Atikokan

Atikokan, Ont, incorporated as a township in 1954, population 2787 (2011c), 3293 (2006c). The Township of Atikokan is located in northwestern Ontario on the Atikokan River, 220 km west of Thunder Bay. The name derives from an Ojibwa word for caribou bone. The community of Atikokan, where most of the residents of the township live, dates back to 1899 when the Canadian Northern Railway laid out a townsite. It was a small bush settlement until the 1940s, when huge iron-ore deposits under nearby Steep Rock Lake were opened. After World War II it was one of several prosperous communities on Ontario's mining frontier, although the late 1970s brought a decline in mining activity. It is at the centre of a popular wilderness recreation area, summer and winter alike. It is also a jumping-off spot for nearby Quetico Provincial Park. Atikokan now supports wood and tourism industries.