Rossport is a dispersed rural community and unincorporated place in the Unorganized part of

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 ...

in northwestern

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 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 tot ...

. It is on the north shore of

Lake Superior Lake Superior in central North America is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. and the third-largest by volume, holding 10% of the world's surface fresh wa ...

geographic Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...

Lahontan Township, and is on

Ontario Highway 17 King's Highway 17, more commonly known as Highway 17, is a provincially maintained highway and the primary route of the Trans-Canada Highway through the Canadian province of Ontario. It begins at the Manitoba boundary, west of Kenora, and the m ...

. Rossport is a

designated place A designated place (DPL) is a type of community or settlement identified by Statistics Canada that does not meet the criteria used to define municipalities or population centres. DPLs are delineated every 5 years for the Canadian census as the sta ...

served by a

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 ...

, and has a population of 65.

History

Rossport is named after John Ross (c1820-1898), construction manager for the north shore of Lake Superior route of the

Canadian Pacific Railway 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 ...

from August 1882 to June 1885. His construction headquarters during that time period were in

Port Arthur, Ontario Port Arthur was a city in Northern Ontario, Canada, located on Lake Superior. In January 1970, it amalgamated with Fort William and the townships of Neebing and McIntyre to form the city of Thunder Bay. Port Arthur had been the district seat of ...

and at Rossport, then known a
McKay's Harbour
McKay's Harbour was named after Alexander McKay who operated a small fur trading post at Pays Plat and his son, Charles McKay, who was a lighthouse keeper at nearb
Battle Island
from 1878-1913. After the end of CPR construction in 1885, Rossport became an important commercial fishing centre. Bowman Street is named after John Bowman (1858–1950) who operated a fishing company there. Tiny Rossport garnered a wide reputation for being a source of prime fish. An article in the Dominion Illustrated from October 1888, speaks of how dealers from Eastern Canada had travelled to Rossport and other North Shore communities in order to contract for Lake Superior’s fine freshwater fish. Another article from November 1888 talks of a trial shipment of ten barrels of fish from Rossport being sent to Belfast Ireland, where it was quickly sold. In 1901, Rossport joined other North Shore port communities in becoming a regular stop for steamships belonging to

Francis Clergue Francis Hector Clergue (August 28, 1856 – January 19, 1939) was an American businessman who became the leading industrialist of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada, at the turn of the 20th century. Biography Early life ...

. The vessels operated between Sault Ste Marie and Port Arthur. In 1907, tenders were called by the Dominion Public Works Department for the construction of a wharf at Rossport. Most interesting is how a small local competition in 1937 morphed into an international event. There was a time when the Rossport Fish Derby was a staple on every sports fisherman's calendar. An August 1952 article in the Toronto Star describes over 4000 people attending that year’s self-proclaimed “greatest amateur fishing event in North America”. Cars, tents and people would be visible along the highway for a distance as participants arrived and staked out a piece of land to camp on for the one-day event. The arrival to the Lake of a non-native species, the Lamprey eel, caused devastation to the Lake trout population and, over time, brought about the downfall to the days of the derby. In 1911 the luxury steam yacht ''Gunilda'', owned by

William L. Harkness William Lamon Harkness (August 8, 1858 – May 10, 1919) was an American businessman and inheritor of a large share of Standard Oil. Early life William Lamon Harkness was born in Bellevue, Ohio, the son of Daniel M. Harkness, who was the half-br ...

, foundered on th
McGarvey Shoal
and sank 8 kilometres from Rossport. The actual date of the sinking varies from August 11 to August 29 to August 31st depending upon the article. A Toronto Daily Star news item contained in the Friday, September 1, 1911 edition states that the vessel ran aground on Wednesday, which would be August 30, and then refers to the sinking as occurring "yesterday" or August 31, 1911. This timeframe could reflect accuracy as after the vessel ran aground on the shoal and stabilized, a small boat was sent to Rossport where arrangements were made for the dispatch of a rescue tug from Port Arthur. It would take time for that tug to travel to Rossport. Therefore there would be a difference in the time between when the Gunilda ran aground and when it was actually pulled off the shoal only to sink. Painters from the

Group of Seven (artists) The Group of Seven, once known as the Algonquin School, was a group of Canadian landscape painters from 1920 to 1933, originally consisting of Franklin Carmichael (1890–1945), Lawren Harris (1885–1970), A. Y. Jackson (1882–1974), F ...

visited Rossport and the surrounding area several times in the 1920s. In 2018, a plaque was installed in Wardrop Park celebrating their visits and Lawren Harris' painting "Rossport, Lake Superior - 1921" as part of the Moments of Algoma tourism initiative. On October 3, 1933, Rossport's waterfront suffered great damage as a result of an unusual tidal phenomenon with Lake Superior.

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 ...

, Rossport had a population of 96 living in 43 of its 68 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 65. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

Local government

Rossport is managed by a

. Rossport has a water treatment plant which serves 45 households. The hamlet falls within the provincial and federal ridings of Thunder Bay-Superior North.

Recreation and Environment

The

Lake Superior National Marine Conservation Area Lake Superior National Marine Conservation Area (french: Aire marine nationale de conservation du Lac-Supérieur) is a National Marine Conservation Area (NMCA) on the north shore of Lake Superior in Ontario, and is a unit of the national park sys ...

, which includes the waters off Rossport, was created by

Parks Canada Parks Canada (PC; french: Parcs Canada),Parks Canada is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Parks Canada Agency (). is the agency of the Government of Canada which manages the country's 48 National Parks, th ...

on June 24, 2015. In 2009, an eight-island

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands. Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Archi ...

just off Rossport, including Wilson Island, was purchased from private owners and was to become a Canadian federal natural area under a joint deal backed by the

Nature Conservancy of Canada The Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) is a private, non-profit, charitable nature conservation and restoration organization based in Canada. Since its founding in 1962, the organization and its partners have protected of land and water across ...

, the Government of Canada and the Government of Ontario, and supported by the

Pays Plat First Nation Pays Plat First Nation is a small First Nation reserve community located near Rossport, Ontario, Canada, about northeast of Thunder Bay. The Pays Plat 51 Reserve is in the boundaries of the territory described in the Robinson-Superior Treaty of ...

. The

Voyageur Hiking Trail The Voyageur Hiking Trail is a public hiking trail between Sudbury and Thunder Bay in Northern Ontario, Canada. The name honours the early European fur traders of the region who travelled largely by canoe and were known as 'voyageurs’ and � ...

passes through the town.

Demographics

Rossport had a population of 66 in the Canada 2006 Census, a decrease of 41.1% since 2001,

br>Population and dwelling counts, for Canada, provinces and territories, and designated places, 2006 and 2001 censuses
Retrieved 27 August 2008. but only dropped to 65 persons in the 2011 census.

References

Other map sources: * *

External links

{{authority control Communities in Thunder Bay District Designated places in Ontario Local services boards in Ontario Populated places on Lake Superior in Canada