Essex County is a primarily rural county in

Southwestern The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sep ...

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 comprising seven municipalities:

Amherstburg Amherstburg is a town near the mouth of the Detroit River in Essex County, Ontario, Canada. In 1796, Fort Malden was established here, stimulating growth in the settlement. The fort has been designated as a National Historic Site. The town is ...

, Kingsville, Lakeshore, LaSalle, Leamington,

Tecumseh Tecumseh ( ; October 5, 1813) was a Shawnee chief and warrior who promoted resistance to the expansion of the United States onto Native American lands. A persuasive orator, Tecumseh traveled widely, forming a Native American confederacy and ...

and the administrative seat,

Essex Essex () is a Ceremonial counties of England, county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the Riv ...

Administrative divisions

Essex County is composed of seven municipalities (in order of population): * Municipality of Lakeshore * Town of LaSalle * Municipality of Leamington * Town of

* Town of

* Town of Kingsville * Town of

The City of

Windsor Windsor may refer to: Places Australia * Windsor, New South Wales ** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area * Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland **Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...

and the Township of Pelee are within the Essex census division but are not part of Essex County. The census division had a population of 422,860 as of 2021.

Geography

Essex County is largely composed of clay-based soils, with sandy soils along the beaches and shores. For the most part, Essex County is flat farmland, with some

woodlot A woodlot is a parcel of a woodland or forest capable of small-scale production of forest products (such as wood fuel, sap for maple syrup, sawlogs, and pulpwood) as well as recreational uses like bird watching, bushwalking, and wildflower appr ...

s. There is a small 30–50 foot (10–15 m) high

ridge A ridge or a mountain ridge is a geographical feature consisting of a chain of mountains or hills that form a continuous elevated crest for an extended distance. The sides of the ridge slope away from the narrow top on either side. The line ...

near Kingsville and Leamington in the southern part of the county, and large marshland near Hillman Marsh Conservation Area, and

Point Pelee National Park Point Pelee National Park (; french: Parc national de la Pointe-Pelée) is a national park in Essex County in southwestern Ontario, Canada where it extends into Lake Erie. The word is French for 'bald'. Point Pelee consists of a peninsula of l ...

, as well as some marshland along the shores of Lake St Clair between Belle River and Stoney Point.

Adjacent counties and municipalities

(north) * Across Lake St. Clair lies

Macomb County Macomb County ( ) is a county located in the eastern portion of the U.S. state of Michigan, bordering Lake St. Clair, and is part of northern Metro Detroit. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 881,217, making it the third-most populous co ...

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 ...

, US (north) *

Chatham-Kent Chatham-Kent (Canada 2021 Census, 2021 population: 104,316)Wayne County, Michigan Wayne County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of 2020, the United States Census placed its population at 1,793,561, making it the 19th-most populous county in the United States. The county seat is Detroit. The cou ...

, US (west and northwest) *

Monroe County, Michigan Monroe County is a county in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 154,809. The largest city and county seat is Monroe. The county was established as the second county (after Wayne County) in the Michigan Ter ...

, US (southwest) * Across

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also ha ...

lie Lucas (southwest),

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 c ...

(south), and

Erie Erie (; ) is a city on the south shore of Lake Erie and the county seat of Erie County, Pennsylvania, United States. Erie is the fifth largest city in Pennsylvania and the largest city in Northwestern Pennsylvania with a population of 94,831 a ...

(southeast) counties,

Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...

, US

Climate

Essex County hosts some of the warmest summer weather in

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 to ...

, given that it is the southernmost part of Canada. It 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 freez ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...

''Dfa'') with four distinct seasons, with cold, wet winters with considerable amounts of snow, and warm or hot summers. Early spring and late summer are the likeliest time for thunderstorm development. Thunderstorms often break out every five to seven days during the spring and summer. Many storms are categorized as severe, often bringing small to significant-sized

hail Hail is a form of solid precipitation. It is distinct from ice pellets (American English "sleet"), though the two are often confused. It consists of balls or irregular lumps of ice, each of which is called a hailstone. Ice pellets generally fal ...

and strong, possibly damaging winds, as well as flooding in the relatively low-lying areas in the north of the county particularly near Belle River and St Clair Beach.

Tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, alt ...

es can be likely with certain storms. Southwestern Ontario averages the most tornadoes in Canada. Temperatures usually cool by mid to late October, making way for winter. Snowfall will usually start between mid-November and late-December.

History

Colonial settlement

The area that has come to be known as Essex was one of the first counties to be settled by non-indigenous people in

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

, later to become

. The settlements were mostly established by French settlers in the mid-18th century. Around 1749, the first permanent settlements began to appear on what is now the south or Canadian side of the

Detroit River The Detroit River flows west and south for from Lake St. Clair to Lake Erie as a strait in the Great Lakes system. The river divides the metropolitan areas of Detroit, Michigan, and Windsor, Ontario—an area collectively referred to as Detro ...

, across from the French Fort Detroit. They cultivated long, narrow plots of land along the river. Despite the name, this is not a river as such but rather a strait connecting

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 ...

and the smaller

Lake Saint Clair Lake St. Clair (french: Lac Sainte-Claire) is a freshwater lake that lies between the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of Michigan. It was named in 1679 by French Catholic explorers after Saint Clare of Assisi, on whose feast day ...

in the north to

in the south, as part of the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...

. Lower down the river, lands were occupied by native people known as Wyandot or Huron, around the Jesuit Catholic Mission of Bois Blanc (French for White Wood), opposite the island of the same name. The Mission was eventually abandoned and re-established closer to what became Sandwich Township after the British took over the French territory following the Seven Years' War. It was closer to the safety of the British-fortified

Fort Detroit Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit or Fort Detroit (1701–1796) was a fort established on the north bank of the Detroit River by the French officer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac and the Italian Alphonse de Tonty in 1701. In the 18th century, Fre ...

. When farmers arrived, they encountered difficulty in trying to clear the extremely thick forests that covered Essex County. The farmers grew to "hate" the trees, and chopped them down, starved them from nourishment by cutting deep gashes in the bark, and burned them to clear the way to get to the fertile soils underneath. The fires were so intense, that the reddish glow could be seen from

Fort Chicago A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

, 300 miles (500 km) away, as millions of cords of wood burned. Atlas of the Dominion

Settlement continued southward along the river and was known as Petite Côte (Small Coast), which was a reference to the shorter length of river frontage compared to the Detroit/American side. Landmarks were named for settler LaSalle and the local

Ojibway 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 ...

, which continue to be in use. The first road in Ontario was laid out to connect the settlements, which is now over 200 years old and is known as Former King's Highway 18 (now County Road 20). When river frontage along the Petite Côte was occupied, settlement began to extend toward Lake St. Clair, which became known as the " Assumption Settlement", for the name of its Catholic church. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the French ventured east along the south shore of Lake Saint Clair and settled in the present-day areas of Belle River (Belle-Rivière), Rochester, Tecumseh, Saint-Joachim and Stoney Point (Pointe-aux-Roches). These communities still have a large

francophone French became an international language in the Middle Ages, when the power of the Kingdom of France made it the second international language, alongside Latin. This status continued to grow into the 18th century, by which time French was the l ...

population.

and

Sandwich A sandwich is a food typically consisting of vegetables, sliced cheese or meat, placed on or between slices of bread, or more generally any dish wherein bread serves as a container or wrapper for another food type. The sandwich began as a po ...

were the first towns established in Essex County, both in 1796 after the British finally ceded and evacuated

along the

under the terms of the "

Jay Treaty The Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation, Between His Britannic Majesty and the United States of America, commonly known as the Jay Treaty, and also as Jay's Treaty, was a 1794 treaty between the United States and Great Britain that averted ...

". This was negotiated by

John Jay John Jay (December 12, 1745 – May 17, 1829) was an American statesman, patriot, diplomat, abolitionist, signatory of the Treaty of Paris, and a Founding Father of the United States. He served as the second governor of New York and the f ...

, and signed in 1794 following the American Revolutionary War. It was intended to settle the US northern boundary with Canada. It upheld the original boundary lines along the

between the US and

by the

Treaty of Paris of 1783 A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between actors in international law. It is usually made by and between sovereign states, but can include international organizations, individuals, business entities, and other legal perso ...

and the wider set of treaties known as the Peace of Paris, which ended the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...

