Cobourg, Ontario
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Cobourg ( ) is a town 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 North ...
of
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 ...
, located in
Southern Ontario Southern Ontario is a primary region of the province of Ontario, Canada, the other primary region being Northern Ontario. It is the most densely populated and southernmost region in Canada. The exact northern boundary of Southern Ontario is disp ...
east of
Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
and east of Oshawa. It is the largest town in and seat of Northumberland County. Its nearest neighbour is Port Hope, to the west. It is located along
Highway 401 King's Highway 401, commonly referred to as Highway 401 and also known by its official name as the Macdonald–Cartier Freeway or colloquially referred to as the four-oh-one, is a controlled-access 400-series highway in the Canadian provinc ...
(exits 472 and 474) and the former Highway 2 (now Northumberland County Road 2). To the south, Cobourg borders
Lake Ontario Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York. The Canada–United States border sp ...
. To the north, east and west, it is surrounded by Hamilton Township.


History

The land which present-day Cobourg occupies was previously inhabited by Mississauga (Anishinaabe-speaking) peoples. The settlements that make up today's Cobourg were founded by
United Empire Loyalists United Empire Loyalists (or simply Loyalists) is an honorific title which was first given by the 1st Lord Dorchester, the Governor of Quebec, and Governor General of The Canadas, to American Loyalists who resettled in British North America dur ...
in 1798 within Northumberland County, Home District, Province of Upper Canada. Some of the founding fathers and early settlers were Eliud Nickerson, Joseph Ash, Zacheus Burnham and Asa Allworth Burnham. The Town was originally a group of smaller villages such as Amherst and Hardscrabble, which were later named Hamilton. In 1808 it became the district town for the
Newcastle District The Newcastle District was a historic district in Upper Canada which existed until 1849. It was formed in 1802 from the Home District, consisting of the counties of Durham and Northumberland. History The legislature had enacted in 1798 that "as so ...
. It was renamed Cobourg in 1818, in recognition of the marriage of
Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales Princess is a regal rank and the feminine equivalent of prince (from Latin ''princeps'', meaning principal citizen). Most often, the term has been used for the consort of a prince, or for the daughter of a king or prince. Princess as a subst ...
to Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (later
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (german: Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha), or Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (german: Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha, links=no ), was an Ernestine, Thuringian duchy ruled by a branch of the House of Wettin, consisting of territories in the present- ...
, who would later become King of
Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
). By the 1830s, Cobourg had become a regional centre, much due to its fine harbour on
Lake Ontario Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York. The Canada–United States border sp ...
. In 1835 the Upper Canada Academy was established in Cobourg by Egerton Ryerson and the Wesleyan Conference of Bishops. On 1 July 1837, Cobourg was officially incorporated as a town. In 1841 the Upper Canada Academy's name was changed to Victoria College. In 1842 Victoria College was granted powers to confer degrees. Victoria College remained in Cobourg until 1892, when it was moved to Toronto and federated with the
University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...
. In 1842,
John Strachan John Strachan (; 12 April 1778 – 1 November 1867) was a notable figure in Upper Canada and the first Anglican Bishop of Toronto. He is best known as a political bishop who held many government positions and promoted education from common sc ...
founded the Diocesan Theological Institute in Cobourg, an
Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
seminary that became integrated into the
University of Trinity College Trinity College (occasionally referred to as The University of Trinity College) is a college federated with the University of Toronto, founded in 1851 by Bishop John Strachan. Strachan originally intended Trinity as a university of strong Angl ...
in Toronto in 1852.


