Ignace, Ontario
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ignace is a township in the Kenora District of Northwestern Ontario, located at Highway 17 (Trans Canada Highway) and Secondary Highway 599, and on the Canadian Pacific Railway between Thunder Bay and Kenora. It is on the shore of Agimak Lake, and, as of 1997, the population of Ignace was 2,499.
The town was named after Ignace Mentour by Sir Sandford Fleming in 1879. Ignace Mentour was the key aboriginal guide through this region during Fleming's 1872 railway survey, recorded in George Monro Grant's journal of the survey, Ocean to Ocean. Mentour had also served with Sir George Simpson in Simpson's final years as governor of Rupert's Land.
During Ignace's early days, there was a settlement of railway boxcars used by the English residents there called "Little England."
Although Ignace was incorporated in 1908, it was something of a latecomer to some modern conveniences, such as rotary dial telephoning, which did not arrive to the town until 1956.
Lumbering and tourism support Ignace's economy, today, and one attraction is the 3-storey log White Otter Castle, located on White Otter Lake, and built by James Alexander McOuat between 1903 and 1914.
In the 1950s, Ignace saw its first newspaper, the Village Tattler, started there to serve the town, published by the local YMCA. In 1971, Dennis Smyk started the Ignace Driftwood, which was suspended two years later, but was revived in 1979 and still serves the town today. During Driftwood's suspension, the Ignace Courier was published for the town's local news.
