Algoma District is a

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivision ...

and

census division Census divisions, in Canada and the United States, are areas delineated for the purposes of statistical analysis and presentation; they have no government in and of themselves. The census divisions of Canada are second-level census geographic uni ...

Northeastern Ontario Northeastern Ontario is a secondary region of Northern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario, which lies north of Lake Huron and east of Lake Superior. Northeastern Ontario consists of the districts of Algoma, Sudbury, Cochrane, Timiskami ...

in the

Canadian province Within the geographical areas of Canada, the ten provinces and three territories are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British Nor ...

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 Ca ...

. The name was created by an American ethnologist,

Henry Rowe Schoolcraft Henry Rowe Schoolcraft (March 28, 1793 – December 10, 1864) was an American geographer, geologist, and ethnologist, noted for his early studies of Native American cultures, as well as for his 1832 expedition to the source of the Mississippi ...

(1793-1864), who was appointed Indian agent to the

Ojibwe The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...

in Sault Ste. Marie region in 1822. "Al" is derived from Algonquin, while "goma" is a variant of gomee, meaning lake or water. Algoma District has shoreline along

Lake Superior Lake Superior in central North America is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. and the third-largest by volume, holding 10% of the world's surface fresh wa ...

and

Lake Huron Lake Huron ( ) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. Hydrologically, it comprises the easterly portion of Lake Michigan–Huron, having the same surface elevation as Lake Michigan, to which it is connected by the , Straits of Mack ...

. It has an international border crossing to the American state of

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and t ...

, at Sault Ste. Marie. Historically, it was known for its lumber and mining industries. The rugged scenery of the region has inspired works by Canadian artists, particularly the Group of Seven. They rented a boxcar from the

Algoma Central Railway The Algoma Central Railway is a railway in Northern Ontario that operates between Sault Ste. Marie and Hearst. It used to have a branch line to Wawa, Ontario. The area served by the railway is sparsely populated, with few roads. The ra ...

to travel on excursions through this region.

History

Surviving prehistoric remains in Algoma District are concentrated around

waterway A waterway is any navigable body of water. Broad distinctions are useful to avoid ambiguity, and disambiguation will be of varying importance depending on the nuance of the equivalent word in other languages. A first distinction is necessary ...

s. These remains date as far back as the Archaic period. There are also sites from the later

Woodland period In the classification of archaeological cultures of North America, the Woodland period of North American pre-Columbian cultures spanned a period from roughly 1000 BCE to European contact in the eastern part of North America, with some archaeo ...

, with evidence of extensive Late Woodland habitation. Ceramics at Late Woodland sites show predominantly southeastern links, having originated from the

Huron Huron may refer to: People * Wyandot people (or Wendat), indigenous to North America * Wyandot language, spoken by them * Huron-Wendat Nation, a Huron-Wendat First Nation with a community in Wendake, Quebec * Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawato ...

– Petun complex (broadly Ontario Iroquoian) as well as from modern-day

. French explorers arrived in the area by the mid-17th century. As the French penetrated into North America, they established lines of forts and trading posts, often at

river mouth A river mouth is where a river flows into a larger body of water, such as another river, a lake/reservoir, a bay/gulf, a sea, or an ocean. At the river mouth, sediments are often deposited due to the slowing of the current reducing the carrying ...

s to control trade, especially the lucrative

fur trade The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal ecosystem, boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals h ...

. In Algoma, they established Fort Michipicoten, located at the mouth of the Michipicoten River where it empties into

. The Michipicoten was one of the geographic features depicted by

Samuel de Champlain Samuel de Champlain (; Fichier OrigineFor a detailed analysis of his baptismal record, see RitchThe baptism act does not contain information about the age of Samuel, neither his birth date nor his place of birth. – 25 December 1635) was a Fr ...

on a 1632 map. This helped the French bridge the distance to Fort Kaministiquia at the head of Lake Superior, and protected the route up the Michipicoten to

James Bay James Bay (french: Baie James; cr, ᐐᓂᐯᒄ, Wînipekw, dirty water) is a large body of water located on the southern end of Hudson Bay in Canada. Both bodies of water extend from the Arctic Ocean, of which James Bay is the southernmost p ...