The Railway to Rice Lake

The
timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...
and other resources of Cobourg's large hinterland were identified as the key to its prosperity, and if they could be brought to the harbour, Lake Ontario opened up a large and prosperous market.
Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...
to the north, founded in 1825 by Peter Robinson, had become the principal source area, and in the 1830s the waterways were still the prime method of bulk transport. Rice Lake and the
Otonabee River The Otonabee River is a river in Peterborough County in Central Ontario, Canada. The river flows from Katchewanooka Lake, at the north end of the community of Lakefield, through the city of Peterborough to Rice Lake. It is in the Great Lakes B ...
were brought into use when
James Gray Bethune James Gray Bethune (April 1, 1793 – October 13, 1841) was born in Upper Canada. He was the son of the Reverend John Bethune of Williamstown, Ontario, the founding Church of Scotland minister for Upper Canada (Ontario). James Gray was from a lar ...
established a steamer running across the lake and up the Otonabee which was navigable through to Peterborough. This meant goods and passengers could be brought at least to the south shore of Rice Lake. The remaining 8 miles of rough tracks was viable for passengers and light goods, but no use for the valuable timber and mine products. By 1835, only 10 years after the first steam railway in the world, there was active discussion about building a railway up to what later became Harwood. However, the townspeople invested instead in a plank road, using 300,000 feet of 3-inch wooden planks, allowing horse-drawn vehicles to haul heavy goods. By 1850 the plank road was breaking up, and was impassible in wet conditions, so the railway scheme was revived. By 1852 there was considerable enthusiasm for the railway project within the town. Unfortunately river traffic had become seen as yesterday's solution by this time, so the plans were expanded to include a long bridge across Rice Lake, to take the railway right up to Peterborough. By 1854 the rails reached the shore of the lake, and it found good work transporting passengers and nearly 2 million feet of lumber from the Rice Lake down to Cobourg that summer. However, all the revenue had to ploughed into building an ill-fated bridge, using hundreds of wooden trestles, 31
Burr Truss The Burr Arch Truss—or, simply, Burr Truss or Burr Arch—is a combination of an arch and a ''multiple kingpost'' truss design. It was invented in 1804 by Theodore Burr, patented on April 3, 1817, and used in bridges, usually covered bridge ...
spans, and a centre-pivot
swing bridge A swing bridge (or swing span bridge) is a movable bridge that has as its primary structural support a vertical locating pin and support ring, usually at or near to its center of gravity, about which the swing span (turning span) can then pi ...
to allow boats to pass. The prime mover locally for getting the Railway company off the ground was D'Arcy E. Boulton, a lawyer based in Cobourg, who enthused the town with the plan. They agreed to begin funding the scheme that was initially expected to cost £150,000, but ended leaving many people with worthless railway bonds and the town council with a debt that was only finally repaid in the 1930s. The man appointed to manage the project was
Samuel Zimmerman Samuel Zimmerman (7 March 1815 – 12 March 1857) was a Canadian railway promoter and entrepreneur instrumental in the construction of the Great Western Railway of Upper Canada. Biography Zimmerman was born in 1815 in Huntingdon, Pennsylvani ...
, who had previously been instrumental in building the
Great Western Railway (Ontario) The Great Western Railway was a railway that operated in Canada West, today's province of Ontario, Canada. It was the first railway chartered in the province, receiving its original charter as the London and Gore Railroad on March 6, 1834, b ...
. The bridge was constructed over the summer of 1854 and was officially opened on 29 December that year. Three days later it collapsed when ice movements shifted the trestles out of line, splintering the Burr Truss sections. The proposed solution was to stabilise the trestles (or 'stilts' as their critics dubbed them) by an infill of soil, which did happen on the southern side, still visible as a strip of land still remaining running into the lake near Harwood. But funds were not forthcoming for the northern side, and winter ice and shifting lake mud meant that it was frequently unusable. A further problem emerged when Port Hope, not far along the coast, pursued its own plans for a Railway to Peterborough. In 1857 the Port Hope and Lindsay line was constructed, and the following year opened a branch to Peterborough, going round the western end of the lake, in direct competition with the struggling Cobourg route. The response of the Cobourg directors was to oust D.E. Boulton, who then invested in the Port Hope line. Conflicts of interest among various personnel resulted in the deliberate removal of the bolts on sections of the bridge in early 1861, ensuring that when the ice moved again the bridge was destroyed, and this time it was left unrepaired. The railway reverted to linking Cobourg harbour with Harwood and the Rice Lake water traffic. In 1865 the railway was bought by a consortium of Pittsburgh steel manufacturers, who had already bought the Marmora Iron quarries north-east of Rice Lake. They established an iron-ore supply route using barges up the Trent River and across Rice Lake to the railway at Harwood. From there it was brought along the Railway to Cobourg Harbour for shipment across Lake Ontario to feed the steel mills of America. This provided a steady income for the railway and the town until the ore ran out in 1878. It also had two longer term spin-offs in the form of a rail car company and the beginnings of a tourist industry.


