Spanish, Ontario - History - Timeline

Timeline

• 1902: Railway station is built, the village's focus shifts to becoming a small service centre for the Canadian Pacific Railway instead of a lumber village.
• 1911: Wikwemikong's missionary school on Manitoulin Island is destroyed by a fire. The church wants to rebuild a new school in Spanish near the rail line away from the Wikwemikong village and so the Jesuit purchase an acre of land at the mouth of the Spanish River and erect St. Peter's Clavier's School, later Garnier College, for 180 boys and St. Joseph's School for 150 girls.
• 1913: Garnier School opens.
• 1916: The St. Joseph Residential School is built.
• 1917: A voter's list is created.
• 1918: Flu epidemic takes many lives.
• 1922: A telephone exchange was installed in the Post Office.
• 1926: Spanish Mills was closed down.
• 1951: Spanish receives electricity.
• 1956: Noranda Inc. opens a Sulphuric Acid Plant on the Serpent River First Nations Reserve. Since only chief officials are allowed to live on the reserve, Noranda purchases land at the east end of Spanish for a residential town site where the employees can live and therefore boosts the population to 12,000. Since Spanish is the nearest community to the mines in Elliot Lake, the town becomes the transportation centre for mail and freight.
• 1957: The North Theatre opens. 42 Homes are constructed. The telephone exchange office is built and a bank is established.
• 1958: Garnier College is closed.
• 1962: St. Joseph's School is closed.
• 1973: The Township of Shedden experiences its first form of municipal government by joining the Improvement District of the North Shore.
• 1975: First direct distance dialing.
• 1978: The elected council changes the name to The Township of the North Shore. The first library is established where D&D Freshmart now exists.
• 1980: The library is moved to a pre-fab beside the fire hall.
• 1981: The Improvement District of the North Shore and the Township of Shedden separate. The former St. Joseph Residential School building burns down.
• 1985: The Township of Shedden separates from The North Shore and becomes the Improvement District of Shedden with an appointed Board of Trustees.
• 1989: The Township of Shedden is created, electing its own independent council.
• 1992: Township of Shedden and Public Library opens. A medical clinic and farmers market open.
• 1995: A Dental clinic opens.
• 1997: A Municipal Marina opens.
• 1998: Gignac Square opens.
• 1999: Four Season Waterfront Complex opens.
• 2004: Former Garnier residential School is demolished. Lake Huron North Channel Historic Trail is completed. Council gives Third reading to By-Law 2004-39 changing the name of the Community from the Township of Shedden to the Corporation of the Town of Spanish.