Walden, Ontario
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| Website | Walden Community Action Network |
Walden (
Walden now constitutes most of Ward 2 on Greater Sudbury City Council. Walden is part of the federal Sudbury electoral district, represented in the House of Commons of Canada by Paul Lefebvre of the Liberal Party of Canada, and the provincial constituency of Nickel Belt, represented in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario by France Gélinas of the Ontario New Democratic Party.
In the
History
The town was created by amalgamating the township municipalities of Waters and Drury, Dennison & Graham with the unincorporated geographic townships of Lorne, Louise and Dieppe and parts of the unincorporated townships of Hyman, Trill, Fairbank, Creighton, Snider and Eden. The name "Walden" was chosen as an acronym of Waters, Lively and Denison.[2] Other names were suggested, but the final selection process had narrowed the naming options to Walden or Makada, an Ojibwe name for the town's Black Lake (makade in contemporary spelling).
Tom Davies, who later became chair of the Regional Municipality of Sudbury, was the first mayor of Walden as a town. Later mayors included Charles White, Terry Kett, Alex Fex and Dick Johnstone. Following Davies' retirement as chair of the regional municipality in 1997, Sudbury's city hall was renamed Tom Davies Square in his honour.
Prior to the municipal amalgamation, Walden was the largest town by land area in Canada.
Communities
Lively
The administrative and commercial centre of Walden, Lively was established in the 1950s as a company townsite for employees of
From the intersection of
Lively was the first area hit by the
Lively is also home to the Walden area's branch of the Greater Sudbury Public Library.
Little Creighton
A small residential subdivision just north of Lively, long known as "Dogpatch", officially rebranded itself as Little Creighton in 2015.[4]
Naughton
Naughton was originally established as a point along the
Naughton is the birthplace of
Naughton is also home to a number of historical plaques commemorating
Whitefish
Whitefish is located approximately 14 km (8.7 mi) west of Lively, near the western terminus of the Highway 17 freeway route. Whitefish's postal delivery and telephone exchange also include the community of Den-Lou, which is named for its location straddling the boundaries of the geographic townships of Dennison and Louise, and the
Historically, Whitefish was a postal village along the Canadian Pacific Railway's Sudbury-Soo line, which ran parallel to the south of the Algoma Eastern Railway (AER). Its station was situated along the line west of Naughton and east of Victoria Mines, where a junction and spur line connected it to the AER. In 1908, it had a recorded population of 150, and had two stores, two hotels, and telegraph and express offices.[9] Today, the main heritage building in the community is the Penage Hotel, which after its past as a railway hotel, functioned in various capacities as a hair salon, a bar, apartments, and a convenience store.
The community was home to the Whitefish Kipinä AC (later Speed AC), a youth sports club which was an affiliate of the Finnish-Canadian Amateur Sports Federation.[7]
Beaver Lake
The name "Beaver Lake" refers, generally, to the westernmost end of the former Town of Walden, along
The Beaver Lake farms were hurt financially by the Great Depression and the aging group of original settlers had mostly shut down their working farms by the 1950s, with many of the lots being subdivided and sold off. Nevertheless, many of their descendants continue to live in the area, which is heavily influenced by Finnish culture, though the single-room schoolhouse and general store were both casualties of this community crisis.
The community was also known for its Jehu AC youth athletics club, which was an affiliate of the Finnish-Canadian Amateur Sports Federation (FCASF). Founded in 1921, club members won victories while competing against athletes from Sudbury, Creighton,
Worthington
Mining disaster
The Worthington Mine ore body was initially discovered in 1884 by
On October 3, 1927, abnormal rock shifts were observed and management made the decision to evacuate the 46 day shift workers underground and cancel the night shift. Additionally, the town of Worthington was also evacuated as a precaution. At 5:50 a.m. on October 4, a ground fault gave way, which caused the entire underground portion of the mine to collapse down to its fifth level (the 750-foot/229 m level), creating a crater which pulled into itself the mine's power house, a worker's home, and 500 feet (152 m) of CPR mainline track. With no injuries suffered, the disaster became an overnight sensation which attracted sightseers, and the crater left by the mine quickly filled with water and became an artificial lake.[14] The mine was no longer deemed operational and was abandoned, though some buildings were still left standing including the headframe.
