Red Squirrel Road, also called the Red Squirrel logging road and formerly called the Johns-Manville Road, is a

logging road A gravel road is a type of unpaved road surfaced with gravel that has been brought to the site from a quarry or stream bed. Gravel roads are common in less-developed nations, and also in the rural areas of developed nations such as Canada and ...

located within the Municipality of

Temagami Temagami, formerly spelled Timagami, is a municipality in northeastern Ontario, Canada, in the Nipissing District with Lake Temagami at its heart. The Temagami region is known as ''n'Daki Menan'', the homeland of the area's First Nations com ...

Nipissing District Nipissing District is a district in Northeastern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario. It was created in 1858. The district seat is North Bay. In 2021, the population was 84,716. The land area is ; the population density was , making it o ...

in 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. It runs from Whitefish Bay on

Lake Temagami Lake Temagami, formerly spelled as Lake Timagami, is a lake in Nipissing District in northeastern Ontario, Canada, situated approximately 80 km north of North Bay. The lake's name comes from ''dimii-agamiing'' "tih-MEE-uh-guh-MEENG", which me ...

Ontario Highway 11 King's Highway 11, commonly referred to as Highway 11, is a Ontario Provincial Highway Network, provincially-maintained highway in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. At , it is the second-longest highway in th ...

at the community of Owaissa.

History

Red Squirrel Road was originally created in 1965 by the Johns-Manville company to log

jack pine Jack pine (''Pinus banksiana''), also known as grey pine or scrub pine, is a North American pine. Distribution and habitat Its native range in Canada is east of the Rocky Mountains from the Mackenzie River in the Northwest Territories t ...

on the sand flats just north of Ferguson Bay at the northern end of

. As the flats were cleared the logged jack pine was towed down Red Squirrel Road towards Highway 11. During 1970, Red Squirrel Road became longer to log the jack pine through the Sharp Rock Portage near Diamond Lake. Red Squirrel Road became abandoned to the public until around 1972 and subsequently, the road has been used by the public. In 1985, plans were broadcast to expand Red Squirrel Road and this became a rallying point for environmental preservation. In 1988, the Ontario Minister of Natural Resources, Vince Kerrio approved the expansion of the Red Squirrel logging road, directly through Anishnabe territory. This prompted a series of roadblocks by the

Teme-Augama Anishnabai The Teme-Augama Anishnabai (from the Anishinaabe ''Dimii'aagamaa Anishinaabe'', "the deep water people") is the Indigenous Anishinaabe community of the Temagami First Nation. The ancestors of Teme-Augama Anishnabai have trapped and hunted animal ...

and by environmentalists from 1988 to 1989.

References

Roads in Nipissing District Transport in Temagami {{Ontario-road-stub