| Balaclava | |
| Settlement | |
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Balaclava Mill, 2007
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| Country | Canada |
|---|---|
| Province | Ontario |
| County | Renfrew |
| Municipality | Bonnechere Valley |
| Elevation | 195 m (640 ft) |
| Coordinates | |
| Timezone | Eastern Time Zone (UTC-5) |
| - summer (DST) | Eastern Time Zone (UTC-4) |
| Forward Sortation Area | K0J |
| Area code | 613, 343 |
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Location of Balaclava in Ontario.
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Balaclava is a community in the township of Bonnechere Valley, Renfrew County, Ontario, Canada. It is on Ontario Highway 513 just off Ontario Highway 132 north of the community of Dacre, and at the outlet of Constant Creek, a tributary of the Madawaska River, from Constant Lake.
Balaclava is a near ghost town today, a come down from the bustling lumber town of its heyday. It was begun with a sawmill in 1855 and by the 1860s had acquired a blacksmith shop and hotel to go with its permanent residents. In 1903 a sawdust burner was built so that the sawdust wasn't dumped in the local river polluting it. The water-powered sawmill[1] continued to operate until 1959 but by that time the depletion of available timber had reduced production to uneconomically small amounts.
Balaclava was listed in a book on ghost towns by Ron Brown.[2] Although it makes Balaclava sound like a pristine, deserted ghost town, actually it is and still has a few residents.