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The majority of folks say Ka’puskasing

But if we had a chat

They’d say Kapuss’kasing’

And say it, just like that

And if they went to live and sing

They’d soon be saying Kap!

So I guess it doesn’t matter much

But I like Kapuss’kasing’

This Native place by the river’s bend

Needs a different ring!

— Allanah Douglas

The region that we know as Kapuskasing today was primarily used by fur traders. The Hudson’s Bay Company and the Old Northwest Traders both set up operations in the area. In the early 1900s, the National Transcontinental Railway (now CN) pushed through this wilderness and a station was built where the railway crossed the river. It was first known as McPherson and was in 1917 changed to Kapuskasing, a Cree word meaning “the place where the river bends.”

Back in 1914, the Canadian government decided to purchase 1,280 acres of land west of the Kapuskasing River and south of the Transcontinental Railway tracks. Their objective was to establish an experimental farm. They chose this area because it was part of the fertile Great Clay Belt region of Northern Ontario. Scientists believed they could develop hardier varieties of crops that would be able to withstand the harsh climate of the north.

Kapuskasing circa 1914. First built as a prisoner of war camp and subsequently used to house potential war veterans in an attempt to settle the area.

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The station was, however, converted that same year into an internment camp for illegal immigrants and prisoners of war. These internees built a barracks, hospital, canteen, YMCA, post office, bakery, and a supply depot. They also managed to clear 100 acres of land that first year. By the end of 1915, the camp had 1,200 internees and 250 soldiers to supervise and operate the complex. Incredible as it may sound, these internees had cleared another 500 acres of land by the end of that year. By 1917 most of the internees had been paroled due to labour shortages, and 400 prisoners of war replaced them. The camp remained open until 1920, when the last prisoner of war was repatriated. Thirty-two German prisoners died while at the camp and were buried across from the present-day public cemetery.

The Canadian government then embarked on a new land settlement scheme for returned soldiers. Government officials managed to route 101 settlers to Kapuskasing. Each soldier was assigned a 100-acre lot. A training school for these new pioneers was built at Monteith and dormitories were built to provide housing until the settlers could erect their own homes. The government also provided farm implements, stock, and seed at very low cost to the settlers.

Determined to make this work, the government built a sawmill, a planing mill, a blacksmith shop, a steam laundry, a store, and a school on the east bank of the Kapuskasing River. The settlers were subsequently organized into groups, and each party was supervised by a government foreman. The goal was to clear the land for farming.

It wasn’t long before these settlers had had enough. They felt like little more than work gangs, there to satisfy some government idea of settling the north. Just back from fighting a war, this scheme seemed as much like a POW camp as it did a place to get a fresh start. It was all about control. The men were unhappy with the arrangements and the majority of them abandoned the entire project. Out of 101 settlers, nine remained. They were Mair, McCall, Yorke, Wing, MacMinn, Grant, Le Marrier, Gough, and Poolton.

Things began to look up for Kapuskasing in 1922, when the Spruce Falls Power and Paper Company built a pulp and paper mill. Several years later a newsprint mill was constructed to produce paper for the New York Times. Both mills received their power from a new hydro development 80 kilometres (50 miles) to the north.

It was the mill workers and the original settlers of 1920 that really put Kapuskasing on the map. They planned their business section as a circle, with five streets radiating outward. Still influenced heavily by their government-sponsored origins, they named the streets after the premier of Ontario (E.C. Drury) and his members of cabinet.

Kapuskasing was incorporated in 1921, with the motto Oppidum ex Silvis meaning “Town out of the Forest.”

A new paper mill with a daily capacity of 64 tonnes of cellulose started production in 1945 at the Spruce Falls company site.

Yes, this town beside the river’s bend that sprung from forests cleared Was carved out, in the northland by folks that had no fear.

They did not fear the cold or snow, or the government’s heavy hand nor the work they had to do there, to claim this rugged land.

And so their lives keep going, even as I bring, this story of the people, of sweet, Kapuss’kasing.

— Allanah Douglas