Ajax Quiz
What is the town of Ajax named after?
Ajax is named after HMS Ajax, a cruiser famous for the Battle of the River Plate in 1939. Plant worker Frank Holroyd suggested the name in a contest.
Durham Region trivia
Fun facts about Ajax
21 facts and quiz questions about Ajax, Ontario. Each one links to its source. A new fact of the day goes live every morning.
Fact of the day
Ajax Places
What is Pat Bayly Square?
A development of homes, shops, offices and a civic square at Bayly Street and Harwood Avenue. It opened in September 2018 and is named for the town's first mayor.
Source: Wikipedia, Ajax, Ontario
Ajax History
How did the Pickering Beach neighbourhood in Ajax begin?
In 1926 James Tuckett of Toronto bought lakeshore farmland and started the Pickering Beach cottage community. It later became a year-round neighbourhood.
Source: Wikipedia, Ajax, Ontario
Ajax Quiz
What was Pickering Village called in the 1850s?
The settlement at Duffins Creek and Kingston Road was first called Duffins Creek, or the Creek. An 1855 map calls it Canton. By 1900 it was known as Pickering.
Source: Wikipedia, Pickering Village
Ajax Quiz
How many people lived in Ajax in the 2021 Census?
Ajax counted 126,666 people in the 2021 Census, up 5.8 percent from 2016. Its median age, 38.4, is about three years younger than Canada's.
Sources: Statistics Canada, 2021 Census Profile, Ajax, Wikipedia, Ajax, Ontario
Ajax History
Who built the first mills at Duffins Creek?
Quakers led by Timothy Rogers settled here in 1807 and built saw and grist mills on the creek. The village became the main centre of Pickering Township.
Source: Wikipedia, Pickering Village
Ajax Quiz
True or false: many streets in Ajax are named after the crew of HMS Ajax.
Streets such as Harwood Avenue, the main north-south road, and Hobson Avenue honour members of the ship's company. Their street signs carry the ship's silhouette.
Source: Wikipedia, HMS Ajax (22)
Ajax History
What kind of buses did Ajax Transit start with in 1973?
School buses. After a ridership survey, Ajax Transit began service in 1973 under a contract with Charterways, using a fleet of school buses.
Source: Wikipedia, Ajax, Ontario
Ajax Quiz
Which carmaker was a major employer in Ajax by 1969?
Volkswagen Canada, along with DuPont and others. The first new industry after the munitions plant closed was Dowty Aerospace, in 1949.
Source: Wikipedia, Ajax, Ontario
Ajax Places
What was Ajax first to build on the Great Lakes Waterfront Trail?
In 1995 Ajax became the first community on the 3,600 km trail to build a paved, pedestrian-only waterfront path. It was named the William Parish Waterfront Trail in 2018.
Source: Wikipedia, Ajax, Ontario
Ajax History
What happened to the Ajax munitions site after 1945?
It became a war surplus outlet, a University of Toronto campus from 1946 to 1949, and a holding camp for European war refugees from 1949 to 1953.
Source: Wikipedia, Ajax, Ontario
Ajax People
Who brought Quarter Horse racing to Ontario?
Alex Picov, who came from Ukraine in 1921, is credited with starting Quarter Horse racing in Ontario. The Alex Picov Memorial at Ajax Downs is the richest Quarter Horse race in Canada.
Source: Wikipedia, Ajax Downs
Ajax Quiz
When did Ajax's first town council take office?
Ajax became an Improvement District in 1950 and a town in 1954. The first council took office on January 1, 1955, with Pat Bayly as the first mayor.
Source: Wikipedia, Ajax, Ontario
Ajax Quiz
What kind of horses race at Ajax Downs?
Ajax Downs is a Quarter Horse track. It opened in 1969 as Picov Downs, on the Picov family farm, and racing runs from May through October.
Source: Wikipedia, Ajax Downs
Ajax History
Why were there no large early villages on the creeks in Ajax?
Indigenous peoples used the Duffins and Carruthers creek valleys from about 7000 BCE, but the creeks were hard to navigate, and a sandbar blocked the mouth of Duffins Creek.
Sources: Wikipedia, Ajax, Ontario, Wikipedia, Pickering Village
Ajax Places
How many streets cross Highway 401 in Ajax?
Only four. Highway 401 runs east to west through the middle of Ajax and divides the town in half.
Source: Wikipedia, Ajax, Ontario
Ajax History
How many beds did the Ajax and Pickering General Hospital open with?
It opened in 1954 with 38 beds for adults and children. It grew to 50 beds in 1958 and to 127 beds in 1964.
Source: Wikipedia, Ajax, Ontario
Ajax History
Whose anchor sits outside the Royal Canadian Legion in Ajax?
The anchor of a later frigate also named HMS Ajax rests in front of the town's Royal Canadian Legion branch.
Source: Wikipedia, HMS Ajax (22)
Ajax People
Who was the first European known to settle in what is now Ajax?
Mike Duffin, an Irish fur trader, arrived in the 1770s. He lived mostly by fishing and hunting, trapped animals for fur and traded with local First Nations.
Source: Wikipedia, Pickering Village
Ajax Numbers
How much did the Ajax munitions plant produce in the war?
By the end of the Second World War, its workers had filled more than 40 million items, from percussion caps and detonators to bombs, mines and shells.
Ajax Quiz
How many people worked at the wartime munitions plant in Ajax?
Defence Industries Limited's Pickering Works opened in 1941 and employed about 9,000 people, about 7,000 of them women. It was the largest munitions plant in the British Empire.