Iroquois Falls

The background of the town's name varies depending on the source, attributing it to invasions by the Iroquois on Huron or Ojibway villages. It is also unclear who has relayed the tale, settlers or the First Nations people themselves.[5]

Frank Harris Anson

Iroquois Hotel, 1916

Street in Iroquois Falls, 1917

Abitibi paper mill, 1930

Iroquois Falls railway station, c. 1930

Ontario Northland Railway train crossing Driftwood River in Monteith, 2010

Iroquois Falls was built as a company town by Frank Harris Anson, owner of the Abitibi Power and Paper Company. Anson had been influenced by the garden city movement of urban planning, and was committed to building an elaborate town. A Chicago architectural firm was hired to design the landscaping and houses, and work crews began clearing land in 1913. The town's park and commercial developments were clearly separated from the paper mill, and the residential streets curved with a focus on the centre of the town. A large church was built, the first English Catholic Parish in Northern Ontario, and today remains a historic landmark. Anson's company town had a hospital, a school, and a company hotel. Employee homes were designed with gambrel roofs to resemble New England farmhouses, and their design and location reflected the employee's rank at the mill. Papermakers lived in double-adjoined homes, while senior managers lived on separate streets in single-family homes.[6]

Much of the town was destroyed by fire in 1916, though Anson continued his beautification program during the 1920s as the community rebuilt.[7]

The town's avant-garde style earned it the nickname "Anson's Folly".[6]

The town was incorporated in 1915, and a board of trade was chartered in 1926.

The paper mill created a dramatic change to the area, and people migrated to the community for work.

The creation of the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway (now Ontario Northland Railway) greatly boosted the economy as there were few roads at the time.

As Iroquois Falls grew, two new communities within the town began to emerge. An area known first as "The Wye" (because the rail tracks split at this point) grew to the south, and was at first a ramshackle collection of cabins and shacks. It later became known as Ansonville, and was home to a number of business people and others who were shut out from the company town. In contrast to Iroquois Falls, Ansonville had little town planning, and no water, sewer, or electrical service. Insurance companies would not insure homes there because the risk of fire was too great, and the first residents were French-Canadians, Russians and Ukrainians. Animosity was frequent between Ansonville and Iroquois Falls, and many residents of Iroquois Falls condemned Ansonville "as a dark den of foreigners engaged in regular street brawls, illegal alcohol consumption, and other unsavoury activities"[6]^: 85

In 1921, Ansonville began to levy taxes, which led a group of residents to establish a third community named Victoria in the north-west section of the town. The name was later changed to Montrock.[6]

In 1979, the three communities were amalgamated into one town named Iroquois Falls.

The paper mill, then called Abitibi-Price, merged with Stone-Consolidated, and then with Donohue Forest Products, and finally with Bowater to create Abitibi-Bowater. On 17 April 2009, Abitibi-Bowater sought bankruptcy protection, emerging from it as Resolute Forest Products.

A tragic event occurred in 1984 at the coffee shop at Joe's Texaco in nearby Porquois Junction. Ontario Provincial Police constable Vern Miller was drinking coffee with his partner constable Norm Tiegen, when 23-year-old Gregg Prevost of Iroquois Falls entered and shot Miller with a shotgun, killing him instantly. The community was shocked and outraged, and Prevost was sentenced to life in prison. The town of Matheson renamed their local arena the Vern Miller Memorial Arena in his honour.[8]

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Iroquois Falls had a population of 4,418 living in 1,977 of its 2,153 total private dwellings, a change of -2.6% from its 2016 population of 4,537. With a land area of 599.03 km² (231.29 sq mi), it had a population density of 7.4/km² (19.1/sq mi) in 2021.[12]

Former Resolute Forest Products mill in Iroquois Falls

Resolute Forest Products announced the permanent closure of its mill in Iroquois Falls on 5 December 2014, eliminating 180 jobs. Mayor Michael Shea commented: "it's going to affect every village in Northern Ontario."[4]

In 2015, the Town of Iroquois Falls entered into an agreement with Resolute Forest Products, and Riverside Developments, regarding redeveloping the former mill site into a multi-use industrial facility, commercial-industrial park, or possibly a greenhouse complex.[18][19]

Iroquois Falls is served by:

• District School Board Ontario North East
• Conseil scolaire de district du Nord-Est de l'Ontario
• Conseil scolaire catholique de district des Grandes-Rivières

• Henry Abramson, dean at Lander College of Arts and Science, Touro College, New York.
• Paul Gagné, professional hockey player.
• Ryan Garlock, professional hockey player.
• Roger Lemelin, professional hockey player.
• Patricia O'Callaghan, soprano opera singer
• Yvan Patry, Québécois documentary filmmaker.
• Gerry Rioux, professional hockey player.
• Caitlin Romain, professional curler.

Canadian musician Stompin' Tom Connors sang "May, the Millwright's Daughter" on his 1967 album The Northlands' Own Tom Connors:

In a little town called Ansonville,
not very far from the papermill.
There lives a girl I'm thinkin' of,
May, the millwright's daughter, the girl I really love.[22]

• List of francophone communities in Ontario
• Iroquois Falls Airport

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Iroquois Falls.

• Official website