(1775-1783) and overseas European and multi-continental wars. Britain ceded the territory of eastern

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...

to be the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. The British built

Fort Malden Fort Malden, formally known as Fort Amherstburg, is a defence fortification located in Amherstburg, Ontario. It was built in 1795 by Great Britain in order to ensure the security of British North America against any potential threat of America ...

near Amherstburg, opposite Bois Blanc Island, separating the British military presence from the more heavily populated area of

upstream, and positioned strategically to control the entrance of the river from

and

to the north. The populations of both towns were augmented by people immigrating from the southern

after the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

(1775-1783), including from the new City of Detroit, who chose to remain

British subjects The term "British subject" has several different meanings depending on the time period. Before 1949, it referred to almost all subjects of the British Empire (including the United Kingdom, Dominions, and colonies, but excluding protectorates ...

, known as "

Loyalists Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British Cro ...

" or "

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 ...

". After the

, and the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It be ...

(1812-1815), which also was a confrontation over the northern border, some people continued to migrate north to the area. Settlers also arrived from the east seeking land, traveling by

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 ...

and the St. Lawrence River of

Lower Canada The Province of Lower Canada (french: province du Bas-Canada) was a British colony on the lower Saint Lawrence River and the shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence (1791–1841). It covered the southern portion of the current Province of Quebec ...

. Settlers began to move eastward along the north shore of Lake Erie. The colonial government purchased land for development from the Indigenous in the southern half of the current county, located in the four townships formerly known as Gosfield North and South, and Colchester North and South. The British Court made land available for settlement, provided that the colonist complete certain improvements within a year and that it not be used for speculation. This area became known as the "New Settlement" (as compared to the "Old Settlement" of the towns of Amherstburg and Sandwich. Settlers in this area included Hessians who fought for the British against the American rebels, (especially known in history at the

Battle of Trenton The Battle of Trenton was a small but pivotal American Revolutionary War battle on the morning of December 26, 1776, in Trenton, New Jersey. After General George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River north of Trenton the previous night, ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delawa ...

on the morning of December 26, 1776) and

Pennsylvania Dutch The Pennsylvania Dutch ( Pennsylvania Dutch: ), also known as Pennsylvania Germans, are a cultural group formed by German immigrants who settled in Pennsylvania during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. They emigrated primarily from German-spe ...

pacifists (ethnic German

Mennonites Mennonites are groups of Anabaptist Christian church communities of denominations. The name is derived from the founder of the movement, Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland. Through his writings about Reformed Christianity during the Radic ...

, many from

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

Formation of Essex County

In 1791, the province of

was formed. In 1792, Upper Canada was divided into nineteen counties, of which Essex was the eighteenth and part of the Western District. At that time, the eastern boundary of Essex County extended further east into what is now Kent County. Settlement continued: on January 1, 1800 an Act for the Better Division of the Province established the Townships of Rochester, Mersea, Gosfield, Maidstone, Sandwich and Malden.

Settlement 1820 to 1870

Longer roads began to appear in the County after the

, the first of which followed Indian trails. Colonel Thomas Talbot contributed to road development, and Talbot Road was named for him. Talbot Road followed a natural ridge of glacial moraine which stretched from Windsor to

Point Pelee Point Pelee National Park (; french: Parc national de la Pointe-Pelée) is a national park in Essex County in southwestern Ontario, Canada where it extends into Lake Erie. The word is French for 'bald'. Point Pelee consists of a peninsula of la ...

. The establishment of good roads led to further settlement along the 'Middle Road' and in the area of what is now Leamington. Settlers of this era were often emigrants from Britain and Ireland; in the 1840s the Great Famine led to significant immigration. The village of Maidstone was the centre of the Irish community, and an area known as the "Scotch Colony" appeared along the shore of Lake St. Clair to the north. In 1854 the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

connected the Detroit frontier with the east, crossing Essex County. The Canadian terminal was in Windsor, which consequently forged ahead of the other towns of the county. Other railway lines were built that connected settlements in Kingsville, Harrow, Essex and Leamington. Essex County was also a destination of the

Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. ...

