The Whitefish River Valley is located in the

unorganized area An unorganized area or unorganized territory (french: Territoire non organisé) is any geographic region in Canada that does not form part of a municipality or Indian reserve. In these areas, the lowest level of government is provincial or territ ...

Thunder Bay District Thunder Bay District is a district and census division in Northwestern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario. The district seat is Thunder Bay. In 2016, the population was 146,048. The land area is ; the population density was . Most 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 ...

, and is named for the Whitefish River that flows through it. The valley is home to several small communities that developed when land was opened for

homesteading Homesteading is a lifestyle of self-sufficiency. It is characterized by subsistence agriculture, home preservation of food, and may also involve the small scale production of textiles, clothing, and craft work for household use or sale. Pur ...

along the

Port Arthur, Duluth and Western Railway The Port Arthur, Duluth and Western Railway (PADW) was a Canadian railway that operated in Northwestern Ontario. The PADW was built in 1889 by investors interested in extracting the mineral and timber wealth of the Whitefish River Valley, Silver ...

line at the turn of the 20th century and many people, particularly those from

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

, settled in the area.Port Arthur, Duluth and Western Railway
Retrieved November 30, 2008 Today it has a population of approximately 1,362.Archive of Nolalu profile at Broadband Canada
Retrieved on November 30, 2008. Education in the valley is provided by the Whitefish Valley School, which is located in Hymers and operated by the

Lakehead District School Board The Lakehead District School Board (known as English-language Public District School Board No. 6A prior to 1999) oversees all secular English-language public schools in the Thunder Bay CMA and the townships of Gorham and Ware in Ontario, Canada ...

.Whitefish Valley School
Retrieved on November 30, 2008.

Communities

Communities in the Whitefish River Valley include Flint, Harstone, Hillside, Hymers, Leeper, Nolalu, Sellers, and Silver Mountain. Part of the valley is located in the municipalities of O'Connor and

Gillies Gillies is both a Scottish surname and a given name shared by several notable people: Surname uses Politicians * Duncan Gillies (1834–1903), Australian colonial and state politician * James McPhail Gillies (born 1924), Canadian national pol ...

. The remainder is located in the

local services board A local services board (LSB) is an organization in the Canadian province of Ontario that is contracted by the Government of Ontario to provide municipal-level services in a community that is not part of an incorporated municipality. Most local ser ...

of Nolalu. Hillside is a hamlet on Highway 588. It was settled by

homesteaders The Homestead Acts were several laws in the United States by which an applicant could acquire ownership of government land or the public domain, typically called a homestead. In all, more than of public land, or nearly 10 percent of th ...

from Finland in the early 1900s. There were many small dairy farms and fields in Hillside until the 1950s. Hillside had its own train platform along the Port Arthur, Duluth and Western Railway, as well as its own school built in 1914. Nolalu is a village located on Highway 588. It is located in Lybster geographic township. The term "Nolalu" is an

abbreviation An abbreviation (from Latin ''brevis'', meaning ''short'') is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method. It may consist of a group of letters or words taken from the full version of the word or phrase; for example, the word ''abbrevia ...

of a company that was called "Northern Lands and Lumber" and is also used to describe a wide area around the village, as well as the local service board that oversees roads and services in much of the valley. The Whitefish River flows through the village on its way toward the

Kaministiquia River The Kaministiquia River is a river which flows into western Lake Superior at the city of Thunder Bay, Ontario. ''Kaministiquia'' (''Gaa-ministigweyaa'') is an Ojibwe word meaning "where a stream flows in island" due to two large islands (McKellar ...

References

{{authority control Communities in Thunder Bay District Landforms of Thunder Bay District Valleys of Ontario River valleys of Canada