Nakina, Ontario

Infobox Settlement
official_name = Nakina, Ontario
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subdivision_type = Country
subdivision_name = Canada
subdivision_type1 = Province
subdivision_name1 = Ontario
subdivision_type2 = Town
subdivision_name2 = Town of Greenstone
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established_date = 1913
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population_total = 700
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postal_code_type = Postal code span
postal_code = P0T
area_code = 807
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Nakina is a community of approximately 700 in the Town of Greenstone in the Thunder Bay District in Northern Ontario, Canada. The town of Nakina was founded in 1923 along the main line of the Canadian National Railway (CNR) where the line branches from the western main line (heading towards Winnipeg, Manitoba) to the main line that runs south towards Toronto, and National Transcontinental Railway mainline that ran east toward Quebec City. The town is approximately 320 kilometres north of the city of Thunder Bay, Ontario. The origins of the town are initially support of the railway, but its raison d'etre has evolved through lumber, pulp and paper, mining and tourism.

History

Nakina was first established in 1913, as a station and railway yard, on the National Transcontinental Railway, between the divisional points of Grant and Armstrong. Nakina was at Mile 15.9 of the NTR's Grant Sub-Division. Following the 1924 completion of Canadian National Railways's Longlac-Nakina Cut-Off, connecting the rails of the Canadian Northern at Longlac and the NTR, Nakina became the new divisional point, at which time the buildings from the town of Grant (25 kilometers to the east) were moved to the new Nakina town site.

As an important railway service stop from the 1920s to the early 1970s, the town had a railway round-house as well as a watering and fueling capability. During World War II, there was also a radar base on the edge of the town intended to watch for a potential attack on the strategically important locks at Sault Ste. Marie at the intersections of Lake Superior and Lake Huron. Research into the radar site in the National Archives of Canada indicates that it was largely a United States Army Air Forces operation, that pre-dated the later Pinetree Line radar bases that were erected shortly thereafter focussing on the cold-war threat. The Nakina base was totally removed shortly after the war.

In the 1970s pulp and paper operations near the town resulted in growth in the towns population to its peak of approximately 1200. However, at this point cost controls in the railway industry meant that service and maintenance could be consolidated at points much more distant from one another than had been common in the first half of the 20th century. As a result, the value of Nakina as a railway service community was greatly diminished, to the point where it was no longer a substantial employer in the town.

Modern day

As of 2004 the town remains focussed on tourism, diminished pulp and paper operations, and support of other more northern communities (food, fuel and transportation). Mining and minerals industries are often seen as a source of further growth, though the Canadian Shield geology of the area makes extraction of minerals like gold an expensive and uneconomical operation.

Access to the remote northern community is by Via Rail, road (Highway 584 from Highway 11) and small aircraft service at the town's small airport.

References

National Archives of Canada was a source for some facts on this page. The website includes some online content at their [http://collectionscanada.ca Collections Canada] address.