Lemieux, Ontario

Lemieux is a ghost town in the Canadian province of Ontario, which was located on the shore of the South Nation River in the Prescott and Russell County township of South Plantagenet. The community was abandoned over a two-year period from 1989 to 1991, after soil testing revealed that the town was built on unstable Leda clay, a type of subsoil which can liquefy under stress, and was consequently in danger of experiencing a landslide similar to the one that destroyed the town of Saint-Jean-Vianney, Quebec in 1971.

The decision to relocate the community's residents was prudent - on June 20, 1993, two years after the last remaining building at Lemieux was demolished, a landslide occurred on a farm very close to the edge of the former townsite.

Lemieux, a predominantly Franco-Ontarian settlement, was first established in 1850 as a mill town for lumber operations in the area, and later evolved into a farming community. A Roman Catholic parish church, Saint-Joseph-de-Lemieux, was established in 1891.

In 1910, locals documented a small landslide, which occurred on the Nation River just west of Lemieux. Years later, on May 16, 1971, just 12 days after the Saint-Jean-Vianney disaster, a small landslide occurred on the South Nation River 4.5 km (3 mi) upstream from Lemieux. As a result, the South Nation Conservation Authority began a program of soil testing along the river to identify sites at risk. In 1989, Lemieux was identified as a risk site, and after consultations with the township, the provincial Ministry of Natural Resources and the local residents, it was decided to relocate the residents to a safer area. Over the next two years, the residents were relocated to existing nearby communities at provincial government expense.

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