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Arkona is a community located in the municipality of
Lambton Shores Lambton Shores is a municipality in Lambton County, Ontario, Canada, that is on the southern shores of Lake Huron. History Lambton Shores was formed in 2001 when the Township of Bosanquet was amalgamated with the town of Forest, and the village ...
in
southwestern Ontario Southwestern Ontario (census population 2,796,367 in 2021) is a secondary region of Southern Ontario in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. It occupies most of the Ontario Peninsula, bounded by Lake Huron (includ ...
near the Lambton
Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...
county line, situated beside the
Ausable River Au Sable, Ausable or Aux Sable may refer to a documentary film or various places: * Au Sable (documentary), a film about the Michigan river, canoe race and people Illinois * Aux Sable Township, Grundy County, Illinois Michigan *Au Sable Town ...
, on Former Kings Highway 79 (now Lambton County Road 79), Arkona is roughly halfway between Thedford, and
Watford Watford () is a town and non-metropolitan district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of Central London, on the banks of the River Colne, Hertfordshire, River Colne. Initially a smal ...
.


History


Prehistory

The site of the village is at the base of the
Wyoming Moraine Wyoming ( ) is a landlocked state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It borders Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to t ...
which formed along the shores of ancient Lake Arkona during the retreat of the
Wisconsin Glacier The Wisconsin glaciation, also called the Wisconsin glacial episode, was the most recent glacial period of the North American ice sheet complex, peaking more than 20,000 years ago. This advance included the Cordilleran Ice Sheet, which nucleate ...
some 16,000 years ago. Rich deposits of fossils are revealed at nearby Hungry Hollow. Evidence of early human habitation exists at the site of Paleo hunting camps which were found just a kilometre south of Arkona dating back some 11,000 years. Subsequent migrations of
Archaic Archaic may refer to: * Archaic Period (several meanings), archaeological term used to refer to a very early period differing by location *Archaic humans, people before ''homo sapiens'' * ''Archaic'' (comics), a comic-book series created by write ...
and
Woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with woody plants (trees and shrubs), or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the '' plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunli ...
peoples moved into the area as the climate and vegetation changed. Evidence of this long-standing habitation is frequently discovered in the fields surrounding the current village.


Arrival of European settlers

The first known permanent settlers of European background were Asa Townsend (c.1775–alive 1851) and his wife Huldah Barstow, who first settled in Westminster Township near what became the City of
London, Ontario London is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city had a population of 422,324 according to the 2021 Canadian census. London is at the confluence of the Thames River (Ontario), Thames River and N ...
. After his lands ultimately became incorporated in London's Springbank Park, Townsend and his wife removed westward in 1821. They settled east of present-day Arkona on the banks of the
Ausable River Au Sable, Ausable or Aux Sable may refer to a documentary film or various places: * Au Sable (documentary), a film about the Michigan river, canoe race and people Illinois * Aux Sable Township, Grundy County, Illinois Michigan *Au Sable Town ...
in what later became Bosanquet Township in
Lambton County Lambton County is a county in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. It is bordered on the north by Lake Huron, which is drained by the St. Clair River, the county's western border and part of the Canada-United States border. To the south is Lake Saint Cla ...
. Townsend operated a
salt well A salt well (or brine well) is used to mine salt from caverns or deposits. Water is used as a solution to dissolve the salt or halite deposits so that they can be extracted by pipe to an evaporation process, which results in either a brine or a d ...
there, and remained in the area as late as 1851, living next door to his son Ezekiel Townsend. In 1833, the Townsends were joined by Henry Utter (1809–1898), who settled on a farm in the recently surveyed Warwick Township, across the township line from Bosanquet. Utter was subsequently joined by members of the Smith and Eastman families and a settlement gradually grew up that straddled the Warwick-Bosanquet Township line. (Utter married Harriet Smith (1816–1882) who was part of the extended Smith family). The Eastmans and one branch of the Smith family were the ancestors of
Alexander Phimister Proctor Alexander Phimister Proctor (September 27, 1860 – September 5, 1950) was an American sculptor with the contemporary reputation as one of the nation's foremost animaliers. Birth and early years Proctor was born on September 27, 1860 in Bo ...
who was born in the village in 1860. The village was surveyed in 1851 and known variously as Bosanquet Corners, Eastman Corners and Smithfield. In 1857, it was renamed ' Arkona' after the rugged cape on the Baltic Island of
Rügen Rügen (; Rani: ''Rȯjana'', ''Rāna''; , ) is Germany's largest island. It is located off the Pomeranian coast in the Baltic Sea and belongs to the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The "gateway" to Rügen island is the Hanseatic ci ...
, a name suggested by resident cabinet maker Ephraim Brower and possibly by the incumbent postmaster Levi Schooley. The village continued to grow and develop so that by the 1870s, with hopes of attracting a railway, the community incorporated in June 1876. While its population surpassed 700, the failure to attract a railway led to a population decline and the loss of its first known newspaper, the ''East Lambton Advocate'', which moved to the nearby railway village of Watford. (Hopes of securing a rail link continued to surface at least as late as 1911, when one resident wrote, "They are talking of a railroad for Arkona
hich Ij () is a village in Golabar Rural District of the Central District in Ijrud County, Zanjan province, Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq ...
they think is sure to come but ewill see when it gets here."). Even without the railway, however, Arkona remained an important service centre for the surrounding rural farming district and boasted many important industries such as a basket factory, woolen mill, apple evaporator, and a series of mills. Various businesses continued to service the local area including numerous stores and other enterprises.


