Orillia (2004 population 32,692) is a city located in Simcoe County in south-central Ontario, Canada, on Lake Couchiching, where it flows from Lake Simcoe towards Georgian Bay (Lake Huron).
History and Geography
The Village of Orillia was incorporated in 1867 (sharing the same birthyear as Canada), became a town in 1875, and was designated a city in 1969. The City of Orillia is located on the shores of two lakes: Lake Simcoe and Lake Couchiching. From Lake Couchiching one can connect with the Trent-Severn Waterway, through three locks and the only marine railway in North America, which leads to Georgian Bay on Lake Huron. Travel in the other directions leads across Lake Simcoe and into Lake Ontario. From either of these Great Lakes one can connect to the St. Lawrence and thence to the Atlantic Ocean.
The human history of the region extends back several thousand years: in the "Narrows", a small waterway that connects Lake Couchiching and Lake Simcoe, there is archaeological evidence of ancient fishing weirs used by Huron and Iroquois people to trap fish over 4,000 years ago. Also, there are several archaeological sites in the surrounding area that provide evidence of trading, fishing, and hunting camps that were visited for hundreds of years by Amerindians.
Also of historical note, the famed French explorer Samuel de Champlain visited the area that would later became Orillia in the early 1600's. Ecole Samuel de Champlain, a local francophone elementary school, is named in his honour. A monument to Samuel de Champlain can also be found in Couchiching Park, and is a National Historic Site.
In Stephen Leacock's 1912 Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town, Orillia was used as the basis for the fictional town known as "Mariposa", although Leacock stated that the fictional town could really be any town. The book was based on Leacock's experiences in the town and the city has since the book's release attempted to mimic the fictional location in as many ways as possible. The Stephen Leacock Museum, located in Orillia, is a National Historic Site.
Orillia was the first municipality in North America to introduce daylight saving time and had the first municipal hydro electric transmission plant in North America.