Crossen Car Works

When the iron ore scheme was getting underway, a small iron foundry based in Cobourg, was approached to cast the wheels and frames of wagons to move the Marmora iron ore down to the harbour. James Crossen saw an opportunity to combine his cast-iron products with the abundant local timber to produce railway rolling stock. With the foundry located near both the Cobourg line and train station of 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 rai ...
, which had been built along the shore of Lake Ontario in 1856, it was well placed to expand as Canada's railway network grew. It was later named the Crossen Car Manufacturing Company and went on to become the largest builder of timber-framed rail cars in Canada, making everything from coal and freight wagons through to dining cars and first-class carriages. By 1910 wood was going out of date, when all-steel cars took over, and in 1915 the company, unable to adapt, went into liquidation, and parts of the site reverted to being an iron foundry. A replica of one of the Crossen ore cars was built in 2016 and is on display near Cobourg waterfront.


Wealthy Americans

The connections and trade links which developed through the iron shipments brought many American industrialists to Cobourg, which became a popular summer destination. High class hotels were established, followed in the late 19th century and early 20th century by enormous summer homes for wealthy Americans, a few of which still stand today. One notable home, on King Street East, became the Brookside School - now a youth detention centre. A major ferry service connected Cobourg and
Rochester, New York Rochester () is a City (New York), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, the county seat, seat of Monroe County, New York, Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, ...
from 1907 to 1952, transporting passengers and cargo across Lake Ontario, allowing Americans to reach the town more readily.


Victoria Hall

For a brief moment in 1856 the town, with both its new railway link to the interior and an east–west rail connection along the Grand Trunk Railway, was feeling secure in its future prosperity, and thought a new Town Hall would encourage further investment and be an asset to the area. Victoria Hall stands at the heart of the downtown, a building that now serves as the town hall, as well as home of the Art Gallery of Northumberland, the Cobourg Concert Hall, and an Old Bailey-style courtroom that is now used as the Council chamber. Victoria Hall was designed by architect
Kivas Tully Kivas Tully, ISO (1820 – 24 April 1905) was an Irish-Canadian architect. Life Born in Garryvacum in County Laois, Ireland, Kivas Tully was the son of John P. Tully, a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, and Alicia Willington. He trained as an arch ...
. The landmark is known for its impressive stone work. Charles Thomas Thomas (1820-1867), an English-born master stonecarver and building contractor, executed the fine stone carvings, including the bearded faced keystone over the main entrance into the building. Victoria Hall was officially opened in 1860 by the
Prince of Wales Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rulers ...
, later to become
King Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria a ...
. At that time, Cobourg was a significant town in the
Province of Canada The Province of Canada (or the United Province of Canada or the United Canadas) was a British North America, British colony in North America from 1841 to 1867. Its formation reflected recommendations made by John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham ...
, and some townspeople felt that Cobourg would be a suitable capital for the newly united provinces; this privilege went to
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 ...
, Ontario, however.


