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Markdale, Ontario, Canada
Markdale is known as the "Hub of Grey County". One annual event, the Markdale Ice Cream Festival, ceased operations following the 2008 event. The late summer of 2009 saw two tragic events hit the Centre Grey area. A tornado wreaked heavy damage in late August, then a spectacular fire decimated Chapman's Ice Cream, a local ice cream production plant early that September.
The annual Mountain Top Jamboree event ceased operations, after the local Rotary folded in the early 2020s, but the Markdale Street Frolic has returned with help from Markdale Rec Committee.
After some years of contraction, Markdale seems poised for a renaissance period and most notably, mainstream media seems to have discovered Markdale.
CBC-TV series' "Rick Mercer Report" (2014) and Jonny Harris' "Still Standing" (2021) shot separate episodes featuring Markdale.
Homegrown filmmaker Jesse McCracken's 2021 TVO documentary, "Grey Roads," focusing largely on Markdale, garnered artistic and critical acclaim.
They Shot A Movie Once by Mountain Goat Films produced a series of shorts of the 1958 film, "Wolf Dog" beginning in late 2024.
Crossroads, a TVO documentary featured Markdale in a 2025 episode.
In 2025, Markdale boasts a freshly minted water tower, second set of traffic lights, hospital, public school, exponential development and population growth. This town with a rich and vibrant past seems headed for a bright future.
