Abitibi Canyon was a community on the

Abitibi River The Abitibi River is a river in northeastern Ontario, Canada, which flows northwest from Lake Abitibi to join the Moose River which empties into James Bay. This river is long, and descends . It is the fifth longest river entirely in Ontario A ...

in northeastern

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, Canada. Abitibi Canyon was part of Northern Unorganized Cochrane District, in

Cochrane District Cochrane District is a district and census division in Northeastern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario. It was created in 1921 from parts of Timiskaming and Thunder Bay districts. In 2016, the population was 79,682. The land area of th ...

. It was located northeast of

Fraserdale Fraserdale is an unincorporated place and Railroad switch, railroad point in Cochrane, Unorganized, North Part, Ontario, Unorganized Cochrane, North Part in Cochrane District, Ontario, Cochrane District, Northern Ontario, Northern Ontario, Canada ...

History

The construction of the

Abitibi Canyon Generating Station Abitibi Canyon Generating Station is a hydroelectric power plant owned by Ontario Power Generation on the Abitibi River. The station is located 80 km north of Smooth Rock Falls, within Pitt Township in Northern Unorganized Cochrane Distric ...

at Abitibi Canyon began in 1930 for the Ontario Power Service Corporation, a subsidiary of the Abitibi Power and Paper Company, today's

Resolute Forest Products Resolute Forest Products (French: ''Produits forestiers Résolu''), formerly known as AbitibiBowater Inc., is a Canada-headquartered pulp and paper company. Headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Resolute was formed in 2007 by the merger of Bowater ...

. Work was suspended several years later, the company went into receivership and the project was taken over by the provincial

Ontario Hydro Ontario Hydro, established in 1906 as the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario, was a publicly owned electricity utility in the Province of Ontario. It was formed to build transmission lines to supply municipal utilities with electricity g ...

in 1933. The Abitibi Canyon settlement was established in 1930 to support the construction of the dam. In early years, construction and later support staff came by Ontario Northland Railway train to

, then further by private siding, or used floatplanes. In 1966, a road connection via Fraserdale to

Smooth Rock Falls, Ontario Smooth Rock Falls is an incorporated town in the Cochrane District in Northeastern Ontario, Canada, with a population of 1,330 at the 2016 census. Geography and transportation The town lies on the Mattagami River and on Highway 11. The next f ...

was built, designated today as Highway 634. In 1940s, 130 people lived in the Ontario Hydro settlement, which rose to 300 by 1982. However, in 1980, Ontario Hydro decided to close the community as a cost-saving measure.

References

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External links

Abitibi Canyon reunion website
Communities in Cochrane District {{NorthernOntario-geo-stub