, providing a significant crossroads of water routes.

Administrative history

Algoma was created by proclamation in 1858Proclamation to take effect 1 May 1858, ''Canada Gazette'' (April 17, 1858), p. 676-677. New Proclamation to take effect 1 Oct 1859, ''Canada Gazette'' (Sept 10, 1859), p. 2226. as a provisional judicial district of the

Province of Canada The Province of Canada (or the United Province of Canada or the United Canadas) was a British colony in North America from 1841 to 1867. Its formation reflected recommendations made by John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, in the Report on the ...

comprising territory north of the French River as far west as Pigeon River, including all Canadian islands in Lakes Huron and Superior. The authorizing act of the

Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada The Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada was the lower house of the legislature for the Province of Canada, which consisted of the former provinces of Lower Canada, then known as Canada East and later the province of Quebec, and Upper ...

was ''An Act to provide for the Administration of Justice in the unorganized Tracts of Country within the limits of this Province'' (known by its short title as ''The Temporary Judicial Districts Act, 1857)''. The district seat has been Sault Ste. Marie since 1858. As the population grew and the northern and northwestern boundaries of Ontario were determined by the

Judicial Committee of the Privy Council The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) is the highest court of appeal for the Crown Dependencies, the British Overseas Territories, some Commonwealth countries and a few institutions in the United Kingdom. Established on 14 Aug ...

, Algoma shrank. Other districts were created from it by the provincial government of Ontario: * Thunder Bay District in 1871 * Manitoulin District in 1888 * Sudbury District in 1894 *

Timiskaming District Timiskaming is a district and census division in Northeastern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario. The district was created in 1912 from parts of Algoma, Nipissing, and Sudbury districts. In 1921, Cochrane District was created from pa ...

in 1912

Geography

Rivers

Algoma District is crossed by a number of rivers, which historically were used as transportation and trade corridors. The

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business di ...

chose key riverside or river mouth locations for a number of its trading posts in the district. One example was Fort Michipicoten, located at the Michipicoten River's mouth. The rivers flow in a number of directions, some crossing through other districts to ultimately empty into faraway water bodies such as

. Others drain into the Great Lakes Basin via

. Major rivers in Algoma District include: * Batchawana River (empties into Batchawana Bay on Lake Superior) * Michipicoten River (empties into Michipicoten Bay on Lake Superior) * Missinaibi River (originates at Missinaibi Lake and empties into the Moose River, then ultimately into James Bay) *

Mississagi River The Mississagi River is a river in Algoma and Sudbury Districts, Ontario, Canada, that originates in Sudbury District and flows to Lake Huron at Blind River, Algoma District. Etymology The river's name comes from the Ojibwe ''misi-zaagi'' ...

(originates in Sudbury District and flows into Lake Huron) *

Kapuskasing River The Kapuskasing River is a river in the James Bay drainage basin in Cochrane District and Algoma District in northeastern Ontario, Canada. Shows the river course. The river is a left tributary of the Mattagami River. Course The river begins ...

(begins at Kapuskasing Lake and flows northward to James Bay)

Forests

In the Algoma section, the characteristic

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

mixture consists of yellow birch, white spruce, balsam fir, sugar maple, hop-hornbeam, and eastern white cedar. Eastern white pine and occasional red pine (''Pinus resinosa'') dominate on the upper, steep south-facing slopes; white spruce, eastern white cedar, and balsam fir occupy the middle and lower slopes. A white spruce– balsam fir association, which usually includes white birch and

black spruce ''Picea mariana'', the black spruce, is a North American species of spruce tree in the pine family. It is widespread across Canada, found in all 10 provinces and all 3 territories. It is the official tree of the province of Newfoundland and Lab ...

, is prominent on the river terraces and adjoining flats in the northern part of the Section (Rowe 1972).Rowe, J.S 1972. Forest regions of Canada. Can. Dep. Environ., Can. For. Serv., Ottawa ON, Publ. 1300. 172 p.