Heritage Centre

One of the oldest buildings in the town was for many years known as The Barracks, suggesting military connections. However it is equally likely that it was built for industrial uses, either in the very early 1800s or as a malting house and brewery by James Calcutt in the early 1830s. It probably served that purpose until a larger brewery was built by the McKechnies in 1863. The old stone-built building had a variety of industrial and storage purposes, and twenty different owners. In 2000 it was acquired in a run-down state by the
Cobourg Museum Foundation {{unreferenced, date=November 2010 The Cobourg Museum Foundation was incorporated under the laws of the province of Ontario on November 22, 1999. Letters Patent of Incorporation were issued on November 22, 1999, with Douglas Sifton, Muriel Edw ...
, who have restored it and it is now open as the Sifton-Cook Heritage Centre.


Cobourg Jail

In 1906 on 77 Albert Street the Cobourg Jail, originally referred to as The County Jail, began to house inmates. Over time the Cobourg jail continued to expand to house the increasing population of inmates. In 1998 the jail closed and the year after in 1999 was purchased by private buyers. The jail has since been converted to a tourist attraction called the King George Inn with the jail still intact to see or stay in. Additionally, a family restaurant was implemented for guests and non-guests of the hotel.


Crash landing

On 20 December 1951, Cobourg experienced media attention as a chartered Curtiss C-46 Commando airplane, bound for
Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.Canadian Forces Station Cobourg, from 1953 to 1971.


Regeneration

Throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, the town invested heavily in purchasing property along the waterfront and beautifying the area. A boardwalk was developed to connect the harbour and large sandy beach while further pathways were created to encompass Victoria Park and the historic downtown. Because of this renewal and revitalization, many community activities now revolve in and around these spaces.


Climate

Cobourg has a
humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freezing ...
(
Dfb DFB may refer to: * Deerfield Beach, Florida, a city * Decafluorobutane, a fluorocarbon gas * Dem Franchize Boyz, former hip hop group, Atlanta, Georgia * Dfb, Köppen climate classification for Humid continental climate * Distributed-feedback ...
) with warm summers and cold winters.


Transportation

Highway 401 King's Highway 401, commonly referred to as Highway 401 and also known by its official name as the Macdonald–Cartier Freeway or colloquially referred to as the four-oh-one, is a controlled-access 400-series highway in the Canadian provinc ...
and Northumberland County Road 2 (formerly Highway 2) pass through town. County Road 45 (formerly Highway 45) begins in Cobourg and heads north-east to Norwood. The
Canadian Pacific The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadi ...
and
Canadian National The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN ...
main railway lines (
Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
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 ...
/
Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...
) traverse the town.
Via Rail Via Rail Canada Inc. (), operating as Via Rail or Via, is a Canadian Crown corporation that is mandated to operate intercity passenger rail service in Canada. It receives an annual subsidy from Transport Canada to offset the cost of operating ...
offers passenger service to Cobourg railway station with multiple daily departures on the Toronto – Ottawa/Montreal route.
Cobourg Transit Cobourg Transit is a fully accessible community transit system that serves the Town of Cobourg, operating with a fleet of diesel buses. The buses are separated into two areas on the interior, the front having low floors with seating reserved for ...
is a fully accessible community transit system that provides daily bus service to the town. The community transit system ends its runs by 7pm, which can hamper travel for those without other means of transportation. It formerly ran until 9:30pm however the hours were reduced. The Ontario Waterfront Trail passes through Cobourg and cyclists can be found moving through daily during the warmer months.


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 ...
, Cobourg 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. Age Profile *Age 0-14: 18.1% *Age 15-24: 11.9% *Age 25-44: 24.7% *Age 45-64: 24.2% *Age 65-74: 10.8% *Age 75+: 10.3% Religious Make Up *56.1%
Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
*23.9%
Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
*2.2% other Christian *0.7% other religions *17.1% non-professing Racial Profile *91.4%
White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...
*4.4% Aboriginal *3.8%
Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...
*0.7%
Black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ...


