Kenora District is a district and

census division Census divisions, in Canada and the United States, are areas delineated for the purposes of statistical analysis and presentation; they have no government in and of themselves. The census divisions of Canada are second-level census geographic uni ...

in Northwestern Ontario, Canada. The district seat is the City of

Kenora Kenora (), previously named Rat Portage (), is a city situated on the Lake of the Woods in Ontario, Canada, close to the Manitoba boundary, and about east of Winnipeg by road. It is the seat of Kenora District. The history of the name exten ...

. It is geographically the largest division in Ontario: at , it covers 38 percent of the province's area, making it larger than

Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of . As of 2025 the populatio ...

, and slightly smaller than

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

or roughly the land size of

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. Kenora District also has the lowest population density of any of Ontario's census divisions (it ranks 37th out of 50 by total population). The district was created in 1907 from parts of Rainy River District. The northern part (north of the Albany River) only became part of Ontario in 1912 (transferred from the

Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories is a federal Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Canada. At a land area of approximately and a 2021 census population of 41,070, it is the second-largest and the most populous of Provinces and territorie ...

).''The Ontario Boundaries Extension Act'', S.C. 1912 (CA), 2 Geo. V, c. 40. The separate Patricia District upon transfer, it was in 1937 annexed to Kenora District and known sometimes as the Patricia Portion.Patricia Act, RSO 1937, c 5
(retrieved March 26, 2016).

Politics

As with the other districts of Northern Ontario, the Kenora District does not have an organized government like those of counties or regional municipalities in

Southern Ontario Southern Ontario is a Region, primary region of the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario. It is the most densely populated and southernmost region in Canada, with approximately 13.5 million people, approximately 36% o ...

. All government services in the district are instead provided by the local municipalities, by local services boards in some unincorporated communities, or directly by the provincial government.

Geography

The

climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in a region, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteoro ...

is very harsh because of the influence of the cold waters of Hudson and James Bays: most of the region is

taiga Taiga or tayga ( ; , ), also known as boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces, and larches. The taiga, or boreal forest, is the world's largest land biome. In North A ...

characterized by discontinuous permafrost, but on the extreme northern coast there are – remarkably for a latitude of only 54°N – patches of true Arctic

tundra In physical geography, a tundra () is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. There are three regions and associated types of tundra: #Arctic, Arctic, Alpine tundra, Alpine, and #Antarctic ...

and continuous permafrost. This is the southernmost point in the Northern Hemisphere reached by the circumpolar line of continuous permafrost on any continent. Kenora District is geographically extensive enough to share borders with both the

contiguous United States The contiguous United States, also known as the U.S. mainland, officially referred to as the conterminous United States, consists of the 48 adjoining U.S. states and the District of Columbia of the United States in central North America. The te ...

(the boundary between it and the Northwest Angle is located in the Lake of the Woods) and the Canadian Arctic waters (Hudson Bay), the only district in Canada to do so. The District contains the

Sturgeon Lake Caldera Sturgeon Lake Caldera is a large extinct volcano, extinct caldera complex in Kenora District, Ontario, Kenora District of Northwestern Ontario, Canada. It is one of the world's best preserved mineralization (geology), mineralized Neoarchean cald ...

, which is one of the world's best preserved Neoarchean

caldera A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcanic eruption. An eruption that ejects large volumes of magma over a short period of time can cause significant detriment to the str ...

complexes and is some 2.7 billion years old.

