Chapleau, Ontario
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Chapleau is a
township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...
in
Sudbury District The Sudbury District is a district in Northeastern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario. It was created in 1894 from townships of eastern Algoma District and west Nipissing District. In 1973, the Regional Municipality of Sudbury was creat ...
,
Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...
, Canada. It is the access point to one of the world's largest
wildlife preserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, funga, or features of geologic ...
s. Chapleau has a population of 1,942 according to the
2021 Canadian census The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canada, 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%, whic ...
. The major industries within the town are the logging mill,
Rayonier Advanced Materials Rayonier Advanced Materials recently rebranded as RYAM. RYAM is an American company recognized globally for its cellulose-based technologies. Specializing in high-purity cellulose specialties, RYAM produces natural polymers extensively used in man ...
(RYAM) (formerly
Tembec Tembec Industries Inc., known as Tembec, was a paper company in Canada, founded by Frank Dottori. In 2011, Tembec had approximately 3000 employees,Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway () , 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 Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Canadian Pacific Ka ...
(CPR) rail yards.


History

In 1885 the Canadian Pacific Railway was built through the area. The CPR chose this as a
divisional point In Canada and also in the United States, a divisional point (or division point) is a local operational headquarters for a railway. Divisional points are significant in railway maintenance of way operations. Especially historically, they could be the ...
, and the town was founded. It was named in honour of Sir
Joseph-Adolphe Chapleau Sir Joseph-Adolphe Chapleau (; November 9, 1840 – June 13, 1898), born in Sainte-Thérèse, Quebec, was a French-Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 7th Lieutenant Governor of Quebec from 1892 to 1898. Life As a lawyer, he defe ...
, a lawyer, journalist, businessman, politician, and most notably the 5th
Premier of Quebec The premier of Quebec ( (masculine) or eminine is the head of government of the Canadian province of Quebec. The current premier of Quebec is François Legault of the Coalition Avenir Québec, sworn in on October 18, 2018, following tha ...
. Around 1887, the
Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...
established a fur trade post and store in Chapleau near the Canadian Pacific Railway line. It was the headquarters of HBC's Michipicoten District from that year until 1892 when the post closed. Chapleau was incorporated as the Corporation of the Township of Chapleau on February 1, 1901.
Louis Hémon Louis Hémon (12 October 1880 – 8 July 1913), was a French writer, best known for his novel '' Maria Chapdelaine''. Biography Louis Hémon was born in Brest, France. In Paris, where he resided with his family, he was enrolled in the Mont ...
, author of the French novel ''
Maria Chapdelaine ''Maria Chapdelaine'' is a romance novel written in 1913 by the Breton writer Louis Hémon, who was then residing in Quebec.Guy Laflèche. Polémiques'. Editions du Singulier; 1992. . p. 126 – 128. Aimed at young French and Quebecois people ...
'', was struck and killed by a train in Chapleau on 8 July 1913. After a fire in 1948, the government was prompted to construct a road to Chapleau to enable logging contractors to truck timber before it rotted. The Chapleau Road (now Highway 129) was completed on January 28, 1949. In the early 1960s,
Highway 101 Highway 101 was an American country music band founded in 1986 in Los Angeles, California. The initial lineup consisted of Paulette Carlson (lead vocals), Jack Daniels (guitar), Curtis Stone (bass guitar, vocals), and Scott "Cactus" Moser (drum ...
was completed to link Chapleau with
Timmins Timmins ( ) is a city in northeastern Ontario, Canada, located on the Mattagami River. The city is the fourth-largest city in the Northeastern Ontario region with a population of 41,145 at the 2021 Canadian census and an estimated population of ...
to the east, and Wawa to the west. Chapleau also developed logging and lumber mill operations. Up until 1994 the town supported no less than three lumber mills, but the United States' imposition of a softwood lumber tariff designed to benefit American lumber companies has led to many layoffs and difficult times for the town. At its largest, with large CPR and lumber operations, the town had a population of over 5,000. However, the town has been gradually shrinking since 1950. In 1967, the Chapleau Centennial Museum was opened to showcase and celebrate local history. It is located at 94 Monk Street.


