Havelock-Belmont-Methuen 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 central-eastern

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 Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, in

Peterborough County Peterborough County is a county and census division located in Southern Ontario, Canada. The county seat is the City of Peterborough, which is independent of the county. The southern section of the county is mix of agriculture, urban and lakef ...

. On January 1, 1998, Belmont and Methuen Township amalgamated with the Village of Havelock to form what is now Havelock-Belmont-Methuen.

History

The region's colonial history began with an influx of settlers after Belmont and Methuen Township was surveyed in 1823. The community of Havelock was incorporated as an independent village in 1892. Havelock was named after the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

general, Sir

Henry Havelock Major-general (United Kingdom), Major-General Sir Henry Havelock (5 April 1795 – 24 November 1857) was a British general who is particularly associated with India and his recapture of Siege of Cawnpore, Cawnpore during the Indian Rebellion of ...

. Early settlers built their homes in an area of dense forests and numerous lakes and rivers within the rocky

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 ...

. They survived by means of

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment (Freshwater ecosystem, freshwater or Marine ecosystem, marine), but may also be caught from Fish stocking, stocked Body of water, ...

logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidder, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or trunk (botany), logs onto logging truck, trucksfarming Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

. By 1869, Blairton, in the Township of Belmont County, was a village with a population of 500. The village was near the richest iron mines in the

Dominion A dominion was any of several largely self-governance, self-governing countries of the British Empire, once known collectively as the ''British Commonwealth of Nations''. Progressing from colonies, their degrees of self-governing colony, colon ...

. Miners and laborers were in great demand. The village was a station of the Cobourg, Peterborough & Marmora Railway. The land in the vicinity was almost all taken up. There were stages to Norwood and Marmora. Later, in the nineteenth century and continuing to the present,

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

became an important economic activity. Early businesses in Havelock included a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

bakery A bakery is an establishment that produces and sells flour-based baked goods made in an oven such as bread, cookies, cakes, doughnuts, bagels, Pastry, pastries, and pies. Some retail bakeries are also categorized as Coffeehouse, cafés, servi ...

, and a

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

were located south of the current village on high ground at the intersection of County Road 30 and Old Norwood Road. In 1881, 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 ...

surveyed a right-of-way through the area north of Havelock and a year later laid rails and surveyed and filled the swampy land to make room for a larger village. The current village of Havelock was developed on the filled land by the tracks north of the former village site and was incorporated in 1892. In the fall of 1884, the first full passenger train stopped at Havelock, from

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

on its way to Smith's Falls. In 1961, the Havelock branch of the Toronto-Dominian Bank was robbed, in what was described by the ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part of Torstar's Daily News Brands (Torstar), Daily News Brands division. ...

'' in 2021 as "one of the biggest bank robberies in Canadian history." Havelock was an important freight depot from the 1880s to the 1960s. The railway is now run by Canadian Pacific as

Kawartha Lakes Railway The Kawartha Lakes Railway is a Canadian rail line. It was created in 1996 to assume the operations of the Havelock and Nephton Subdivisions of the Canadian Pacific Railway which serve the Peterborough, Ontario area. The line originally had 19 emp ...

and its activity today consists of transporting

nepheline syenite Nepheline syenite is a holocrystalline Intrusion, plutonic rock that consists largely of nepheline and alkali feldspar. The rocks are mostly pale colored, grey or pink, and in general appearance they are not unlike granites, but dark green varie ...

and crushed

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

rock from two mines north of Havelock operated by Unimin. In 1998, the village of Havelock was amalgamated with the township of Belmont-Methuen to form the current township of Havelock-Belmont-Methuen.

Historic School

The old school, a two-story building now known as the Hilltop Apartments, stands at the northwest corner of Oak Street and Mathison Street, Havelock. In 1890 to 1963 Havelock area students attended this school which in 1937 was renamed Havelock High School. In 1952 Havelock High School students were transferred to the new Norwood District High School in the neighbouring town of Norwood, Ontario. In 1963 Havelock Public School students were transferred to the new Havelock Public School, east of the Havelock Community Centre. In 1963 the school building was sold and converted to apartments. In September, 2005 the Havelock High School Reunion Committee placed in front of the apartments a commemorative plaque bolted to a large red granite stone from a local quarry.

Railway Station

The

(CPR) station on Ottawa Street (Hwy #7) in Havelock was built in 1929. It was designated in 1991 as a Heritage Railway Station by the Historic Sights and Monuments Board,

Parks Canada Parks 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 37 National Parks, three National Marine Co ...

. In 2004 the Station was purchased and renovated to accommodate restaurants.

Local Government

The town's council includes a Mayor, Deputy Mayor, and three Councillors elected on the basis of one per ward. One other representative is elected to join the mayor at meetings of Peterborough County Council. The members of council elected in 2022 are: Mayor: Jim Martin Deputy Mayor: Hart Webb Councillors: * At Large: Kathy Clement * Township Ward: Jerry Doherty * Village Ward: Beverly Flagler

Communities

The township comprises the communities of Ashby Mill, Belmont Lake, Blairton (ghost town), Blairton Station, Blue Mountain, Chase Corners, Cordova Mines, Freeman Corners, Jack Lake, Havelock, Kasshabog Lake, MacDonald Bay, Nephton (ghost town), Oak Lake, Preneveau, Rockdale, Round Lake, Rush Point and Vansickle. Havelock is the site of an annual

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

festival, the

Havelock Country Jamboree The Havelock Country Jamboree was a four-day country music camping festival held in the village of Havelock, Ontario (located northeast of Toronto). Called Canada's Largest Country Music and Camping Festival, the festival has a Thursday through ...

, in August. Havelock Country Jamboree celebrated its 30th anniversary in the summer of 2019.

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 ...

, Havelock-Belmont-Methuen 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. Belmont ON

Mother tongue:Statistics Canada 2006 Census
Havelock-Belmont-Methuen community profile
/ref> * English as first language: 92.0% * French as first language: 1.1% * English and French as first language: 1.1% * Other as first language: 5.8%

References

External links

* {{Authority control Lower-tier municipalities in Ontario Municipalities in Peterborough County Township municipalities in Ontario