. In the 19th-century Black Americans came to Essex county by way of Pelee's Point, Gosfield (now Kingsville),

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colch ...

, and

. Those who stayed in the area settled in the communities of

New Canaan New Canaan () is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 20,622 according to the 2020 census. About an hour from Manhattan by train, the town is considered part of Connecticut's Gold Coast. The town is bounde ...

Mersea Mersea Island is an island in Essex, England, in the Blackwater and Colne estuaries to the south-east of Colchester. Its name comes from the Old English language, Old English word ''meresig'', meaning "island of the pool" and thus is List of ...

, and nearby

Dawn Settlement Dawn is the time that marks the beginning of twilight before sunrise. It is recognized by the appearance of indirect sunlight being scattered in Earth's atmosphere, when the centre of the Sun's disc has reached 18° below the observer's horizo ...

(now

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

Buxton Buxton is a spa town in the Borough of High Peak, Derbyshire, England. It is England's highest market town, sited at some above sea level.North Buxton North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north' ...

and South Buxton), Chatham, and Elgin. The major settlement areas were

and

. The John Freeman Walls Historic Site in Maidstone ( Lakeshore) is testament to this period. Many of the descendants of the fugitives moved back to the United States to support the Northerners (

Union Army During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union (American Civil War), Union of the collective U.S. st ...

) in the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...

, (1861-1865), or to reconnect with family after

emancipation Emancipation generally means to free a person from a previous restraint or legal disability. More broadly, it is also used for efforts to procure economic and social rights, political rights or equality, often for a specifically disenfranch ...

. Many families stayed.

Late 19th century

By the late 19th century Essex County had seen fur trading and logging, land clearing and farming, road building and railway development, saw mills and gristmills, railway stations and water ports. By this time the forests were being removed to make way for farmland. Also noticeable in some farmers' fields are oil pumps, particularly near Belle River and Leamington, in the northern and eastern parts of the county, respectively. This is from

oil shale Oil shale is an organic-rich fine-grained sedimentary rock containing kerogen (a solid mixture of organic chemical compounds) from which liquid hydrocarbons can be produced. In addition to kerogen, general composition of oil shales constitut ...

within the

bedrock In geology, bedrock is solid rock that lies under loose material ( regolith) within the crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet. Definition Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface material. An exposed portion of be ...

of the

Marcellus Formation The Marcellus Formation or the Marcellus Shale is a Middle Devonian age unit of sedimentary rock found in eastern North America. Named for a distinctive outcrop near the village of Marcellus, New York, in the United States, it extends throughou ...

20th Century

Essex County restructuring, 1990s

In 1992, discussions began to take place to reduce the number of individual municipalities, which at the time numbered 21 in the county. This culminated on January 1, 1999 when a Minister's Order by the

Ontario Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing is the ministry of the Government of Ontario that is responsible for municipal affairs and housing in the Canadian province of Ontario. The current Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing is Steve C ...

was implemented, putting in place the new municipal structure for the County of Essex. Townships: * Anderdon - Now part of Amherstburg * Colchester North - Now part of Essex *

Colchester South Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley is a provincial electoral district in Nova Scotia, Canada, that elects one member of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly. The district was created in 1978 from Colchester, and was called Colchester South until 199 ...

- Now part of Essex * Gosfield North - Now part of Kingsville * Gosfield South - Now part of Kingsville *

Maidstone Maidstone is the largest town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies 32 miles (51 km) east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town, linking it wi ...

- Now part of Lakeshore * Malden - Now part of Amherstburg *

- Now part of Leamington *

Rochester Rochester may refer to: Places Australia * Rochester, Victoria Canada * Rochester, Alberta United Kingdom *Rochester, Kent ** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area ** History of Rochester, Kent ** HM Prison ...

- Now part of Lakeshore * Sandwich East - Parts in Windsor and in Tecumseh * Sandwich South - Now in Tecumseh * Sandwich West - Parts in LaSalle and in Windsor * Tilbury North - Now in Lakeshore * Tilbury West - Now in Lakeshore Towns: *

Amherstburg, Ontario Amherstburg is a town near the mouth of the Detroit River in Essex County, Ontario, Canada. In 1796, Fort Malden was established here, stimulating growth in the settlement. The fort has been designated as a National Historic Site. The town i ...

