White River, Ontario, started as a workcamp along the Canadian Pacific Railway in the early 1880s. It quickly grew into a town when William Van Horne selected it as the railway's divisional point. By 1886, White River had a station house, fine hotels, and an ice house. A stockyard was also added to feed and water the livestock that regularly traveled through. The population grew from 10 families in 1886 to 42 families in 1906.
In 1961, Highway 17 reached White River, making it accessible by car. This development brought new industries and businesses, particularly tourism-related, to the town, ending its existence as an exclusive railway town. In the 1970s, Abitibi-Price established a lumber mill, which was purchased by Domtar Forest Products in 1984 and closed in July 2007. In 2013, the Domtar assets were purchased by the Township of White River and the Netmizaaggamig Nishnaabeg (Pic Mobert First Nation) along with private partners. The mill was then reopened, with significant investment in new equipment, as White River Forest Products LP.
White River, Ontario, is located north of Lake Superior, on the namesake White River and halfway along Highway 17 between Marathon and Wawa. This is also roughly halfway between Toronto and Winnipeg.
White River, Ontario, advertises itself as "The Coldest Spot in Canada" with recorded temperatures as low as −58 °C (−72 °F). However, this is a myth, as the coldest temperature in Canada was recorded in Snag, Yukon, at −62.8 °C (−81.0 °F) on 3 February 1947. Even in Ontario, the coldest recorded temperature was in Iroquois Falls on 23 January 1935 [−58.3 °C (−72.9 °F)], which is also the lowest temperature ever recorded in Eastern Canada. White River's reputation for being the "coldest spot" is probably based on the fact that for many years, its reported temperature was deemed "the coldest in the nation today" from the handful of stations reporting daily temperature extremes in newspapers and on radio, with most stations' data being available only on a monthly basis to Environment Canada at the time.
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, White River had a population of 557 living in 270 of its 333 total private dwellings, a change of -13.6% from its 2016 population of 645. With a land area of 95.55 km2 (36.89 sq mi), it had a population density of 5.8/km2 (15.1/sq mi) in 2021.
Mother tongue: English as first language: 78% French as first language: 16% English and French as first language: 1% Other as first language: 5%
White River, Ontario, is perhaps best known for being the home of Winnie the Pooh. In August 1914, a trapped black bear cub was sold to Captain Harry Colebourn in White River, and Colebourn named it Winnipeg, or Winnie, after his hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Over the years, the animal became the basis for the popular literary character. The town celebrates "Winnie's Hometown Festival" every third week in August.
Being surrounded by wilderness, White River has a lot of outdoor recreation opportunities. Summer activities include hiking, biking, fishing, hunting, boating, and canoeing. In the winter, the town offers cross-country skiing and snowmobiling.
Other attractions include:
White River is located at the intersection of Highway 17 and Highway 631, which connects the town to Highway 11 to the north. White River station is the western terminus of Via Rail's thrice-weekly Sudbury–White River train, which operates east to Greater Sudbury. Greyhound Canada stopped serving White River on 31 October 2018, when it ended all service west of Sudbury. Ontario Northland buses continue to serve White River.
White River is referenced by the Canadian singer/songwriter Christine Fellows in her song "Migrations".
