Barry's Bay is a community in the

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 ...

of Madawaska Valley,

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 ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, located two hours west of

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

on the shores of Kamaniskeg Lake, with a 2016 population of 1,259.

History

The

Algonquin people The Algonquin people are an Indigenous people who now live in Eastern Canada. They speak the Algonquin language, which is part of the Algonquian language family. Culturally and linguistically, they are closely related to the Odawa, Potawato ...

named the area Kuaenash Ne-ishing, meaning beautiful bay. They used it as a rendezvous area, often hosting

pow wow A powwow (also pow wow or pow-wow) is a gathering with dances held by many Native American and First Nations communities. Powwows today allow Indigenous people to socialize, dance, sing, and honor their cultures. Powwows may be private or pu ...

gatherings. The first efforts by the authorities of the British colony of

Upper Canada The Province of Upper Canada (french: link=no, province du Haut-Canada) was a part of British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of the ...

to survey the waterways of this area came in 1847, when mapmaker James Haslett visited the area. Haslett noted the presence of an Irish farmer named William Byers living in the area, which may have been transcribed as "Barry's", giving the name Barry's Bay on Haslett's maps. Later residents developed the more colloquial back story that the first permanent structure was built in the late 1850s by a James Barry, a foreman for a lumber company, which the

lumberjack Lumberjacks are mostly North American workers in the logging industry who perform the initial harvesting and transport of trees for ultimate processing into forest products. The term usually refers to loggers in the era (before 1945 in the Unite ...

s working under Barry took to calling Barry's Camp on the Bay, shortened to Barry's Bay. Together, the details acknowledge that fact that the earliest settlers were loggers and farmers. By the late 1850s, the authorities of Upper Canada looked to expand colonization in this region by building the

Opeongo Line The colonization roads were created during the 1840s and 1850s to open up or provide access to areas in Central and Eastern Ontario for settlement and agricultural development. The colonization roads were used by settlers to lead them toward areas ...

, a series of roads extending westward from

Renfrew Renfrew (; sco, Renfrew; gd, Rinn Friù) is a town west of Glasgow in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. It is the historic county town of Renfrewshire. Called the "Cradle of the Royal Stewarts" for its early link with Scotland's former ...

. Between 1858 and 1910, the area attracted settlers of

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

and

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

descent, with the from

Wilno Vilnius ( , ; see also #Etymology and other names, other names) is the capital and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the munic ...

to Barry's Bay, in particular, receiving a number of Polish settlers. The Barry's Bay post office was established in 1876, and the town was officially incorporated in 1933. The town served as a standby base for the Canadian Military during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Local workers and lumbermen were reformed into soldiers to help contribute to the war efforts of Canada.

Landmarks

The historic train station is home of the South of 60 Arts' Centre, host to a variety of arts and craft shows, musical events and festivals. In 2008, the town re-opened the Radcliffe Hills Ski Area for snowboarding and downhill skiing. Barry's Bay was the Central Canada finalist in the 2006 CBC ''

Hockeyville ''Kraft Hockeyville'' is an annual competition sponsored by Kraft Heinz, the National Hockey League and the NHL Players' Association in which communities compete to demonstrate their commitment to the sport of ice hockey. The winning community ...

'' competition. The community dedicated a park and monument to honour the construction of the Canadian Avro

CF-105 Arrow The Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow was a delta-winged interceptor aircraft designed and built by Avro Canada. The CF-105 held the promise of Mach 2 speeds at altitudes exceeding and was intended to serve as the Royal Canadian Air Force's (RCAF) ...

and its chief test pilot, local resident

Janusz Żurakowski Janusz Żurakowski (12 September 1914 – 9 February 2004) was a Polish fighter and test pilot. At various times in his life he lived and worked in Poland, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Early life Żurakowski was born in 1914 to Polish paren ...

. The CF-105 was an advanced Canadian designed-and-built interceptor that was instrumental in the advancement of aviation technology in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Education

Barry's Bay is the site of Our Lady Seat of Wisdom College (OLSWC), an accredited Catholic

liberal arts Liberal arts education (from Latin "free" and "art or principled practice") is the traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term ''art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically the ...

post-secondary institution established in 2000. As of the 2019–2020 school year, OLSWC had a student body of 110 full-time Canadian and international students.

References

External links

Township of Madawaska ValleyHistory of Barry's Bay, Barry's Bay Public LibrarySouth of 60 Arts' Centre official website
{{authority control Former villages in Ontario Communities in Renfrew County Kashubian diaspora Polish communities Polish diaspora in Canada

History

Landmarks

Education

See also

References

External links