Matachewan 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 Timiskaming, Northeastern

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 ...

, located at the end of Ontario Highway 66 along the Montreal River. The name is derived from the Cree word for "meeting of the currents". The town's main economy is based on

mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid substance with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. (2011): Mi ...

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 ...

, mainly

gold mining Gold mining is the extraction of gold by mining. Historically, mining gold from Alluvium, alluvial deposits used manual separation processes, such as gold panning. The expansion of gold mining to ores that are not on the surface has led to mor ...

, with some

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure, and the Commerce, commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel. World Tourism Organization, UN Tourism defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as ...

History

Matachewan began as a trading post of 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 ...

, called Fort Matachewan, located about north of the present town site. It consisted only of a large depot and stores, with a church added later on. The local First Nations, who traded their furs here, would camp along the Montreal River but not settle permanently. Jake Davidson discovered gold in 1916 and teamed up with Weldy Young in 1930 to start the Young-Davidson mine. Sam Otisse staked a claim next to Davidson in 1917, which became the Matachewan Consolidated Mines. Alex Mosher staked claims which became the Ashley Gold Mine (1932-1936). The impetus to the town's growth came in the 1920s when mineral deposits, such as gold, copper, and molybdenite, were found in the area. From then on it experienced boom and bust cycles of typical mining towns, depending on the swings in commodity prices, but its economy has gradually shifted to forestry and tourism. In January 1976, the Improvement District of Matachewan was formed, and in 1995, it was incorporated as a township. The Otisse Lake overflowed into mine tailings on 17 Oct. 1990, and 170,000 cubic metres of mine slimes entered the Matachewan River. In 2006, a medivac helipad was built to help accommodate the possibility of injuries that may occur at the Young-Davidson mine site. In 2008, an old and worn out wooden bridge over the Montreal River which was built in 1937 was replaced with a new steel-concrete reinforced structure for safety reasons regarding the heavy traffic to/from the mine.

Geology

Matachewan is on the southwest portion of the Abitibi greenstone belt and within the

Abitibi gold belt The Abitibi gold belt is a region of Canada that extends from Wawa, Ontario to Val-d'Or, Quebec. Located within the mineral-rich Abitibi greenstone belt, the gold belt is an established gold mining district having produced over 100 mines, and ...

. Between 1933 and 1957, the Young-Davidson Mine and the Matachewan Consolidated Mine produced 9.6 million

tonne The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1,000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton in the United States to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the s ...

s of

ore Ore is natural rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals, typically including metals, concentrated above background levels, and that is economically viable to mine and process. The grade of ore refers to the concentration ...

containing 3.1 grams of gold per ton and 0.93 grams per ton of silver. Between 1979 and 1980, Pamour Porcupine Mines Limited

open-pit mining Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique that extracts rock (geology), rock or minerals from the earth. Open-pit mines are used when deposits of commercially ...

produced 18,000 tonnes of ore containing more than 3.4 grams per ton of gold.

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 ...

, Matachewan 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. Matachewan ON 2

Culture

Matachewan is known for celebrating local cultures every July during the Matachewan Villages Festival event.

Transportation

Provincial highways: * Highway 65 * Highway 66

References

External links

* {{Timiskaming District Municipalities in Timiskaming District Single-tier municipalities in Ontario Township municipalities in Ontario