Minaki, Ontario
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Minaki ( or ) is an
unincorporated area An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...
and community in
Unorganized Kenora District Unorganized Kenora District is an unorganized area in northwestern Ontario, Canada, in Kenora District. Constituting 98.39 percent of the district's land area, yet only 10.93 percent of its population, it is essentially the remainder of the distri ...
in
northwestern Ontario Northwestern Ontario is a secondary region of Northern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario which lies north and west of Lake Superior and west of Hudson Bay and James Bay. It includes most of subarctic Ontario. Its western boundary is the ...
, Canada. It is located at the point where the
Canadian National Railways The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I railroad, Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern United States, M ...
transcontinental Transcontinental may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * "Transcontinental", a song by the band Pedro the Lion from the album ''Achilles Heel'' * TC Transcontinental, a publishing, media and marketing company based in Canada, a subsidiary o ...
main line Mainline, ''Main line'', or ''Main Line'' may refer to: Transportation Railway * Main line (railway), the principal artery of a railway system * Main line railway preservation, the practice of operating preserved trains on an operational railw ...
crosses the
Winnipeg River The Winnipeg River is a Canadian river that flows roughly northwest from Lake of the Woods in the province of Ontario to Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba. This river is long from the Norman Dam in Kenora to its mouth at Lake Winnipeg. Its watershed ...
, between
Wade Wade, WADE, or Wades may refer to: Places in the United States * Wade, California, a former settlement * Wade, Maine, a town * Wade, Mississippi, a census-designated place * Wade, North Carolina, a town * Wade, Ohio, an unincorporated commun ...
to the west and Ena Lake at the east, and was accessible only by rail until about 1960. It was a fuelling and watering point in the days of steam locomotives; now few trains stop in Minaki, though the thrice-weekly
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 ...
transcontinental ''
Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
'' passenger trains will stop on request at the
Minaki railway station Minaki railway station is located in the community of Minaki in Unorganized Kenora District in northwestern Ontario, Canada. The station is on the Canadian National Railway transcontinental main line, and is in use by Via Rail as a stop for tr ...
. Tourism is the economic mainstay of Minaki, with camps, lodges and marinas catering to anglers and hunters. It is the embarkation point for more than 100 water-access cottages on surrounding lakes. The largest group of cottagers are from
Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...
, about 3½ hours drive away, and from nearby U.S. states.


History

First nations people have lived on the Winnipeg River in the Minaki area for a millennium or more, judging by the potshards and arrow points that turn up along the shores. The river was a major canoe route for the explorers and fur traders in the early days of white settlement. In the nineteenth century the
Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business div ...
had a trading post a couple of kilometres north of the present community. The modern community of Minaki got its start about 1910 when the
National Transcontinental Railway The National Transcontinental Railway (NTR) was a historic railway between Winnipeg and Moncton in Canada. Much of the line is now operated by the Canadian National Railway. The Grand Trunk partnership The completion of construction of Canada's ...
built a bridge across the river near where Skipper Holst had built a hotel a few years earlier and called the place Winnipeg River Crossing. The booming city of Winnipeg was about three hours travel to the west on the railway, and in no time there was a land boom in vacation properties on the small lakes along the railway. The
Grand Trunk Pacific Railway The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway was a historic Canadian transcontinental railway running from Fort William, Ontario (now Thunder Bay) to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, a Pacific coast port. East of Winnipeg the line continued as the National Tra ...
, which operated the line for the National Transcontinental, built a rustic resort hotel that it called the
Minaki Lodge Minaki Lodge ( ), formerly part of the chain of Canadian National Hotels, was originally built in 1914 by the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway (GTPR). Located on the route of the National Transcontinental Railway (NTR) at Minaki, Ontario, between Sioux ...
and renamed the station Minaki, an Ojibwa word that has been variously translated as Beautiful Water or Good Land.


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 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 ...
, Minaki had a population of 197 living in 89 of its 344 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 173. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.


Local government

Minaki has no local government as it is an unincorporated community located in an unorganized area, outside any incorporated townships. The Minaki Local Roads Board maintains the few roads in the community. The Minaki Local Services Board provides recreation through the Minaki Community Association and fire protection through the Minaki United Fire Fighters. The local services board owns and operates the Minaki Community Hall and the Minaki Fire Hall. There is also a volunteer first response team. The Minaki Foundation, a registered charity incorporated in 1986, raises money to support these and other local initiatives.


Geography

Minaki is at the boundary where the
white pine ''Pinus'', the pines, is a genus of approximately 111 extant tree and shrub species. The genus is currently split into two subgenera: subgenus ''Pinus'' (hard pines), and subgenus ''Strobus'' (soft pines). Each of the subgenera have been further ...
and
yellow birch ''Betula alleghaniensis'', the yellow birch, golden birch, or swamp birch, is a large tree and an important lumber species of birch native to northeastern North America. Its vernacular names refer to the golden color of the tree's bark. In the pa ...
of the northwestern tip of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence forest meet the jack pine,
black spruce ''Picea mariana'', the black spruce, is a North American species of spruce tree in the pine family. It is widespread across Canada, found in all 10 provinces and all 3 territories. It is the official tree of the province of Newfoundland and Labra ...
and trembling aspen of the boreal forest. Most major stands of white pine were either cut by the Simpson and Short lumber company in the 1920s or destroyed by wildfires in the drought summers of the 1930s. The largest remaining stands of virgin pine timber, the trees that symbolize the rugged north for many Canadians, are on islands where they were protected from both logging and fire. Some areas north of the town have been or are being logged to supply the Kenora Forest Products lumber mill (now closed) and a Weyerhaeuser oriented strand-board mill, both in Kenora. Located about 45 minutes north of
Kenora Kenora (), previously named Rat Portage (french: Portage-aux-Rats), is a city situated on the Lake of the Woods in Ontario, Canada, close to the Manitoba boundary, and about east of Winnipeg by road. It is the seat of Kenora District. The his ...
at the north end of paved Highway 596, the hamlet of Minaki is gateway to lakes and rivers of the Ontario portion of the Winnipeg River system, including Gun, Sand, Pistol and Roughrock lakes. Fly-in service is available to the English River and lakes farther north. Area lakes offer
bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...
, muskie, northern pike and walleye. There are also many black bear, moose and deer in the rugged woods surrounding the town. Many islands scatter the lakes. The main vacation season is July and August, with the August long weekend the peak of the summer season. Anglers also visit in the spring and hunters in the fall. Visitors to Minaki are few in the November–April period, though snow-machine traffic from Kenora to points farther north passes a few kilometres away from the community. Year-round population of the immediate Minaki area is estimated by residents at about 130. At the height of summer, the seasonal population of surrounding lakes served through Minaki is about 1,000. The largest lake adjacent to Minaki is Sand Lake, which is north of the townsite. The part north of Harbour Island and Moore's Point is known as Big Sand Lake; the basin generally west of Harbour Island and Moore's Point is known as Little Sand Lake.


References

* Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Guide to Eating Ontario Sport Fish *Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Fishing Regulations *Native Trees of Canada, Forestry branch, Government of Canada, 1949 (newer editions available) {{authority control Communities in Kenora District Designated places in Ontario Local services boards in Ontario Hudson's Bay Company trading posts