Ingersoll is located on Highway 401 less than 1-1/2 hours from Toronto's Pearson International Airport and twenty minutes east of London, Ontario. The town was founded by Thomas Ingersoll as Oxford-on-the-Thames. He was a Loyalist who fled the United States, and the father of Laura Secord. The town was later renamed Ingersoll in his honour.
It was near Ingersoll around 1840 that the first cheese factory in Canada was built. The cheese making practice was introduced to Canada by English and Scottish immigrants. In those times, cheese was produced right in the farmhouse kitchen with the use of surplus milk. While in Ingersoll b e sure to visit the Ingersoll Cheese Factory, Museum and Sports Hall of Fame located in Centennial Park. This multi building complex features the Cheese Factory Museum which depicts an early twentieth century cheese factory. Also on the grounds is the local historical museum featuring “The Pathway of the Giants”, a scene carved from wood. The Sports Hall of Fame chronicles the careers of outstanding area athletes and displays the speedboat “Miss Canada IV”.