Bonfield is a

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, C ...

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, on the

Mattawa River The Mattawa River is a river in central Ontario, Canada. It flows east from Trout Lake east of North Bay and enters the Ottawa River at the town of Mattawa. Counting from the head of Trout Lake, it is 76 km in length. The river's name come ...

Nipissing District Nipissing District is a district in Northeastern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario. It was created in 1858. The district seat is North Bay. In 2016, the population was 83,150. The land area is ; the population density was , making it o ...

. The township comprises the communities of Blanchard's Landing, Bonfield, Grand Desert, and Rutherglen. The community of Bonfield is connected to

Ontario Highway 17 King's Highway 17, more commonly known as Highway 17, is a provincially maintained highway and the primary route of the Trans-Canada Highway through the Canadian province of Ontario. It begins at the Manitoba boundary, west of Kenora, and the ma ...

by Ontario Highway 531, while Rutherglen is located directly on the route of Highway 17 and the other communities are located on local roads within the township. Named after James Bonfield (1825-1900), one-time M.P.P for South Renfrew in the Ontario legislature. Town and neighbouring township were amalgamated on January 1, 1975. In 2007, Bonfield, along with the town of Mattawa and the townships of

Papineau-Cameron :''"Rankin, Ontario" re-directs here. For the community in Renfrew County, see Rankin, Renfrew County, Ontario'' Papineau-Cameron is a township municipality in northeastern Ontario, Canada, in Nipissing District. The township is located on the so ...

, Mattawan and

Calvin Calvin may refer to: Names * Calvin (given name) ** Particularly Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States * Calvin (surname) ** Particularly John Calvin, theologian Places In the United States * Calvin, Arkansas, a hamlet * Calvi ...

cooperated to create a newly branded ''Mattawa Voyageur Country'' tourist region in order to promote the area.

History

The community of Bonfield was first settled in 1882 as a station on the Canadian Pacific Railway. Located on the north shore of

Lake Nosbonsing Lake Nosbonsing (French: ''Lac Nosbonsing'') is a lake in the municipalities of Bonfield, Chisholm, and East Ferris in Nipissing District in Northeastern Ontario, Canada. It is near the City of North Bay, is the source of the Kaibuskong River ...

, where the railway crosses the

Kaibuskong River The Kaibuskong River is a small river in Nipissing District in northeastern Ontario, Canada that runs south through the Township of Bonfield from its source at Lake Nosbonsing. The river flows over a small dam just north of its source, then thro ...

, this place was originally named by the CPR as Callander Station. The community of Callander, on the South-East Bay of Lake Nipissing, had been named Callander in 1880, to honour the birthplace in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

of Duncan McIntyre, then president of the

Canada Central Railway The Brockville and Ottawa Railway (B&O) was an early railway in Upper Canada, today's Ontario. It ran north from the town of Brockville on the Saint Lawrence River to Sand Point on the Ottawa River. It was built primarily to serve the timber ...

(CCR). It was at this place on the shore of Lake Nipissing, that the CCR intended to connect with the proposed eastern terminus of the CPR. In 1881 the Canada Central Railway was merged into the Canadian Pacific, as McIntyre became its vice president. As construction of the railway approached Lake Nipissing from the east, it turned away from the South-East Bay, towards the North Bay of Lake Nipissing instead. This was the closest point the CPR would come to the village of Callander, therefore this place was named Callander Station. After the

Northern and Pacific Junction Railway The Northern and Pacific Junction Railway (N&PJ) is a historic railway located in northern Ontario, Canada. It connected the Northern Railway of Canada's endpoint in Gravenhurst to the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) at Nipissing Junction, near N ...

established a station in the original village of Callander in 1886 and was taken over by the

Grand Trunk Railway The Grand Trunk Railway (; french: Grand Tronc) was a railway system that operated in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario and in the American states of Connecticut, Maine, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The rail ...

in 1888, there was much confusion between the station in Callander and Callander Station. The CPR location, Callander Station was renamed Bonfield, adopting the name of the township in which it is located.

Communities

*Bonfield *Rutherglen *Blanchard's Landing *Grand Desert

Demographics

In the

2021 Census of Population The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...

conducted by Statistics Canada, Bonfield 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.

World Records

Bonfield is home to 'Jake' the cat with the most number of toes. Jake was born in 2002 and has 7 toes on each paw; with a total of 28.

References

External links