Temagami

Temagami

 Temagami, Ont, incorporated as a municipality in 1998, population 820 (2011c), 934 (2006c). The Municipality of Temagami is located on the northeast arm of Lake Temagami, 100 km north of North Bay. Ontario's highest point, Ishpatina Ridge (693 metres), is within the municipality's boundaries.

Temagami originated in the 1890s as a tourist centre, when campers from southern Ontario first discovered the natural beauty of the area, celebrated in a well-known poem by Archibald LAMPMAN. It had previously been an Ojibwa settlement dependent on fur trading. With the building of the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway, 1903-09 (later ONTARIO NORTHLAND), a trickle of summer visitors became a flood. One of them was Archie BELANEY, better known as "Grey Owl," who lived in Temagami from 1906-10. For most of this century tourism has been Temagami's raison d'être, with periodic developments in lumbering and iron mining since the 1920s. The municipality also boasts a trail system through the White Bear Forest Conservation Reserve. In the early 20th century, the logging company, the Gillies Bros and Co Ltd, set aside 809.4 hectares for recreational purposes. Established as a conservation reserve in 1997, the forest contains one of the world's few remaining old growth red and white pine stands.