Shuniah's History

HOME PAGE		Our History:
Shuniah the Past Shuniah the Present Our Logo Your Municipal Council Municipal Staff Contact us		Shuniah the Past As early as 1845, Lake superior had considerable mining potential as silver and gold were reserved for the crown. The reserve was lifted in 1866 and the extraction of silver became a viable venture as proven with the discovery of a rich ore vein on Silver Islet in 1866. Neebing and Paipoonge Townships and the Town Plot (Westfort) were surveyed as early as 1860; McTavish in 1870 and Prince Arthur's Landing in 1871. Fort William was part of Neebing Township. An act of the legislature was passed in 1873 to organize the Municipality of Shuniah, consisting of the Townships of Pardee, Crooks, Blake, Paipoonge, Neebing , McIntyre, MacGregor, McTavish, the Village of Price Arthur's Landing, Thunder Cape and the islands north of the American Border. The Corporation of Shuniah created an organized ward system for political purposes, with each township electing on council member and one from the island ward. Prince Arthur's Landing being two wards, had two representatives to council. The first election was held on June 20th, 1873, with John McKellar as the first mayor (Reeve?). In 1874 Thunder Cape and Silver Islet were removed from the Municipality of Shuniah. In 1891 a multi-township was created including Blake, Crooks, Pardee, Paipoonge and Neebing along with the adjoining islands. Each Township constituted a ward. It shrank in 1892 with the withdrawal of Neebing additional and part of Neebing Township to form the Town of Fort William. The Municipality of Shuniah was now reduce to the Township of McIntyre, MacGregor, McTavish and Prince Arthur's Landing and a portion of the Island Wards. Prince Arthur's Landing was incorporated into a town in 1884 called Port Arthur. The Town of Port Arthur expanded in April 1892 and May 1906 with the addition of land from MacGregor Township. When the City of Thunder Bay was incorporated in 1970, McIntyre was annexed from Shuniah and this took all industry and most of the commercial properties out of Shuniah. In 1976, legislation was enacted to change the Municipality of Shuniah into the Township of Shuniah, consisting of MacGregor and McTavish Wards. Shuniah the Present The area of the Municipality of Shuniah covers 55,374 hectares from Copenhagen Road at Highway 11/17, Bare Point Road east on Lakeshore Drive to a quarter of a mile west of Ouimet Canyon. The northern boundary is eight mile hill on Spruce River Road (Hwy 527) and on the south a shoreline of approximately 40 kilometres from Bare Point to Bays End and the shoreline on Black Bay. Shuniah has a considerable cottage population, with the first surveyed subdivision for recreational purposes being laid out in 1920 at Birch Beach. In 1995, the number of households were listed as 1,971, permanent residents. Today , the number of households has risen to 2,887, an increase of almost 50%. The population of Shuniah is estimated at 2,348 which is based on owners whose full time or permanent address is within Shuniah. However during the summer months those numbers almost double and are estimated to be as high as 5,000. Unique to Shuniah are the association areas stretching from just east of North Star Road to Wild Goose Park. In the association beach areas the lands are owned by the association in which the cottagers are the shareholders and in some cases lease the lands. Being in such close proximity to the City of Thunder Bay, the Municipality of Shuniah serves mainly as a bedroom community with very little commercial development within its boundaries. Shuniah Municipal Logo: Shuniah (Ojibwa meaning for Silver) The logo which was designed for the Municipality by local artist Kay McCullough in 1982 represents the natural growth (the fir tree) via maintaining harmonious connection with the four elements of nature earth, air , water and fire. Earth: land shape of Caribou Island Air: the sky Water: Lake Superior Fire: the outer edges of the logo which can be read both as a sunburst and a flower in full bloom.