Nickel Centre
Nickel Centre | |
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Nickel Centre (1996 census population 13,017) was a town in Ontario, Canada, which existed from 1973 to 2000.
It was created as part of the Regional Municipality of Sudbury. On January 1, 2001, the town and the Regional Municipality were dissolved and amalgamated into the city of Greater Sudbury. The town is now divided between Wards 7 and 9 on Greater Sudbury City Council, and is represented by councillors Mike Jakubo and Deb McIntosh.
In the
Communities
Coniston
Coniston was a part of the geographic Neelon Township, which was named after Sylvester Neelon.[2]: 45 The first settlers in the Coniston area were the Butler family, who arrived in 1902. They were joined by five other families by 1904, who created their own farms. Common crops included hay, rye, and oats.[2]: 45 The Canadian Northern Railway (a predecessor of the Canadian National Railway) arrived in 1905, with Coniston lying along its transcontinental line. It was joined in 1908 by the Canadian Pacific Railway, which constructed a new direct line linking Sudbury and Toronto via Romford Junction.[3] The population had risen to 20 families during this period and settlers requested the establishment of a local post office, which had to be named; the name Neelon was originally considered, but Dennis O'Brien, a local settler who became the first postmaster, decided on the name Coniston after it was suggested to him by T. Johnson, a railway construction superintendent who had been reading a novel set in the village of Coniston in the Lake District of England.[2]: 45–46
The
Coniston was subsequently incorporated under the provisions of the Municipal Act by
Notable residents of Coniston have included hockey players
Falconbridge
The geographic township of Falconbridge was named in the 1880s for
A significant ore body was discovered in 1902 by
Falconbridge Ltd. built the Edison Building in 1969 to serve as its head office. Falconbridge Ltd. was taken over by
Falconbridge was incorporated as a town in 1957. The town's first and only
A visual and radar
Garson
The community is named after the geographic township of Garson, named by the Ontario Government in the 1880s for William Garson, who represented Lincoln in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1886 to 1890.
The area was first developed in 1888 as a logging camp, by the Holland and Emery Lumber Company of
The Canadian Northern Railway was built through Garson in 1908.
Skead
Skead is located approximately 25 kilometres northeast of downtown Sudbury, and situated on south shore of
Boland's Bay
Skead's address and telephone service also includes the smaller neighbourhood of Boland's Bay (46°39′11″N 80°45′59″W / 46.65306°N 80.76639°W), a dispersed rural community and unincorporated place,
Wahnapitae
The community takes its name from the
The community of Wahnapitae is located east of Sudbury along Highway 17. It was the first settlement to be established in Nickel Centre and was supposed to be the main community within the Sudbury district because it was located along a major waterway. Originally, it was thought that Sudbury would be just a small settlement in the area, but with the discovery of ore and a shift from logging to mining, Sudbury became the focal point of the district and Wahnapitae was relegated to a smaller role.
In the early days of the town, logging was the major industry of the area. Many lumber companies established their operations along the Wanapitei River and the river itself was used to send the harvested logs to Southern Ontario for processing. Workers and their families, as well as various entrepreneurs, established a community along the river bank that was eventually known as Wahnapitae. In its heyday, Wahnapitae was a large, booming community that boasted a number of banks, general stores, clothing stores, hotels, and various other enterprises. It also possessed its own separate school (St. Peter) and public school (Wahnapitae Public School) and even had a water tower and a train station (it was located along the East West main line of the Canadian Pacific Railway).
As the number of viable trees for harvesting dwindled and mining began to take hold, the community of Wahnapitae lost its momentum. Suddenly, people were choosing mining towns over Wahnapitae and eventually the town became a shadow of its former glory. Wahnapitae remained an unorganized township until the amalgamation of the Regional Municipality of Sudbury in 1973 and in 2001, it became part of the City of Greater Sudbury. The town that began as a logging and farming settlement is today mostly a residential community.
Ghost town
Happy Valley
The ghost town of Happy Valley, originally known as Spruce Valley, was first inhabited in 1906 by workers from the nearby mine at Garson. Not wanting to live in a state of dependency in the company town, they built this smaller town of humble shacks with narrow streets. In 1930, the Garson Mine shut down, and the workers were transferred to the mines at Falconbridge.
However, due to
By the early 1970s, the roughly one hundred people who lived in Happy Valley were still suffering daily from air pollution produced by the nearby operations of Falconbridge Nickel Mines Limited (FNM). After years of pressure to do something about this situation, in the early 1970s the Ontario government facilitated the abandonment of Happy Valley in cooperation with the Regional Municipality of Sudbury and FNM. The controversial decision made headlines; it was the first instance in which the provincial government financed the relocation of an entire community because of air pollution. Most Happy Valley residents had accepted compensation for their homes and moved away by the mid-1970s, although at least one resident refused to sell his property and remained in the area until the late-1980s. Today, the ghost town is off limits to the general public and protected by a large barbed-wire fence.[15]
Transportation
The
Highway 17, the main route of the
References
- ^ Canada 2011 Census Community Profiles: Population Centre of Sudbury. Statistics Canada.
- ^ ISBN 0-920-919-00-6.
- ^ Kennedy, R. L. "Canadian Pacific Railway Bruce Division, MacTier Subdivision". Old Time Trains. Retrieved 21 November 2021.
- ^ "Thomas Edison". Greater Sudbury Heritage Museums. Retrieved 2007-12-30.
- ISBN 1-55002-621-6
- ^ a b "Alderdale Subdivision". CNR in Ontario. 9 July 2019. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
- ^ Canadian Transportation Agency (18 April 1996), Order No. 1996-R-152, retrieved 25 July 2020
- ^ "Boland's Bay". Geographical Names Data Base. Natural Resources Canada. Retrieved 2017-12-02. (community)
- ^ "Boland's Bay". Geographical Names Data Base. Natural Resources Canada. Retrieved 2017-12-02. (bay)
- ^ "Bowlands Bay". Geographical Names Data Base. Natural Resources Canada. Retrieved 2017-12-02.
- ^ "Bowland Bay". Geographical Names Data Base. Natural Resources Canada. Retrieved 2017-12-02.
- ^ Canadian Transportation Agency (18 April 1996), Order No. 1996-R-152, retrieved 25 July 2020
- ^ Freelang Ojibwe Dictionary
- ^ Ontario Abandoned Places: Happy Valley
- S2CID 226610029.