Nearby, the
Community
Worthington was established as a community in 1892 and functioned as a basic settlement with 35 dwellings, a company store, a railway station and a post office. By 1910, there were several more establishments including a hotel and social hall. Its population gradually increased to a peak of 400-500 residents after the Mond company purchased the nearby mine and expanded its workforce. After the infamous mining disaster nearby, the original townsite was abandoned and many residents left; however, a new townsite was established in alignment with the highway to the north, and throughout the 1930s and 40s, it primarily functioned as a highway service outlet. In the 1950s, the community had a brief revival due to resumed mining activity at the Kidd-Copper and Totten mines, and the highway nearby was designated Ontario Highway 658 in 1968. However, the community was bypassed to the south by Ontario Highway 17 (forming a component of the Trans-Canada Highway), and Highway 658 was transferred by the province to the Regional Municipality of Sudbury in 1973 upon amalgamation and became Municipal Road 4, also known as Fairbank Lake Road.[15] After this, the focal point of the settlement shifted south to align with Highway 17, bringing it closer to the community of Beaver Lake, and the longtime Worthington post office was relocated to Beaver Lake, though Worthington is still today a valid postal address which includes other communities like Beaver Lake, an indication of its historical status as the primary settlement east of Nairn Centre and west of Whitefish.
Creighton Mine
Creighton Mine, also known as simply Creighton, is located near the intersection of Municipal Road 24 and
The town had a population of around 2,200 at its peak in the 1940s,[16] although the population slowly declined after improvements in the area's transportation networks made it easier for workers to live away from the company townsite.[16]
In 1986, the town was closed down.[16] and all of the town's homes and businesses were torn down or moved to Lively.[16] Some residents initially fought the plan, but were not successful in convincing the company to change its plans.[16] Upgrading the town's water, sewer, and road systems to contemporary standards would have cost the company over $10 million,[16] a cost which the company deemed to be prohibitive. By 1989, most buildings had been demolished, and the town officially had no residents.[17]
A few streets, sidewalks, and building foundations can still be found in the area. A monument was also placed in the community commemorating the people of Creighton.
The historic paymaster's cabin from Creighton was moved to the Anderson Farm Museum where an annual reunion continues to bring former residents and family together to share their memories of their former community.
The mine is also the site of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory.
High Falls
High Falls is a ghost town located near the junction of the Spanish River with Agnew Lake, at the westernmost boundary of the city.
The town was created in 1904, when a
The town was closely connected to the nearby community of Turbine. However, in the 1960s, many families began to move away from the community for economic reasons, and by 1975 the community was virtually abandoned. Homes were demolished or relocated, and by the mid-1980s the power plant was the only remaining vestige of the community.[18]
Victoria Mines
Victoria Mines is a ghost town. It was established by the Anglo-German chemist and industrialist Ludwig Mond as a company town for his Mond Nickel Company for workers at the smelter that processed ore from his Mond Mine. A separate townsite of Mond was established at the mine itself, and the two communities are sometimes referred to as a single settlement known variously as Mond or Victoria Mines.
Operations at the mine began in 1899 and were in full swing by 1901. Meanwhile, a smelter had been built two miles to the south of the mine, on the
In these early years, the town, which was laid out to the north of the CPR line, grew rapidly, receiving a post office in 1900, a CPR passenger station in 1904 (enlarged in 1908), and an assortment of businesses and services, which included a butcher shop, barbershop, dry goods and grocery retailers, a bowling alley, a
Starting in the early 1910s, Mond Nickel had begun to expand its operations around the Sudbury area, and the Garson mine's output had outstripped the original Mond Mine's production. Mond opened a new smelter in
The townsite continued to be inhabited by a number of people for decades, ironically surviving longer than its twin town of Mond, which became a ghost town when the mine was closed a decade later in 1923, with the last house being removed in 1936. During its lifetime, the mine produced almost 620,000 tons of ore. A few buildings survived on the site well into the 1950s, but by the 1980s there were only three structures remaining, which were two company-built houses and the separate school. As of 2017, only one structure remains standing, a two-storey company house.[21]
In 2002, mineral rights in the area were acquired by FNX, which merged with Quadra in 2011 to form Quadra FNX Mining. Quadra FNX was in turn acquired by Polish conglomerate KGHM Polska Miedź in 2011, which inherited the claims. Construction was slated to begin on a new mine by 2015 with operations to begin in 2019,[22] but KGHM slowed down its development at the site due to depressed metal prices.[23] As of early 2019, the project was still at pre-environmental assessment stage.[24]
Victoria Mines is the birthplace of Hockey Hall of Famer Hector "Toe" Blake, though he grew up largely in Coniston.
