South Algonquin

South Algonquin is a township in the Canadian province of Ontario. Located in the Nipissing District south of Algonquin Park, it is the sole populated portion of the district that lies south of the traditional dividing line between Northern Ontario and Southern Ontario.

The township had a population of 1,253 in the Canada 2006 Census.

Communities

The township comprises the communities of L'Amable, Aylen Lake, Cross Lake, Gunters, Madawaska, McKenzie Lake, Murchison, Opeongo, Wallace and Whitney.

History

The area was settled primarily as the site for the sawmill of the St. Anthony Lumber Company, of Minnesota, and is named for the general manager of that firm, E. C. Whitney.

The St. Anthony Lumber Company in Minneapolis, was located on the west bank of the Mississippi River, near Saint Anthony Falls. The company officers were: Eldridge M. Fowler of Chicago, president, and Arthur Hill of Saginaw, vice president. Edwin Canfield Whitney, who was born near Morrisburg, Ontario, had moved to the Midwestern United States shortly after the Civil War, working in the lumber trade, he became manager of the ST. Anthony Lumber Company.

By 1892 work had commenced on the Ottawa, Arnprior & Parry Sound Railway (later the Canada Atlantic Railway), by Ottawa lumberman John Rudolphus Booth. Booth's sawmill at the Chaudière Falls, was considered to be one of the largest in North America, second only to a mill in Minneapolis. At the end of 1892, Booth arranged a takeover of the adjacent Perley and Pattee mill, from the estate of his former colleague William Goodhue Perley.

Timber berths on the upper Madawaska River, in the townships of Airy and Nightingale, belonging to the Perley & Pattee Lumber Company, were sold in 1894, to the St. Anthony Lumber Company, of Minneapolis. As the OA&PS Railway was being constructed to access this area, E. C. Whitney had persuaded the management of the St. Anthony firm to purchase the timber berths.

About a year after the Whitney sawmill was built, Messrs. Fowler and Hill sold the Minneapolis mill and associated timber limits to Frederick Weyerhaeuser of St. Paul. E. C. Whitney who had large timber holdings near Brainerd, Minnesota, sold these to Weyerhaeuser as well, making enough profit that he was able to purchase his partners interests in the Whitney concern and continue its operation on his own.

The Canadian National Railway Renfrew Subdivision was abandoned between Whitney and Renfrew in 1983.

Television show production

In the fall of 1964 the cast and crew of the CBC Television show The Forest Rangers came to Whitney to film three episodes. They needed the use of a rapids in a large river with easy access. The Madawaska River's rapids here suited their demands perfectly. Higher water levels were necessary, and that was the case, since later in the year the water levels are raised. They searched, as well, for expert canoeists in the area who could run these rapids to get the necessary footage required for the final scenes.

The T.V. movie, Vacation with Derek, was also filmed here.

External links

• Township of South Algonquin