Oliver Paipoonge 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 ...

, located directly west of the city 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 ...

. The municipality was formed on January 1, 1998, with the amalgamation of the former Township of Oliver and Township of Paipoonge. It contains several communities within its boundaries, including Baird, Carters Corners, Harstone, Kakabeka Falls, Lee, McCluskeys Corners, Millar, Murillo, Rosslyn, Slate River Valley, Stanley and Twin City. The remainder of the municipality is agricultural or rural. The municipality is part of Thunder Bay's

Census Metropolitan Area The census geographic units of Canada are the census subdivisions defined and used by Canada's federal government statistics bureau Statistics Canada to conduct the country's quinquennial census. These areas exist solely for the purposes of stat ...

Geography

The geography of Oliver Paipoonge transitions from river valleys in the south, through flat open farmland and rolling hills in the central areas, to the rough Canadian Shield in the north. The most notable geographic feature is

Kakabeka Falls Kakabeka Falls is a waterfall on the Kaministiquia River, located beside the village of Kakabeka Falls in the municipality of Oliver Paipoonge, Ontario, west of the city of Thunder Bay. The falls have a drop of , cascading into a gorge carved ...

, located on the western edge of the municipality in Kakabeka Falls Provincial Park.

Communities

Murillo contains a post office, a store, a municipal hall, and a Public Library. New commercial enterprises, located in the Rubin Industrial Park, include a well driller, self-storage facility, a forest products manufacturer, and the Rural Roots child care facility. Each year the village hosts the Murillo Fall Fair, which features chariot races. The village is the location of the government offices for the Municipality of Oliver Paipoonge as well as the Oliver Paipoonge Police and the Lakehead Rural Planning Board. Murillo was originally a

water stop A water stop or water station on a railroad is a place where steam trains stop to replenish water. The stopping of the train itself is also referred to as a "water stop". The term originates from the times of steam engines when large amounts of ...

on the

Canadian Pacific The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadi ...

Railway (CPR). The stop was named after the Spanish painter Bartolomé Estéban Murillo, as the CPR was at that time using the names of painters to name the many new communities springing up along its trans-Canadian line.Tronrud, Thorold J. & Nicholson, David (1999).
Thunder Bay Quiz Book: 101 Fascinating Questions about our History
''.

Thunder Bay Historical Museum Society The Thunder Bay Museum is located in Thunder Bay, Ontario. It is operated by the Thunder Bay Historical Museum Society, incorporated in 1972 as the successor to the Thunder Bay Historical Society. The Museum is affiliated with the Canadian Museums ...

, pps. 9 (question) and 36 (answer) . Rosslyn contains numerous commercial enterprises and is home to approximately 1,200 people and the Paipoonge Museum. A

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

course and housing subdivision, named King George's Park, are currently being developed in a former gravel pit. There is also a skating rink here, and a community centre and Public Library beside it. Kakabeka Falls takes its name from the nearby

waterfall. The Lauber Arboretum is located in the community. As Kakabeka Falls' economy is based on tourism, its main street is lined with tourist oriented businesses such as hotels, restaurants, and camping sites. A three-day street fair is hosted in the village every August. Kakabeka Falls has a public school, called Kakabeka Falls Elementary School, located on the community's main street.

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, Oliver Paipoonge 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. According to the 2016 census, 51.2% of Oliver Paipoonge's population were male and 48.8% were female. Children under five accounted for approximately 5.1% of the resident population of Oliver Paipoonge. This compares with 5.2% in Ontario as a whole. In mid-2001, 9.7% of the resident population in Oliver Paipoonge were of retirement age (65 and over for males and females) compared with 13.2% in Canada. The average age was 37.9 years of age comparing to 37.6 years of age for all of Canada.

Transportation

The municipality is served by three major highways. Highways 61 and 130 are located in the southeast corner of the municipality and serves as the backbone of the Slate River Valley, an agricultural community. Highway 130 connects to the

Trans-Canada Highway The Trans-Canada Highway (French: ; abbreviated as the TCH or T-Can) is a transcontinental federal–provincial highway system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada, from the Pacific Ocean on the west coast to the Atlantic Ocean on ...

(Highway 11/ 17) at Rosslyn, the largest settlement. It also serves as the main street for Kakabeka Falls. Approximately half of the population of Oliver Paipoonge lives within five kilometres of Highway 11/17.

Highway 102 Route 102 or Highway 102 can refer to multiple roads: China * China National Highway 102 Canada * New Brunswick Route 102 * Newfoundland and Labrador Route 102 * Nova Scotia Highway 102 * Ontario Highway 102 * Prince Edward Island Rou ...

runs through the northeast corner of the municipality. A small grass airstrip is located northeast of Kakabeka Falls, and two rail lines run through the municipality.

Economy

Oliver Paipoonge's primary industry is agriculture, followed with tourism focused around Kakabeka Falls and forest products manufacturing in Murillo and Rosslyn. Many residents commute to work either to Thunder Bay or the surrounding woodlands.

Politics

The municipal office of Oliver Paipoonge is located in the village of Murillo. The current mayor of Oliver Paipoonge is Lucia Kloosterhuis; first elected as mayor in 2003, having previously served as a councillor in both Oliver Paipoonge and the former Township of Paipoonge. The first female elected as mayor in Oliver Township was Iris Calvert, in 1991. Previously, the Municipality of Paipoonge had not elected a female as mayor.

Sites of interest

Each year Kakabeka Falls hosts a street fair, Murillo hosts the Murillo Fall Fair, the Slate River area hosts the Slate River Ploughing Match, and the Agriplex hosts an annual summer fair. There are two museums in the municipality: the Paipoonge Museum in Rosslyn and the Pioneer Museum in the Slate River Valley.

Education

Oliver Paipoonge is served by the

Lakehead District School Board The Lakehead District School Board (known as English-language Public District School Board No. 6A prior to 1999) oversees all secular English-language public schools in the Thunder Bay CMA and the townships of Gorham and Ware in Ontario, Canad ...

. There are four schools located in Oliver Paipoonge, Crestview Public School in Murillo, Kakabeka Falls Public School in Kakabeka Falls, Valley Central Public School and Thunder Bay Christian School (JK - Grade 10). High schools students are bused to Thunder Bay. A daycare centre is located in Murillo.

References

External links

* {{Thunder Bay District Municipalities in Thunder Bay District Single-tier municipalities in Ontario