Head, Clara and Maria, officially the United Townships of Head, Clara and Maria, is a municipality and incorporated

township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Ca ...

Renfrew County Renfrew County is a county in the Canadian province of Ontario. It stands on the west bank of the Ottawa River. There are 17 municipalities in the county. History Bathurst District When Carleton County was withdrawn from Bathurst District in 183 ...

eastern Ontario Eastern Ontario (census population 1,763,186 in 2016) (french: Est de l'Ontario) is a secondary region of Southern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario which lies in a wedge-shaped area between the Ottawa River and St. Lawrence River. It sh ...

, Canada, It is on the

Ottawa River The Ottawa River (french: Rivière des Outaouais, Algonquin: ''Kichi-Sìbì/Kitchissippi'') is a river in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. It is named after the Algonquin word 'to trade', as it was the major trade route of Eastern ...

and on the northern edge of

Algonquin Park Algonquin Provincial Park is a provincial park located between Georgian Bay and the Ottawa River in Ontario, Canada, mostly within the Unorganized South Part of Nipissing District. Established in 1893, it is the oldest provincial park in Canad ...

. Virtually all the communities (Deux-Rivières, Bissett Creek, Stonecliffe and Mackey) and activities are along Highway 17, the rest of the township is largely crown land which is mostly

wilderness Wilderness or wildlands (usually in the plural), are natural environments on Earth that have not been significantly modified by human activity or any nonurbanized land not under extensive agricultural cultivation. The term has traditionally re ...

. Head, Clara and Maria is bordered on the north by the Ottawa River and on the south by Algonquin Provincial Park. Trans Canada Highway 17 runs through the four hamlets which make up this municipality. The municipality is a remarkable cottage destination with many provincial land use permits allowing cottages on crown land. Property taxes are the lowest in Renfrew County.

History

The township of Head was named in honour of

Sir Edmund Walker Head, 8th Baronet Sir Edmund Walker Head, 8th Baronet, KCB (16 February 1805 – 28 January 1868) was a 19th-century British politician and diplomat. Early life and scholarship Head was born at Wiarton Place, near Maidstone, Kent, the son of the Reverend Sir J ...

who served as Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick 1847-1854 and Governor-General of Canada 1854-1861. The township of Maria was named in honour of his wife, Lady Anna Maria Head (Nee Yorke) (1808-1890). File:Lady Anna Maria Head.jpg, Lady Anna Maria Head (née Yorke) File:Edmund Walker Head.jpg,

Communities

The township includes the communities of Aylen, Bissett Creek, Deux-Rivières, Mackey and Stonecliffe. The municipal offices are located in Stonecliffe. Deux-Rivières is home to Antlers King Fisher Lodge and access to Algonquin Park via the Brent Road. Stonecliffe is home to Yates General Store, Morning Mist Resort, Pine Valley Lodge, Driftwood Provincial Park and the Municipal Office. Mackey is home to Lakeview Trailer Park.

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; french: Statistique Canada), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and cultur ...

, Head, Clara and Maria had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

Notable people

Michael James Heney Michael James "Moose" Heney (October 24, 1864 – October 11, 1910) was a railroad contractor, best known for his work on the first two railroads built in Alaska, the White Pass and Yukon Route and the Copper River and Northwestern Railway. The son ...

, a railroad contractor of international renown, best known for his work on the first two railroads built in Alaska, the

White Pass and Yukon Route The White Pass and Yukon Route (WP&Y, WP&YR) is a Canadian and U.S. Class III narrow-gauge railroad linking the port of Skagway, Alaska, with Whitehorse, the capital of Yukon. An isolated system, it has no direct connection to any other railr ...

and the

Copper River and Northwestern Railway The Copper River and Northwestern Railway (CR&NW) consisted of two rail lines, the Copper River line and the Northwestern line. Michael James Heney had secured the right-of-way up the Copper River in 1904. He started building the railway from Co ...

, was born in Stonecliffe.

References

External links