Subdivisions

Communities within these subdivisions are added in parentheses.

Cities

Towns

Townships

Villages

Reserves

Unorganized areas

* North Part (incl. local services boards of Aweres, Batchawana Bay, Goulais and District, Hawk Junction, Missanabie, Peace Tree, Searchmont and Wharncliffe and Kynoch) * South East Part

Demographics

As a

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 cultu ...

, the Algoma District had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of −0.3% from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

Highways

King's Highways

* #17 * #101 * #108 * #129

Secondary highways

* #519 * #532 * #538 * #546 * #547 * #548 * #550 * #552 * #553 * #554 * #556 * #557 * #563 * #565 * #631 * #638 * #639 * #651 * #670

Tertiary highways

* #821

Protected areas

* Algoma Headwaters Provincial Park * Aubinadong River Provincial Park * Aubrey Falls Provincial Park * Batchawana Bay Provincial Park * Batchawana River Provincial Park * Chapleau Crown Game Preserve * Chapleau-Nemegosenda River Provincial Park * Delta Provincial Nature Reserve * Fort Creek Conservation Area * Goulais River Provincial Park * Hiawatha Highlands Conservation Area * La Cloche Provincial Park * Lake Superior Provincial Park * Little White River Provincial Park * Marks Bay Conservation Area * Matintenda Provincial Park * Michipicoten Post Provincial Park * Missinaibi Provincial Park *

Mississagi Provincial Park Mississagi Provincial Park is a natural environment-class provincial park north of Elliot Lake, in Algoma District, Ontario, Canada. It lies on the Boland River, a tributary of the Little White River, which is itself a tributary of the Missis ...

* Mississagi River Provincial Park * Montreal River Provincial Park * Nagagami Lake Provincial Park * Nagagamisis Provincial Park * Nemegosenda River Wetlands Provincial Park * North Channel Islands-La Cloche Provincial Park * North Shore Waterwat Provincial Park * Obatanga Provincial Park * Pancake Bay Provincial Park * Pichogen River Provincial Nature Reserve * Pokei Lake-White River Wetlands Provivncial Nature Reserve * Potholes Provincial Nature Reserve * Pukaskwa National Park * River aux Sables Provincial Park * Sandy Islands Provincial Nature Reserve * Sayme-Aubinadong-Gong Provincial Park * St. Joseph's Island National Marine Bird Sanctuary * Wenebegon River Provincial Park

Attractions

- Agawa Canyon (Algoma, Unorganized, North Part) *

Algoma University Algoma University, commonly shortened to Algoma U or Algoma, is a public university with its main campus located in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada. With a particular focus on the needs of Northern Ontario, Algoma U is a teaching-focused and s ...

(Sault Ste. Marie) * Fire Tower Lookout (Elliot Lake) * Fort St. Joseph National Historic Site (St. Joseph) * High Falls of the Michipicoten River (Wawa) * Mount Dufour Ski Resort (Elliot Lake) * Sault Ste. Marie Airport (Sault Ste. Marie) *

Sault Ste. Marie Canal The Sault Ste. Marie Canal is a National Historic Site in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, and is part of the national park system, managed by Parks Canada. It includes a lock to bypass the rapids on the St. Marys River. The first canal near the sit ...

(Sault Ste. Marie) *

Sault College Sault College of Applied Arts and Technology is a publicly funded college in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. It began in 1965 as the Ontario Vocational Centre. Today, Sault College offers full-time and part-time opportunities for students in post-sec ...

(Sault Ste. Marie) * Searchmont Ski Area * Stone Ridge Golf Resort (Elliot Lake) * Crimson Ridge Golf Course * Batchawana Bay Provincial Park * Hub Trail (hiking, bicycling, and cross-country ski trail through Sault Ste. Marie) * Rocking On The River (Wandering-Elk Promotion & Productions), Concert Venue @ 135 Royer Rd., Blind River.

References

External links

Algoma District's Historic Bridges

Ontario's Algoma Country
{{Subdivisions of Ontario