Geography

Chapleau is located in central
Northeastern Ontario Northeastern Ontario is a secondary region of Northern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario, which lies north of Lake Huron and east of Lake Superior. Northeastern Ontario consists of the districts of Algoma, Sudbury, Cochrane, Timisk ...
, in the heart of the
Canadian Shield The Canadian Shield ( ), also called the Laurentian Shield or the Laurentian Plateau, is a geologic shield, a large area of exposed Precambrian igneous and high-grade metamorphic rocks. It forms the North American Craton (or Laurentia), th ...
. Chapleau is geographically isolated; the nearest cities are
Sault Ste. Marie Sault Ste. Marie may refer to: People * Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, a Native American tribe in Michigan Places * Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada ** Sault Ste. Marie (federal electoral district), a Canadian federal electora ...
, Timmins, and
Sudbury Sudbury may refer to: Places Australia * Sudbury Reef, Queensland Canada * Greater Sudbury, Ontario ** Sudbury (federal electoral district) ** Sudbury (provincial electoral district) ** Sudbury Airport ** Sudbury Basin, a meteorite impact cra ...
, but all are more than a two-hour drive away. Highway 129 links the town with
Highway 101 Highway 101 was an American country music band founded in 1986 in Los Angeles, California. The initial lineup consisted of Paulette Carlson (lead vocals), Jack Daniels (guitar), Curtis Stone (bass guitar, vocals), and Scott "Cactus" Moser (drum ...
, running east to Timmins and west to Wawa. Highway 129 also runs south, connecting with the
Trans-Canada Highway The Trans-Canada Highway (Canadian French, French: ; abbreviated as the TCH or T-Can) is a transcontinental federal–provincial highway system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada, from the Pacific Ocean on the west coast to the A ...
, Highway 17 at
Thessalon Thessalon is a town in the Canadian province of Ontario, located at the junction of Highway 17 and Highway 129 on the north shore of Lake Huron. It is surrounded by, but not part of, the municipality of Huron Shores, and is part of Algoma Di ...
, from Chapleau.
Via Rail Via Rail Canada Inc. (), operating as Via Rail or Via (stylized as VIA Rail), is a Canadian Crown corporation that operates intercity passenger rail service in Canada. As of December 2023, Via Rail operates 406 trains per week across eight ...
's
Sudbury–White River train The Sudbury–White River train, formerly the ''Lake Superior'', informally called the ''Budd Car'', is a Canadian passenger train operated by Via Rail serving communities between Sudbury and White River, Ontario, three times a week. The timetab ...
also connects Chapleau station with White River,
Sudbury Sudbury may refer to: Places Australia * Sudbury Reef, Queensland Canada * Greater Sudbury, Ontario ** Sudbury (federal electoral district) ** Sudbury (provincial electoral district) ** Sudbury Airport ** Sudbury Basin, a meteorite impact cra ...
and a number of remote communities. Three
First Nations First nations are indigenous settlers or bands. First Nations, first nations, or first peoples may also refer to: Indigenous groups *List of Indigenous peoples *First Nations in Canada, Indigenous peoples of Canada who are neither Inuit nor Mé ...
reserves are located near the township:
Chapleau Cree First Nation Chapleau Cree First Nation (, ''šaplo ininiwak'') is a Mushkegowuk Cree First Nation located by Chapleau Township, Sudbury District, Ontario, Canada. The First Nation have reserved for themselves the Chapleau 75 Indian Reserve and the Cha ...
,
Brunswick House First Nation Brunswick House First Nation is an Ojibway-Cree First Nations in the Canadian province of Ontario, located in the Sudbury District, northeast of Sault Ste Marie, Ontario. The First Nation have reserved for themselves the Mountbatten 76A India ...
, and
Chapleau Ojibway First Nation Chapleau Ojibway First Nation is an Ojibwa First Nation located near Chapleau Township, Sudbury District, Ontario, Canada. The First Nation have reserved for themselves the 67 ha Chapleau 61A Indian Reserve, 64.7 ha Chapleau 74 Indian Reserve ...
. One unusual feature of the community's transportation network is that because a
railway yard A rail yard, railway yard, railroad yard (US) or simply yard, is a series of tracks in a rail network for storing, sorting, or loading and unloading rail vehicles and locomotives. Yards have many tracks in parallel for keeping rolling stock or ...
separates the community into distinct halves, the main street in the western portion of the community loops back over itself in a manner resembling a
cloverleaf interchange A cloverleaf interchange is a two-level interchange (road), interchange in which all turns are handled by slip roads. To go left (in right-hand traffic; reverse directions in left-driving regions), vehicles first continue as one road passe ...
, and then crosses over both itself and the railway yard on a
grade separation In civil engineering (more specifically highway engineering), grade separation is a method of aligning a junction of two or more surface transport axes at different heights ( grades) so that they will not disrupt the traffic flow on other tr ...
before returning to street level to link to the eastern street grid.