(former town of, now merged with Anderdon Twp. and Malden Twp.) *

Belle River, Ontario Belle River is a community in Lakeshore, Essex County, 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 b ...

Essex, Ontario Essex is a town with a population of 21,216 in Essex County in southwestern Ontario, Canada, whose municipal borders extend to Lake Erie. Essex is also the name of the largest community within the municipality. Communities The town comprises t ...

(former town of, merged with Colchester N. Twp. and Colchester S. Twp.) *

Harrow, Ontario Harrow is a community located in the town of Essex, Essex County, Ontario, Canada. History First known as ''Munger's Corners'' after John Munger, the first postmaster, the town was renamed by John O'Connor in 1857 for the exclusive Harrow Sch ...

Kingsville, Ontario Kingsville is a town in Essex County in southwestern Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's southernmost municipality with town status. The town had a population of 21,552 in the Canada 2016 Census, up from 21,362 in the Canada 2011 Census. History K ...

(former town of, merged with Gosfield N. Twp. and Gosfield S. Twp.) *

Lasalle, Ontario LaSalle is a town in Essex County, Ontario, Canada. It is a bedroom community of the City of Windsor and part of the Windsor Census Metropolitan Area, and is located south of that city. LaSalle, along with Windsor, is the oldest French settlemen ...

(former part of Sandwich Town) *

Leamington, Ontario Leamington ( ) is a municipality in Essex County, Ontario, Canada. With a population of 27,595 in the Canada 2016 Census, it forms the second largest urban centre in Windsor-Essex County after Windsor, Ontario. It includes Point Pelee National ...

(former town of, merged with Mersea Twp.) * St. Clair Beach, Ontario *

Tecumseh, Ontario Tecumseh is a town in Essex County in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. It is on Lake St. Clair east of Windsor and had a population of 23,229 at the 2016 census. It is part of the Windsor census metropolitan area, and is a part of the Windsor-E ...

(former town of, merged with Sandwich S. Twp)

Demographics

As a

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 ...

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 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 ...

, Essex County 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.

Government

The County of Essex is governed by a County Council, whose members are the

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...

s and deputy mayors from the seven lower-tier municipalities of the County. The Head of Council is known as the Warden. The term of office for County Councillors and the Warden coincides with the frequency of municipal elections in Ontario, in other words a person elected to be Mayor of Leamington, for example, will be a member of County Council for the term that she or he is Mayor. Hilda MacDonald, Mayor of Leamington, was chosen to be Warden at the most recent election. A complete list (from 1853 to present) of the past Wardens of Essex County can be found online. County government is responsible for issues that include transportation, community and social services (e.g. homes for the aged, child care, social housing), libraries, planning, emergency management coordination and corporate-wide business such as finance and taxation policies, general corporate policy and labour relations. The County does not have a police force or fire services, for which the seven municipalities are responsible.

Education

English-language public education for kindergarten through secondary school grades in Essex County is administered by the

Greater Essex County District School Board The Greater Essex County District School Board (known as English-language Public District School Board No. 9 prior to 1999) was created on January 1, 1998 with the amalgamation of the Windsor Board of Education and the Essex County Board of Educ ...

, along with the

Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board The Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board (WECDSB, known as English-language Separate District School Board of Education No. 37 prior to 1999) is the separate school board that oversees Catholic education in Windsor and the surrounding Cou ...

which oversees English-language Catholic education. French-language public and Catholic education are overseen by the

Conseil scolaire Viamonde The Conseil scolaire Viamonde (CSV) is a public-secular French first language school board, and manages elementary and secondary schools in the Ontario Peninsula and the Greater Golden Horseshoe. The school board operates 41 elementary schools an ...

and the

Conseil scolaire catholique Providence The ''Conseil scolaire catholique Providence'' (Csc Providence) is the French-language Catholic school board for southwestern Ontario, Canada. The Providence Catholic School Board includes 10,000 students in its 31 schools: 23 elementary schools ...

respectively. The scope of all of these organizations includes both the County and the City of Windsor. Until 1998 the

Essex County Board of Education The Essex County Board of Education (ECBE) was a school district serving Essex County, Ontario, Canada, headquartered in Essex. In 1998 it was amalgamated with the Windsor Board of Education into the Greater Essex County District School Board. Sec ...

operated Anglophone secular public schools. Public post-secondary education is available at the

University of Windsor , mottoeng = Goodness, Discipline and Knowledge , established = , academic_affiliations = CARL, COU, Universities Canada , former_names = Assumption College (1857-1956)Assumption University of Windsor (1956-1963) , type = Public universi ...