Education

Public education in Cobourg is under the management of the
Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board (known as English-language Public District School Board No. 14 prior to 1999) is a public, secular, English language school board headquartered in Peterborough, Ontario. It is the amalgamation of the fo ...
, and Catholic education is by the
Peterborough Victoria Northumberland and Clarington Catholic District School Board The Peterborough Victoria Northumberland and Clarington Catholic District School Board (known as English-language Separate District School Board No. 41 prior to 1999) is the Catholic English school board for the region and is headquartered in Pet ...
. Cobourg also has a satellite campus of
Fleming College Fleming College, also known as Sir Sandford Fleming College, is an Ontario College of Applied Arts and Technology located in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. The college has an enrollment of more than 6,800 full-time and 10,000 part-time student ...
. In 1871 Cobourg’s first Collegiate Institute was erected on King Street East. In 1899 the student population at the original Cobourg Collegiate Institute had outgrown the school. New plans for another school on the west end of King Street were put in place and the new school building on 135 King Street was built. This new building was called the West high school and the older school building was then named the East high school. The West high school had many additions in the 1920s as the school continued to grow. The two schools co-existed for 116 years until the closing of both schools in 2015. The purpose of closing the two schools was to bring them back together with the fabrication of a brand new Cobourg Collegiate Institute in 2015. The new school was built on the property of the old east high school. The old west high school was not demolished, but renamed William Academy Cobourg West and is a functioning co-ed private school for grades 7-12.


Schools


Attractions

Cobourg retains its small-town atmosphere, in part due to the downtown and surrounding residential area's status as a Heritage Conservation District. The downtown is a well-preserved example of a traditional small-town main street. Victoria Hall, the town hall completed in 1860, is a
National Historic Site of Canada National Historic Sites of Canada (french: Lieux historiques nationaux du Canada) are places that have been designated by the federal Minister of the Environment on the advice of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (HSMBC), as being ...
. The oldest building in the town is now open as the Sifton Cook Heritage Centre and operated by the
Cobourg Museum Foundation {{unreferenced, date=November 2010 The Cobourg Museum Foundation was incorporated under the laws of the province of Ontario on November 22, 1999. Letters Patent of Incorporation were issued on November 22, 1999, with Douglas Sifton, Muriel Edw ...
. Cobourg has several parks. The Cobourg Waterfront Festival, held in Victoria Park and the nearby beach and harbour, is an annual arts and crafts event occurring on Canada Day. It began in 1987 as part of the town's sesquicentennial celebrations, and was conceived by the Art Gallery of Northumberland's former Director/Curator Peter Tulumello and former Concert Hall Manager Mark Finnan. Cobourg's oldest annual event, the Cobourg Highland Games, was started in 1963 in Donegan Park by Dave Carr to celebrate the Scottish culture in the area. The event was moved to Victoria Park in 2013, where it continues each June. Cobourg's beach, Victoria Park Beach, is used as a location for volleyball tournaments, events, beach days, family picnics and other events. The beach is equipped with a splash park, playground set, park area for eating, local restaurants and a pier. Additionally, there is a small trailer park located directly next to the beach. There are lifeguards on duty some days and it is safe to swim and play in. Close to the downtown, tourists can shop in local shops and eat out at many of Cobourg's restaurants. Cobourg is home to the Port Hope Drive-In, Canada's oldest drive-in.


Media


Print

*'' Northumberland Today'', owned by
Osprey Media Osprey Media L.P. was a Canadian newspaper regional chain that published 20 daily newspapers, 34 non-daily newspapers, and a number of shopping guides and magazines in the Canadian province of Ontario. Formerly an independent income trust, it was ...
, is a daily newspaper with content contributed from the Cobourg Star and Port Hope Guide.


Radio

Five radio stations are licensed to Cobourg, providing music, news and local programming to Northumberland County and surrounding areas. * FM 89.7 - CFWN, not-for-profit community-based, volunteer driven, programming focused on the community * FM 90.7 - CHJJ,
Christian music Christian music is music that has been written to express either personal or a communal belief regarding Christian life and faith. Common themes of Christian music include praise, worship, penitence, and lament, and its forms vary widely around ...
* FM 93.3 - CKSG,
adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...
* FM 103.1 - CFMZ, classical * FM 107.9 - CHUC,
classic hits Classic hits is a radio format which generally includes songs from the top 40 music charts from the late 1960s to the early 2000s, with music from the 1980s serving as the core of the format. Music that was popularized by MTV in the early 1980s ...