Chapleau Crown Game Preserve

Chapleau Crown Game Preserve The Chapleau Crown Game Preserve is a fur bearing animal preserve area in Ontario, Canada, north-east of Lake Superior. It covers some in the Algoma and Sudbury Districts, and is officially classified as a Crown Game Preserve by the Government ...
to the north of the town is, at over , the largest animal preserve in the world. Protected wildlife include
moose The moose (: 'moose'; used in North America) or elk (: 'elk' or 'elks'; used in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is the world's tallest, largest and heaviest extant species of deer and the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is also the tal ...
, black bears, pygmy shrews,
bald eagle The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche ...
s and
loon Loons (North American English) or divers (British English, British / Irish English) are a group of aquatic birds found in much of North America and northern Eurasia. All living species of loons are members of the genus ''Gavia'', family (biolog ...
s. The preserve is a source of tourism, drawing nature-enthusiasts and fishermen to the township. All forms of hunting and trapping have been forbidden in the preserve since the 1920s. The result is an area with abundant wildlife. In fact, over 2,500 moose and over 2,000 black bears reside within the game preserve. Logging does occur within the preserve, as does fishing. There are two provincial parks and cottages located within the preserve.


Climate

Chapleau experiences a
humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers, and cold ...
(''Dfb'') with warm, rainy summers and long, cold, and snowy winters.


Demographics

In the
2021 Canadian census The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canada, 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%, whic ...
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 ...
, Chapleau had a population of 1,942 living in 867 of its 973 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 1,964. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.


Economy

Main employers in Chapleau include the
Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway () , 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 Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Canadian Pacific Ka ...
and Ryam Lumber. Tourism is also an important part of the economy with several outfitters and lodges operating in the area. In 2012, the Chapleau Economic Development Corporation (CEDC) was founded as an independent, non-profit organization. Resolution 28-371, passed by the Chapleau Town Council on September 24, 2012, established the existing agreement between the Township and the CEDC.
Goldcorp Goldcorp Inc. was a gold production company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The company stood among the largest gold producers in the world, employed about 15,800 people worldwide, engaged in gold mining and related activit ...
is working towards the advanced exploration phase at the Borden Gold project. Borden Lake Mine opened September 23, 2019, creating many jobs for the local populace.


Government

The town is governed locally by a five-member council. The current council is made up of Mayor Ryan Bignucolo and Councillors Lisi Bernier, Paul Bernier, Cathy Ansara and Alex Lambruschini.


Wireless mesh Internet

Starting on November 9, 2005, Chapleau residents began testing a wireless
mesh Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) is a comprehensive controlled vocabulary for the purpose of indexing journal articles and books in the life sciences. It serves as a thesaurus of index terms that facilitates searching. Created and updated by th ...
Internet technology in a program called Project Chapleau. This
Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for Wireless LAN, local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by ...
connection covered the entire town and was the first of its kind in Canada. This service was designed and implemented by
Bell Canada Enterprises BCE Inc., an abbreviation of its former name Bell Canada Enterprises Inc., is a publicly traded Canadian holding company for Bell Canada, which includes telecommunications providers and various mass media assets under its subsidiary Bell ...
,
Nortel Nortel Networks Corporation (Nortel), formerly Northern Telecom Limited, was a Canadian Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications and data networking equipment manufacturer headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario. It was founded in ...
Networks, and the Township of Chapleau. An analysis of the impact of high-speed internet on the residents and town of Chapleau was published in 2010 by Jessica Collins and Barry Wellman. In April, 2007, Project Chapleau concluded without a reason being given. The Project Chapleau office (The Chapleau Innovation Centre) was converted into a public internet access point, with job search and community networking facilities.