, St. Clair College, and more recently Collège Boréal.

Infrastructure

Health care

Emergency medical services

Essex-Windsor Emergency Medical Services (EMS) provides pre-hospital treatment and transportation to over 45,000 patients per year. The service operates out of 12 bases, and employs over 260 Primary Care Paramedics. Essex-Windsor EMS covers all of Essex County, Windsor, and Pelee Island.

Economy

Energy

Essex County is home to Canada's largest

wind farm A wind farm or wind park, also called a wind power station or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind turb ...

as of June 2012. This is due to both its ideal wind conditions and abundance of available farmland.

Tartan

Essex County also has an official

tartan Tartan ( gd, breacan ) is a patterned cloth consisting of criss-crossed, horizontal and vertical bands in multiple colours. Tartans originated in woven wool, but now they are made in other materials. Tartan is particularly associated with Sc ...

. The tartan's colours correspond to different meanings. * Golden/

Yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In th ...

is meant to stand for sunshine, also for the rich agriculture and golden harvests of the many farmed plants (

grain A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit ( caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legum ...

corn Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The ...

soybean The soybean, soy bean, or soya bean (''Glycine max'') is a species of legume native to East Asia, widely grown for its edible bean, which has numerous uses. Traditional unfermented food uses of soybeans include soy milk, from which tofu ...

barley Barley (''Hordeum vulgare''), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains, particularly in Eurasia as early as 10,000 years ago. Globally 70% of barley p ...

oat The oat (''Avena sativa''), sometimes called the common oat, is a species of cereal grain grown for its seed, which is known by the same name (usually in the plural, unlike other cereals and pseudocereals). While oats are suitable for human con ...

s and

wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...

). *

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combin ...

stands for the spring fields around Essex County. * Red represents tomatoes, as Leamington is the "Tomato Capital of Canada", and for other fruits, such as

apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus '' Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancest ...

s. *

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when ...

stands for the blue skies and the

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 of the county. *

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 ha ...

is meant to represent the

automotive industry The automotive industry comprises a wide range of companies and organizations involved in the design, development, manufacturing, marketing, and selling of motor vehicles. It is one of the world's largest industries by revenue (from 16 % ...

that fuels

and Essex County. *

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 ...

represents the salt mines in Windsor and western Essex County, and

fish Fish are Aquatic animal, aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack Limb (anatomy), limbs with Digit (anatomy), digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and Chondrichthyes, cartilaginous and bony fish as we ...

in the surrounding rivers and lakes.

Notable people

* Bruce Crowder and Keith Crowder, retired NHL players *

Richie Hawtin Richard "Richie" Hawtin (born June 4, 1970) is a British-Canadian electronic musician and DJ. He became involved with Detroit techno's second wave in the early 1990s, and has been a leading exponent of minimal techno since the mid-1990s. He beca ...

, electronic music artist * Jeff Lemire, comic book artist *

Jack Miner John Thomas Miner, Order of the British Empire, OBE (April 10, 1865 – November 3, 1944), or "Wild Goose Jack," was a Canadian conservationist called by some the "father" of North American conservationism. Biography Born John Thomas Miner in West ...

, naturalist *

Luke Willson Luke Michael Willson (born January 15, 1990) is a Canadian former professional American football tight end. He has played for the Seattle Seahawks, the Detroit Lions, the Oakland Raiders, and the Baltimore Ravens. Willson played with the Canad ...

, retired NFL player

References

External links

* {{Authority control Counties in Ontario Lake Erie Lake St. Clair Populated places on the Underground Railroad Southwestern Ontario Wine regions of Ontario