Subdivisions

Cities: * Dryden *

Towns: * Red Lake * Sioux Lookout Townships: * Ear Falls * Ignace * Machin * Pickle Lake * Sioux Narrows-Nestor Falls Unorganized areas: * Kenora, Unorganized (including the local services boards of Greater Oxdrift, Melgund, Minaki, Redditt, Round Lake, and Wabigoon)

First Nations reserves

* Attawapiskat * Bearskin Lake * Cat Lake * Deer Lake * Eabametoong * Eagle Lake 27 * English River 21 * Fort Albany 67 (part) * Fort Severn 89 * Islington 29 * Kasabonika * Keewaywin * Kenora 38B * Kingfisher Lake * Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug * Lac Seul * Lake of the Woods 31G * Lake of the Woods 37 * Marten Falls * Mishkeegogamang * Muskrat Dam Lake * Neskantaga * Northwest Angle 33 * North Spirit Lake * Pikangikum * Poplar Hill * Rat Portage 38A * Sabaskong Bay 35D * Sachigo Lake * Sandy Lake * Shoal Lake 39A (part) * Shoal Lake 40 (part) * Shoal Lake 34B2 * The Dalles 38C * Wabauskang 21 * Wabaseemoong Independent Nations * Wabigoon Lake * Wapekeka * Wawakapewin * Weagamow Lake 87 * Whitefish Bay 32A * Whitefish Bay 33A * Whitefish Bay 34A * Wunnumin Lake

Patricia Portion

The Patricia Portion is the part of the Kenora District lying north of the Albany River, which was transferred from the

to Ontario on May 15, 1912, in ''The Ontario Boundaries Extension Act''. This area was originally a separate division, Patricia District, but became part of Kenora District in 1937. With the exception of a few communities along the northernmost ends of Highway 599 and the Highway 105/ Highway 125 corridor, the Patricia Portion consists almost entirely of remote

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 ...

communities that are only accessible by float plane or winter road. Accordingly, the term "Patricia Portion" is still sometimes used to distinguish the region from the relatively more populated and road-accessible southern portion.

Demographics

As a

in the 2021 Census of Population 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 ...

, the Kenora District 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.

Economy

Most of the population is concentrated in the district's extreme south where some agriculture is possible: the main crop is

barley Barley (), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains; it was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent around 9000 BC, giving it nonshattering spikele ...

. Traditional native activities such as hunting and fishing dominate the north of the district outside of mining settlements.

Mining

The area near Lake Minnehaha saw a gold rush between 1902 and 1909. The settlement of Gold Rock served 14 area mines, which included the Big Master, Laurentian, Detola and Elora. According to Barnes, "Approximately 180,000 ounces of gold was won from 27 mines in the Kenora district from 1880 to 1976," with "over 331 known gold occurrences." The more successful mines included the Bully Boy, Cameron Island, Champion, Combined, Cornucopia, Gold Hill, Golden Horn, Kenricia, Mikado, Oliver, Olympia, Ophyr, Regina, Scramble, Severn, Stella, Sultana, Treasure and Wendigo. Mining is currently extremely extensive in northern Kenora District, which contains some of the world's largest and highest-grade reserves of

uranium Uranium is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Ura ...

and some of the world's major producers of nickel. A major mining exploration project is currently underway in the

Ring of Fire The Ring of Fire (also known as the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Rim of Fire, the Girdle of Fire or the Circum-Pacific belt) is a tectonic belt of volcanoes and earthquakes. It is about long and up to about wide, and surrounds most of the Pa ...

region, centred on the district's isolated McFaulds Lake.

Transportation

Permanent roads ( Highway 599) only reach about halfway to the northernmost point of Kenora district, with the provincial highway network ending at Pickle Lake. Some more northerly communities connect seasonally through an

ice Ice is water that is frozen into a solid state, typically forming at or below temperatures of 0 ° C, 32 ° F, or 273.15 K. It occurs naturally on Earth, on other planets, in Oort cloud objects, and as interstellar ice. As a naturally oc ...

/ winter road network to the Northern Ontario Resource Trail. Year-round air and summertime river transport are the only means of reaching the most remote parts of the district. The major railroad lines between Toronto and

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

pass through the south of the district. The district is served by

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 ''Canadian'' at Rice Lake, Copelands Landing, Malachi, Ottermere, Minaki, Redditt, Farlane station,

Canyon A canyon (; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), gorge or chasm, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tendency t ...

, Red Lake Road, Richan, and Sioux Lookout stations.

References

External links

* {{Authority control