Wanup is a dispersed rural community and unincorporated place in the

geographic township The term township, in Canada, is generally the district or area associated with a town. The specific use of the term to describe political subdivisions has varied by country, usually to describe a local rural or semirural government within the co ...

of Dill in the southeast of the city of

Greater Sudbury Sudbury, officially the City of Greater Sudbury is the largest city in Northern Ontario by population, with a population of 166,004 at the 2021 Canadian Census. By land area, it is the largest in Ontario and the List of the largest cities and to ...

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 ...

. Wanup became part of Greater Sudbury on January 1, 2001, when that city was created by amalgamating the former

Regional Municipality of Sudbury The Regional Municipality of Sudbury was a Regional Municipality that existed in Ontario, Canada, from 1973 to 2000, and was primarily centred on the city of Sudbury. It served as an upper-tier level of municipal government, aggregating municipal ...

, to which the townships of Dill and Cleland (along with other townships) were added.

Geography

The community is located along Highway 537, near the interchange with Highway 69. It is on the right bank of the

Wanapitei River The Wanapitei River (French: ''Rivière Wanapitei'') is a river in Northeastern Ontario, Canada. It is in the Great Lakes Basin and is a right tributary of the French River. The river's source is Scotia Lake, a small lake east of Halfway Lake ...

. The smaller community of St. Cloud, which is treated as part of Wanup for postal delivery and telephone exchange purposes, is located a few kilometres north of Wanup, on the opposite bank of the Wanapitei River, in the geographic township of Cleland.

History

Settlement of Wanup dates back to the early 1900s, when large numbers of

Finns Finns or Finnish people ( fi, suomalaiset, ) are a Baltic Finnic ethnic group native to Finland. Finns are traditionally divided into smaller regional groups that span several countries adjacent to Finland, both those who are native to these ...

arrived in Canada. Leaving their homeland to escape the political instability of the time and the spectre of war with Russia many Finns chose this area to resume their primarily agricultural lifestyles. This area was popular among the Finns due to the geographical similarities with many parts of Finland. Another important factor was the abundance of available work from the construction of the CN and CP rail lines which pass through the area. Wanup has acted as base for many generations of

Finnish Canadian Finnish Canadians are Canadian citizens of Finnish ancestry or Finns who emigrated to and reside in Canada. In 2016, 143,645 Canadians claimed Finnish ancestry. Finns started coming to Canada in the early 1880s, and in much larger numbers in the e ...

s and still retains a high number of Finnish families. On June 2, 2013, a rail bridge crossing the Wanapitei River at Wanup collapsed, causing a train derailment.

References

{{authority control Finnish Canadian Neighbourhoods in Greater Sudbury