately 20 million tones of sand and gravel. It reopened as a quarry from 1954 to 1973. By the early 70s the site, now operated by Standard Aggregates Ltd. (a subsidiary of Lafarge Canada), had run out of sand and gravel. For several years it  was used as a sand and gravel processing and storage facility as Standard Aggregates shipped in raw material from other aggregate deposits in the area. Later In the 70s Standard Aggregates eventually closed the operation and moved all of the equipment to their other operations around Southern Ontario. They then rehabilitated the site with the intention that it would eventually be used for residential housing. Standard Aggregates was awarded "The Bronze Plaque Award" for the rehabilitation by the Ontario Stone, Sand & Gravel Association for the quality of the rehabilitation. That plaque is mounted on a boulder outside the current Recreation  center next to the parking lot. Since the sand and gravel facility operated below the natural water table the site had a system of pumps to prevent flooding. This is very common for pits and quarries which frequently extract their aggregate at levels below the natural water table. Contrary to urban myths, the site did not strike water and suddenly flood. Nor was any equipment left at the bottom of the quarry. Standard Aggregates merely removed their pumps once the rehabilitation was completed and approved by the Ontario government in compliance with the Ontario Aggregate Resources Act. Once the pumps  were removed it took a number of months for the site to completely fill with water. Once the entire area was rehabilitated, Standard Aggregates put the property up for sale. The property changed hands several times before being purchased by the giant German based developer Lendhorf Corp. and its residential development arm AMEX. Several development proposals were considered and amended before the Brampton City Council agreed to a final proposal from AMEX. The final proposal covered the area currently bounded by Bramalea Rd., Bovaird Dr., Torbram Rd. and North Park Drive. It was at this time that the area acquired  its name, Professor's Lake. Dr. Hans Abromeit, the President of AMEX had a PhD and had been a German professor of economics earlier in his career. He was referred to as the "Professor" by staff at AMEX. The development was a pet project for Dr. Abromeit at the time and staff around the office casually referred to the development as "the Professor's Lake" and the name eventually stuck. Several prominent Ontario developers (Greenpark Homes, Lakeview Homes & Bramalea Ltd.) purchased tracts of land from AMEX, and by the early 80s houses quickly sprung up in what is known as  the "P" section of Brampton. Most of the housing was completed by the late 90s. The lake is now used extensively for paddle boarding, kayaking, windsurfing, fishing and canoeing. Professor's Lake Recreation Centre is located on the northeastern side of the lake just off North Park Drive. The Recreation Centre has a beach for swimming as well as a waterslide. There is a boathouse that offers paddle boat, kayak, paddle board and canoe rentals. There are also three volleyball courts at the far end of the beach. The immediate residential neighbourhood surrounding the lake is also widely referred to  as Professor's Lake. Residential homes and a small park border the westerly side of the lake. A paved 2 kilometre promenade borders much of the north and north east sections of the lake and residential homes border the walkway. The lake continues to be spring fed and drains into the Brampton underground water control system at the northeast end of the lake. In August 1998 the lake was temporarily closed after a local fisherman caught a rogue piranha in the lake. The origins of the piranha remain unclear. but after divers did a full survey of the lake and  didn't find any more piranha it was concluded that someone had released their pet piranha into the lake. Piranha are a tropical fish and it could not have survived a Canadian winter when the lake froze over. The city does stock the lake with a variety of fish from time to time.