Powassan is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

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 ...

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 near North Bay. Powassan is located in the

Almaguin Highlands The Almaguin Highlands Region (colloquially known as Almaguin, also referred to as 'the Highlands') in Ontario, Canada, covers approximately comprising the eastern half of Parry Sound District. It is bounded by Muskoka in the south, and by Lake ...

region of

Parry Sound District Parry Sound District is a census division of the Canadian province of Ontario. Its boundaries are District of Muskoka to the south, the Sudbury District to the north-northwest, the French River and Lake Nipissing in the north, Nipissing Distri ...

, at its easternmost boundary with the

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

. The municipality includes the population centres of Powassan and Trout Creek, both along Highway 11.

History

Taken from a First Nations name that means "bend", Powassan's original settlement was at the bend of the South River. The location today is known as the Bingham Chute, and is where the present hydro plant is. The village of Powassan began in/about 1880 with the construction of a sawmill and a grist mill. Mill employees built their houses in that section of the village. A construction camp for the

Northern and Pacific Junction Railway The Northern and Pacific Junction Railway (N&PJ) is a historic railway located in northern Ontario, Canada. It connected the Northern Railway of Canada's endpoint in Gravenhurst to the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) at Nipissing Junction, near No ...

was established at Powassan in 1885. This section of track completed in 1886, was taken over by the

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

in 1888 and absorbed by

Canadian National Railway 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 i ...

s in 1923. In 1886, the operation of the

between Gravenhurst and Nipissing Junction saw the development of a second settlement near the railroad. Christopher Armstrong and William Faulkner Clark were granted two lots by the Crown, lots 15 and 16, respectively, in the 12th concession of the Township of Himsworth. The 15th sideroad of the Township of Himsworth was the road allowance reserve between the two lots, which is the present-day Main Street, Powassan's main thoroughfare. Armstrong divided lot 15 into sections that were 1/5 of an acre in size; Clark divided lots into lots of 1/4 acre each. Clark's plans are registered as numbers 43 and 57. On November 30, 1904, a Royal Proclamation was issued that declared that Powassan was a separate and new municipality. In the same proclamation, the citizens were constituted a body corporate under the name of the Corporation of the Town of Powassan. In 1906, the present town hall was built. The current Municipality of Powassan came into being on January 1, 2001 as a result of the amalgamation of the Town of Powassan, Town of Trout Creek and the Township of South Himsworth. The two main communities in the town are Powassan and Trout Creek.

Climate

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 ...

, Powassan 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.

References

External links

* {{Parry Sound District Municipalities in Parry Sound District Single-tier municipalities in Ontario

History

Climate

Demographics

See also

References

External links