Transportation
Some of Walden's various communities are served by GOVA's 101 Lively bus, which departs Naughton Community Centre for the downtown Sudbury transit terminal approximately every 2 hours, though there is more frequent service on weekday mornings. Along the way, it stops throughout Lively, Copper Cliff, and the west end of Sudbury, before terminating at the South End transit hub. As of 2019, there is no local bus service to the communities further to the west, such as Whitefish and Beaver Lake; however, GOVA also operates an auxiliary taxi service which covers as far as Whitefish.
No intercity transit is available in the Walden area despite most of its communities being situated along the
Education
Students in the English catholic stream attend St. James Catholic Elementary School and St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School. Those in the English public stream attend either Whitefish's R.H. Murray Public School or Lively's Walden Public School for elementary education, and Lively District Secondary School for middle school and high school education. Those in the French public stream attend Helene Gravel and Macdonald Cartier. Those in the French Roman Catholic stream attend St-Paul and Sacré Coeur.
Media
Walden was previously served by monthly newspapers, the Walden Observer and later Walden Today. Neither are currently in production.
Walden is otherwise served by
Notable people
- Toe Blake was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame as a coach and player.
- Troy Crowder, drafted to the NHL in 1996, playing for the New Jersey Devils, Detroit Red Wings, Los Angeles Kings, and Vancouver Canucks from 1987–88 to 1996–97.
- Bud Cullen, former Canadian Federal Judge and former MP for Sarnia-Lambton, was born in Creighton Mine, ON.
- Andrew Desjardins, drafted as a free agent in 2010 by the San Jose Sharks. Desjardins went on to play for the Chicago Blackhawks, winning the Stanley Cup in 2015.
- Meagan Duhamel, Canadian pairs figure skater, Olympic Gold Medalist-2018
- Member of Provincial Parliament for Nickel Belt, is a resident of Naughton.
- Bud Germa, former MPP for Sudbury.
References
- ^ Canada 2011 Census Community Profiles: Population Centre of Lively Archived 2013-07-03 at the Wayback Machine. Statistics Canada.
- ^ "Heritage Museums". www.sudburymuseums.ca. Retrieved 2016-11-22.
- Sudbury.com, April 13, 2022.
- ^ "Lively's Dogpatch to be rebranded as Little Creighton". CBC Sudbury, August 17, 2015.
- ^ INCO. September 1965.
- ^ Brown, Alan L. "Whitefish Lake Post Historical Plaque". Ontario's Historical Plaques. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
- ^ ISBN 0-9692405-0-3
- ^ "Population by Area".
- ^ Lovell's Gazetteer of the Dominion of Canada. John Lovell & Son. 1908. pp. 952.
- ^ Tapper, G.O.; Saarinen, O.W., eds. (1998). Better Known as Beaver Lake: An History of Lorne Township and Surrounding Area. Walden Public Library.
- ^ "Beaver Lake Ski Trails". Walden Cross Country Fitness Club. Retrieved 1 August 2019.
- ^ "Information archivée dans le Web" (PDF).
- ^ "Sudbury Living | the woman behind the man who named Sudbury".
- ^ Worthington Ghost Town pictures and history
- ^ "Worthington Ontario".
- ^ a b c d e f "Inco delivers death sentence to once-thriving town". The Globe and Mail, March 10, 1986.
- ISBN 978-1-55046-467-2.
- ^ Ontario Abandoned Places: High Falls
- ^ ISBN 0-920-919-00-6.
- ^ Charbonneau, Yvan (17 January 2015). "Victoria Mines Ghost Town". Retrieved 3 July 2019.
- ISBN 978-1-55046-467-2.
- Northern Life, May 12, 2014.
- ^ "KGHM denies it's putting Victoria Mine project into care and maintenance".
- ^ "Throw in your two cents on proposed Sudbury copper-nickel mine". 13 May 2019.
Further reading
- Wilson, Dale (September 2001). Sudbury Electrics and Diesels. Sudbury, Ontario: Nickel Belt Rails. ISBN 0-920356-12-5. Contains extensive coverage of the mining and transportation development of some of Walden's communities.