TV

Cobourg uses cable 10 to broadcast local events and weather. Apart from that, Cobourg has no local
terrestrial television Terrestrial television or over-the-air television (OTA) is a type of television broadcasting in which the signal transmission occurs via radio waves from the terrestrial (Earth-based) transmitter of a TV station to a TV receiver having an ant ...
stations; the closest is
CHEX-TV CHEX-DT (channel 12) is a television station in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, part of the Global Television Network. Owned-and-operated station, Owned and operated by network parent Corus Entertainment, the station maintains studios on Monaghan ...
in
Peterborough, Ontario Peterborough ( ) is a city on the Otonabee River in Ontario, Canada, about 125 kilometres (78 miles) northeast of Toronto. According to the 2021 Census, the population of the City of Peterborough was 83,651. The population of the Peterborough ...
.


Notable people

*
John Douglas Armour John Douglas Armour (May 4, 1830 – July 11, 1903) was a Canadian Puisne judge of the Supreme Court of Canada. Born in the township of Otonabee, Upper Canada (now Ontario), the son of Samuel Armour, he was educated at Upper Canada College, ...
,
Puisne judge A puisne judge or puisne justice (; from french: puisné or ; , 'since, later' + , 'born', i.e. 'junior') is a dated term for an ordinary judge or a judge of lesser rank of a particular court. Use The term is used almost exclusively in common law ...
of the
Supreme Court of Canada The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; french: Cour suprême du Canada, CSC) is the Supreme court, highest court in the Court system of Canada, judicial system of Canada. It comprises List of Justices of the Supreme Court of Canada, nine justices, wh ...
*
Charles Arkoll Boulton Charles Arkoll Boulton (April 17, 1841 – May 15, 1899) is noted for his role in the Red River and North-West Rebellions. Biography He was born in Cobourg, Canada West in 1841, the great-grandson of D'Arcy Boulton, and educated at Upp ...
, militia leader in the
Red River Rebellion The Red River Rebellion (french: Rébellion de la rivière Rouge), also known as the Red River Resistance, Red River uprising, or First Riel Rebellion, was the sequence of events that led up to the 1869 establishment of a provisional government by ...
* Fern Blodgett Sunde, first Canadian woman to serve with the merchant marines during the Second World War * Alan Bradley, author * Jeremiah Brown, Canadian Men's Eight Rowing Team, won silver at the 2012 London Olympic Games *
Mandy Bujold Mandy Marie Brigitte Bujold (born 25 July 1987) is a Canadian former amateur boxer. She won gold medals in the women's flyweight category at the 2011 Pan American Games, 2011 and 2015 Pan American Games and won a bronze medal at the 2014 Common ...
, Canadian boxer * James Cockburn, lawyer and Father of
Confederation A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a union of sovereign groups or states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...
*
cleopatrick Cleopatrick (stylized in lowercase) is a Canadian rock duo based out of Cobourg, Ontario. They have their own record label, called Nowhere Special Recordings. Background Childhood friends Ian Fraser and Luke Gruntz grew up in Cobourg, Ontario ...
, rock band *
Martin Dobkin Martin Lyon Dobkin (born May 8, 1942) is a physician and former politician in Ontario, Canada. He was elected on October 1, 1973 as the first Mayor of the new City of Mississauga, Ontario and served as Mayor from 1973 to 1976. He was the inaugural ...
, first mayor of the City of Mississauga,
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 ...
and served as Mayor from 1973 to 1976. * Marie Dressler, silent film actress, Academy Award winner best actress 1931 * Francis P. Duffy, Canadian-born military chaplain of the Fighting 69th New York Regiment during WWI *
Sandford Fleming Sir Sandford Fleming (January 7, 1827 – July 22, 1915) was a Scottish Canadian engineer and inventor. Born and raised in Scotland, he emigrated to colonial Canada at the age of 18. He promoted worldwide standard time zones, a prime meridian, ...
