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Kapuskasing, Ontario, incorporated as a town in 1921, population 8,057 (2021 census), 8,292 (2016 census). The Town of Kapuskasing is located on the Kapuskasing River, 493 km northwest of North Bay. The name derives from a Cree term meaning "branch" (the Kapuskasing River being a branch of the Mattagami) or "place where the river bends."
History
Although the area had been explored since the 18th century by Hudson’s Bay Company and Northwest Company fur traders, the site itself only came into existence in 1910 as a station along the National Transcontinental Railway, a line linking Quebec City and Winnipeg, incorporated into the Canadian National Railway system 1922.
During World War I, an internment camp was established near the town, its prisoner of war and "enemy alien" occupants developing what is now a federal experimental farm. After the war the community's agricultural base was further expanded by a government soldier-resettlement program.
Economy
Kapuskasing's future lies in its rich surrounding forests (see Forestry). Since the 1920s the pulp and paper industry, represented by the Spruce Falls Power and Paper Co, and tourism have become its chief economic mainstays.
In 1991 the town's economy was threatened when Spruce Falls Pulp & Paper announced it was going to reduce its workforce by 80 per cent. This would have been a major blow to the community, so in late 1991 a consortium of employees, Tembec Inc (a Quebec Crown corporation) and local residents purchased the company. The company, now called Spruce Falls Inc, is an integrated newsprint operation exporting most of its output to the US.
