LOCATION:

Devil's Punch Bowl is a Hamilton waterfalls located in the Devil's Punchbowl Conservation Area in Stoney Creek, Ontario. A large free parking lot is located on Ridge Road west of Centennial Parkway S. Click on the Road Map button below for a Google Road Map and driving directions. The Falls Locator button shows a map of other waterfalls in the area.

ACCESS:

THE DEVIL'S PUNCH BOWL FALLS AREA:

Lower Devil's Punch BowlThe history of the Devil's Punch Bowl dates back at least some 450 million years (the late Ordovician and early Silurian periods) when materials which form the Niagara escarpment were originally deposited in a large inland sea. At this point in history, corals and other organisms inhabited the area until, as the sea bottom deposits slowly changed to rock, these organisms became fossilized.

Approximately 1 million years ago, the area was subjected to four great ice ages. By this time, the inland sea had already retreated and great slabs of ice covered the land. Their effect on the landscape was to either sharpen or expose the escarpment rock face or to bury it with drift material. Following the end of the last ice age there was a period of high water levels. This is what etched the final details into the landscape of the Punch Bowl. The water concentrated into huge streams which had a tremendous capacity to carve out the landscape.

One of these powerful streams plunged right over the escarpment at Stoney Creek and carved out what would later become known as the Devil's Punch Bowl. Eventually, there was less water available in the area to continue the powerful stream, and its capacity has been greatly reduced. It has become a landmark that is famous with geologists worldwide for its exposed rock strata. Here you can view the many different coloured rock layers of the Escarpemnt. Some of the layers include Queenston Formation red shale, Cabot Head grey shale, limestone and shale dolomite.

One dominant feature of Devil’s Punch Bowl is a large, 10 m high steel cross on the lookout platform. This cross was erected on December 18, 1966 by a man named William Sinclair (1925 - 1994). He felt he could bring a little light to the world by building the huge steel monument which has 106 light bulbs along its edges and was originally planned to be lit up for six weeks of each year, during Christmas and Easter. However, since 1991, the cross has lit up every night of the year, being turned on automatically each night thanks to donations made by a Stoney Creek branch of the Knights of Columbus.

There is a spectacular view of Stoney Creek and Hamilton Harbour from the lookout. Many stories circulate about how the name of the falls originated. One rumour has it that it was named for the bootlegged pails of homebrew that at one time could be bought in the woods around the top of the falls. Another story suggest the beauty of the falls itself as the work of God but that God would not want his name to be used this way, so it was decided to name it after the devil instead.