Education

The town has two high schools, Chapleau Elementary and Secondary School (CESS) and École Secondaire Catholique Trillium, and two elementary schools, École élémentaire catholique Sacré-Cœur, and Our Lady of Fatima. Chapleau Elementary and Secondary school belongs to the Algoma District School Board, the others belong to the French and English Catholic school boards.


Media

All of the township's regular broadcast media are rebroadcasters of signals from
Sudbury Sudbury may refer to: Places Australia * Sudbury Reef, Queensland Canada * Greater Sudbury, Ontario ** Sudbury (federal electoral district) ** Sudbury (provincial electoral district) ** Sudbury Airport ** Sudbury Basin, a meteorite impact cra ...
,
Timmins Timmins ( ) is a city in northeastern Ontario, Canada, located on the Mattagami River. The city is the fourth-largest city in the Northeastern Ontario region with a population of 41,145 at the 2021 Canadian census and an estimated population of ...
or Wawa. The township's only purely local media service is
CFJW-FM CFJW-FM is an emergency alert radio station that operates at 93.7 FM in Chapleau, Ontario, Canada. Licensed to Allan Pellow, the township's chief administrative officer, the station was given approval by the Canadian Radio-television and Teleco ...
93.7, a special station which airs information from the municipal government in the event of a weather or industrial emergency. The station does not broadcast on a regular basis; in the event of an emergency, the municipal fire service activates its fire sirens to alert residents to tune in the station.CFJW-FM launch announcement
, August 31, 2007.


Radio


Television


Notable people

* Floyd Curry (1925–2006), NHL player and four-time Stanley Cup winner * Robert Deluce, airline executive and current president and CEO of
Porter Airlines Porter Airlines (stylized in Letter case#All lowercase, all lowercase as porter) is a Canadian airline headquartered at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport in Toronto. It is the third largest airline in Canada, behind Air Canada and WestJet. Owned ...
* Robert Fife, journalist and author * Liz Howard, poet and winner of the
Griffin Poetry Prize The Griffin Poetry Prize is a Canadian poetry award. It was founded in 2000 by businessman and philanthropist Scott Griffin. Before 2022, two separate awards went to one Canadian and one international poet who writes in the English language. I ...
*
Adélard Lafrance Adélard Henry "Adie, Del" Lafrance (January 13, 1913 – June 19, 1995) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. He played three games in the National Hockey League for the Montreal Canadiens during the 1933–34 season. The rest of his c ...
(1912–1995), professional ice hockey player * Rick Norlock, federal Member of Parliament *
Graham Ragsdale Graham Ragsdale (born 28 June 1969) is a former soldier of the Canadian Forces. He commanded the sniper team from the 3rd Battalion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry attached to the United States Army 187th Infantry Regiment, 101st Air ...
, decorated Canadian Army sniper * Jason Ward, 1997 first-round draft pick of the
Montreal Canadiens The Montreal Canadiens (), officially ' ( Canadian Hockey Club) and colloquially known as the Habs, are a professional ice hockey team based in Montreal. The Canadiens compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic D ...


See also

*
List of townships in Ontario This is a list of township (Canada), townships in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. Townships are listed by List of census divisions of Ontario, census division. Northern Ontario Northeastern Ontario Algoma D ...
*
List of francophone communities in Ontario This is a list of francophone communities in Ontario. Municipalities with a high percentage of French-speakers in the Canadian province of Ontario are listed. The provincial average of Ontarians whose mother tongue is French is 3.3%, with a to ...


References


Further reading

*


External links

* {{Authority control Hudson's Bay Company trading posts Municipalities in Sudbury District Single-tier municipalities in Ontario Township municipalities in Ontario