Blind River, Ontario
| Blind River | |
|---|---|
| Town (single-tier) | |
| Town of Blind River | |
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|
 Blind River
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| Coordinates: 46°11′N 82°57′W / 46.183°N 82.950°WCoordinates: 46°11′N 82°57′W / 46.183°N 82.950°W | |
| Country |
 Canada
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| Province |
 Ontario
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| District | Algoma |
| Government | |
| • Type | Town |
| • Mayor | Sue Jensen |
| • MP | Carol Hughes (NDP) |
| • MPP | Michael Mantha (NDP) |
| Area | |
| • Land | 526.46 km2 (203.27 sq mi) |
| Population (2011) | |
| • Total | 3,549 |
| • Density | 6.7/km2 (17/sq mi) |
| Time zone | EST (UTC−5) |
| • Summer (DST) | EDT (UTC−4) |
| Area code(s) | 705 |
| Website | www.blindriver.ca |
Blind River is a town situated on the North Channel of Lake Huron in the Algoma District, Ontario, Canada. The town, named after the nearby Blind River, celebrated its centennial in 2006.
French explorers discovered the North Channel and made it a renowned voyageur route. Fur traders, loggers and miners followed to seek natural resources. A fur trading post was established by the North West Company in 1789 at the mouth of the Mississagi River. When the fur trade slowed about 1820, the Hudson's Bay Company purchased the North West Company. A number of trappers settled along the rivers flowing into Lake Huron. One of these rivers, just three miles (5 km) east of the Mississagi mouth, was called Penewobecong, which translates to "smooth rock or sloping". The voyageurs named this river the Blind River because the mouth was not visible along the canoe route. The name Blind River was adopted by the settlement that grew at the mouth of the river. The logging industry developed because of the accessibility of timber along the Blind River and Mississagi watersheds. The industry was spurred by a copper discovery in the mid-19th century in Bruce Mines. The first sawmill was built beside the mouth of the Blind River at the current site of the Old Mill Motel. The protected estuary of the east arm of the Blind River as well as the deep water offshore offered a good location for the mill. The sawmill provided timber and planks for the copper mine. By 1906 when Blind River had been incorporated as a town, a second larger sawmill had been erected on the west arm of the Blind River. Today the west arm is the location of the Blind River Marine Park. In 1929 the Carpenter Hixon Company built a state-of-the-art pine sawmill producing 89 million board feet of lumber in its first year. Through boom and bust the mill survived under the name McFadden Lumber Company for over forty years as the largest white pine sawmill east of the Rocky Mountains, with an annual capacity of 120,000,000 board feet (280,000 m³) of lumber (an output never reached in actual production.) The Great Mississagi Fire of 1948 led to a depletion of timber, difficult economic conditions and the eventual closing of the mill in 1969. The lumber history is commemorated in the Timber Village Museum.
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Wikipedia