who helped create and define the idea of time zones *Rev.
John Weir Foote John Weir Foote, (May 5, 1904 – May 2, 1988) was a Canadian military chaplain and politician. He received the Victoria Cross for his actions during the Dieppe Raid in 1942. Foote is the only Canadian chaplain to be awarded the Victoria C ...
, politician, chaplain, and
Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces and may be awarded posthumously. It was previously ...
recipient *
Ed Greenwood Ed Greenwood (born July 21, 1959) is a Canadian fantasy writer and the original creator of the ''Forgotten Realms'' game world. He began writing articles about the Forgotten Realms for '' Dragon'' magazine beginning in 1979, and subsequently sol ...
, author of the
Forgotten Realms ''Forgotten Realms'' is a campaign setting for the '' Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') fantasy role-playing game. Commonly referred to by players and game designers alike as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as ...
setting for
Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical Studies Rules ...
*
W. A. Hewitt William Abraham Hewitt (May 15, 1875September 8, 1966) was a Canadian sports executive and journalist, also widely known as Billy Hewitt. He was secretary of the Ontario Hockey Association (OHA) from 1903 to 1966, and sports editor of the ''To ...
, sports executive and journalist, Hockey Hall of Fame inductee; *
Paul Kane Paul Kane (September 3, 1810 – February 20, 1871) was an Irish-born Canadian painter, famous for his paintings of First Nations peoples in the Canadian West and other Native Americans in the Columbia District. A largely self-educated artis ...
, Irish-born Canadian painter *
Henry Bowyer Lane Henry Bowyer Joseph Lane (1817–1878) was an English architect who worked in Toronto from . Lane was born to Henry Bower Lane, a Royal Artillery Captain and Elizabeth Lacey in 1817 and moved to Devon, England after 1819. Lane's education inc ...
, English born Toronto architect * John Murray, pioneering oceanographer, marine biologist and limnologist. Considered the father of modern oceanography. *
Ebenezer Perry Ebenezer Perry (September 29, 1788 – May 1, 1876) was a merchant and Canadian political figure. He was a Conservative member of the Senate of Canada from 1871 until his death and at the age of 83, the oldest person ever summoned to the Senat ...
(1788–1876), politician and Cobourg's first police commissioner * Josh Richards, internet personality, musician and actor * William Renwick Riddell, judge and historian * Dave "Goldie Rogers" Sherwin, professional wrestler * Virna Sheard, poet and novelist *
Steve Smith Stephen, Steve, Stevie, or Steven Smith may refer to: Academics * Steve Smith (political scientist) (born 1952), British international relations theorist and senior university manager * Stephen Smith (journalist) (born 1956), American journalist, ...
,
NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...
hockey player *
Justin Williams Justin Craig Williams (born October 4, 1981) is a Canadian-American former professional ice hockey right winger. He played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Philadelphia Flyers, Carolina Hurricanes, Los Angeles Kings, and Washingto ...
,
NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...
hockey player, 3-time Stanley Cup champion, winner of 2014
Conn Smythe Trophy The Conn Smythe Trophy (french: Trophée Conn Smythe) is awarded annually to the most valuable player (MVP) of his team during the National Hockey League's (NHL) Stanley Cup playoffs. It is named after Conn Smythe, the longtime owner, general ma ...


Twin towns – sister cities

Cobourg is twinned with: *
Coburg Coburg () is a town located on the Itz river in the Upper Franconia region of Bavaria, Germany. Long part of one of the Thuringian states of the Wettin line, it joined Bavaria by popular vote only in 1920. Until the revolution of 1918, it ...
, Germany


References


External links

* * {{Authority control Lower-tier municipalities in Ontario Populated places on Lake Ontario in Canada Towns in Ontario