No one knows for sure how Moonbeam, Ontario got its name, but the most popular story says that settlers were wandering through the forest when they saw pillars of light streaming down from the night sky. They decided to stake their camp then and there.

To modern ears this sounds suspiciously extraterrestrial, though some people assert the pioneers were probably seeing the Northern Lights. The alien rumors were bolstered when in the 1960s and ’70s there was a wave of UFO sightings in the area, coupled with a series of mysterious crop circles. Regardless of the truth, the name stuck, and Moonbeam has fully adopted the alien as its mascot.

Nowhere is this better evidenced than at the visitor’s center. You are welcomed into Moonbeam by a giant UFO, resting just atop some neatly pruned bushes. Look just a bit further back to see a friendly alien on the visitor center’s porch.