Recent history

The advent of the automobile lessened local dependence on the village and its services, and led to gradual yet dramatic changes to Arkona's makeup, especially in the post-World War II era. Its school closed in 1973 and all village students then attended Bosanquet Township Central School. Since the 1880s, the village has maintained a population hovering around 500. Two mainstays have long been Arkona's Baptist Church (begun in 1840) and Arkona United Church, the successor to Arkona's Episcopal and Wesleyan Methodist Churches, both of which began in the 1850s (the Wesleyan
Methodist Church Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...
building, started in 1862, remained the home of the United Church congregation until its closure in January 2008). Similarly the community is served by the
Plymouth Brethren The Plymouth Brethren or Assemblies of Brethren are a low church and Nonconformist (Protestantism), Nonconformist Christian movement whose history can be traced back to Dublin, Ireland, in the mid to late 1820s, where it originated from Anglica ...
chapel, Elim Hall. Despite the changes and loss of many local enterprises, the community still boasts a dental office, optometrists, a medical clinic, a grocery store, gas station, and several retail outlets. Various fruit orchards continue to attract many to the community for fresh fruit. Rock Glen Conservation Area, located just north of the village, continues to attract tourists to the area and was the site of the Rock Glen Power Company's generator and dam on the Ausable from 1907 to 1926. It was taken over by
Ontario Hydro Ontario Hydro, established in 1906 as the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario, was a publicly owned electricity utility in the Province of Ontario. It was formed to build transmission lines to supply municipal utilities with electricity ge ...
and the dam was subsequently destroyed. Villagers celebrated the centennial of their community's incorporation in July 1976, with some two thousand people in attendance. A smaller celebration marked the 125 anniversary in 2001, although earlier that year the municipality had been amalgamated with Bosanquet Township (including the communities of
Ipperwash The Ipperwash Crisis was a dispute over Indigenous land that took place in Ipperwash Provincial Park, Ontario, on September 4, 1995. Several members of the Stoney Point Ojibway band occupied the park to assert claim to nearby land which had been ...
and Port Franks, Ontario), the Town of
Forest A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ...
and Villages of Thedford and
Grand Bend Grand Bend is a community located on the shores of Lake Huron in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. It is part of the Municipality of Lambton Shores in Lambton County. History In the 1830s a group of English and Scottish settlers bought lots from ...
to form the new entity of Lambton Shores.


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; ), 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 culture. It is headquartered in ...
, Arkona had a population of 648 living in 279 of its 283 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 634. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.


References

*Johnson, Margery. ''The Arkona Cemetery and Mennonite Cemetery in Warwick Township'' (Arkona: Arkona and Area Historical Society, 1985). *Johnson, William F. ''Arkona Through the Years'' (Forest, Ontario: Pole Printing, 1976). *Johnson, William Frederick. ''More of Arkona through the years : concluding in 1988'' (Arkona, Ontario: Arkona and Area Historical Society, 1988). *Southworth, Charles. ''A guide to the fossil bearing areas of Arkona, Thedford & vicinity'' (Sarnia, Ontario: Lambton County Historical Society, 1967) *Stott, Greg, "In Reply to Your Advertisement . . .": Local Influences on the Hiring of Teachers, Arkona, Ontario, 1882–1884", ''Historical Studies in Education/Revue d'histoire de l'éducation'', 20 2 (2008): 1-21. *Stott, Greg. ''Sowing the Good Seed:The Story of Arkona United Church'' (Arkona, Ontario: Greg Stott, 1996). *Wilson, Wilhelmine. ''Arkona Memories'' (Forest, Ontario: J.B. Pole Printing, 1976). * St. Denis, Guy. ''Byron: Pioneer days in Westminster Township'' (London, Ontario: Crinklaw Press, 1985) * Johnson, William. ''Arkona Through the Years'' (Forest, Ontario: Pole Printing, 1976). * Bosanquet Township Assessment Rolls, 1851. Lambton Room (Archives), Lambton County Library Headquarters, Wyoming, Ontario.


External links


Welcome to Arkona Ontario




{{authority control Former villages in Ontario Communities in Lambton County Designated places in Ontario 1851 establishments in Canada Settlers of Canada