Manitouwadge is a

township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, C ...

in the Canadian province of

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

. It is located in the

Thunder Bay District Thunder Bay District is a district and census division in Northwestern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario. The district seat is Thunder Bay. In 2016, the population was 146,048. The land area is ; the population density was . Most ...

, at the north end of Highway 614, east of

Thunder Bay Thunder Bay is a city in and the seat of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It is the most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario and the second most populous (after Greater Sudbury) municipality in Northern Ontario; its population i ...

and north-west of Sault Ste. Marie.

History

Manitouwadge (''Manidoowaazh'' in

Ojibwe The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...

, meaning "Cave of the Great Spirit") is part of the wide-ranging territory of the

people. The town itself was founded by General Engineering Co Limited (later as Noranda and now part of

Xstrata Xstrata plc was an Anglo-Swiss multinational mining company headquartered in Zug, Switzerland and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It was a major producer of coal (and the world's largest exporter of thermal coal), copper, ...

) after staking claims in 1953 to support of

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

mine. The other mine in Manitouwadge is the Willroy mine, named after two of the "Weekend Prospectors" William Dawidowich and Roy Barker. Full production at Geco and Willroy began in 1957. From 1954 to 1974 Manitouwadge was classified as an Improvement District. The community became an incorporated township in 1975. In the early 1980s,

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...

was discovered at Hemlo, near the intersection of highways 614 and 17, about south of the town. Noranda acquired the mining rights to a significant portion of the ground in that area, and built the Golden Giant Mine. It offered housing in Manitouwadge to many of the employees of the new mine, and the town boomed. When the Geco mine closed in 1995, Manitouwadge's population decreased significantly. After peaking at nearly 4000 people in the early 1990s, it decreased to less than 3000 by 2001. With the closing of the Golden Giant Mine in 2006, the population dropped to 2,100 by 2011.

Today

While mining has always been at the forefront of Manitouwadge's

economic activity Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyzes w ...

, forestry also plays a significant part in the town's economy. The town is currently seeking new industry and residents and offers some of the lowest housing and commercial property prices in Ontario. A longstanding joke in Manitouwadge is that a resident would pay more for their vehicle than for their home.

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, Manitouwadge 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.

Recreation

Hiking and skiing

Trails for hiking in the summer and trails for snowmobilers in the winter are also abundant. Ten runs for downhill skiing are present at the Kiwissa Ski Club, as well as two locations with cross country ski trails managed by the Northern Trails Ski Club. From the top of the Kiwissa ski hill, one can see almost the whole town.

Trivia

*Manitouwadge's municipal limits include four geographic townships: Mapledoram, Leslie, Gemmel, and Gertrude. *Willroy mine was named after two of the "Weekend Prospectors." William Dawidowich and Roy Barker. *Manitouwadge was the first Model Town established in Ontario. *Nearby Mose Lake is named after Moses Fisher, the native guide of James E. Thomson on his 1931 exploration of the Manitouwadge area. Name duplication required the S be dropped. *From 1954 to 1974 Manitouwadge was classified as an Improvement District. The community attained Township classification in 1975. *Birthplace of Stanley Cup and Olympic gold medal winning hockey coach

Mike Babcock Mike may refer to: Animals * Mike (cat), cat and guardian of the British Museum * Mike the Headless Chicken, chicken that lived for 18 months after his head had been cut off * Mike (chimpanzee), a chimpanzee featured in several books and document ...

Climate

Manitouwadge has a

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freezing ...

(

Dfb DFB may refer to: * Deerfield Beach, Florida, a city * Decafluorobutane, a fluorocarbon gas * Dem Franchize Boyz, former hip hop group, Atlanta, Georgia * Dfb, Köppen climate classification for Humid continental climate * Distributed-feedback ...

) bordering on a subarctic climate (Dfc), typical in

Northern Ontario Northern Ontario is a primary geographic and quasi-administrative region of the Canadian province of Ontario, the other primary region being Southern Ontario. Most of the core geographic region is located on part of the Superior Geological Pro ...

. Summers are generally warm and rainy with cool nights. Winters are typically very cold and very snowy. Winter usually begins late October and lasts into April.

References

External links

* {{Thunder Bay District Company towns in Canada Mining communities in Ontario Municipalities in Thunder Bay District Single-tier municipalities in Ontario Township municipalities in Ontario