The Founding of Kapuskasing
In 1911 the National Transcontinental Railway, then under construction, reached the present site of Kapuskasing. Three years later during the first World War the Canadian government established in the area a prisoner of war camp and an experimental farm to investigate the agricultural potential of the Clay Belt. The prisoners cleared land and worked on the farm. In 1917 the Ontario government launched near here an ambitious land settlement scheme for veterans. The detention camp and settlement project were discontinued in 1920. A pulp mill, built 1920-23, was the forerunner of larger mills producing newsprint, pulp and cellulose. Their proprietors spearheaded the development of Kapuskasing as one of Northern Ontario's earliest planned industrial communities.
Plaque via Alan L. Brown's site Ontario Plaques. Full page here.