Browse / Canada / Ontario / Owen Sound
Owen Sound
Ontariocity
Owen Sound
Total population
21,688
Founded
1857
Demographic figures from Statistics Canada. Overview below cites Wikipedia and may reference a different year.
City facts
Facts from Wikidata (CC0).
Overview
Owen Sound is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. The seat of government of Grey County, it is located at the mouths of the Pottawatomi and Sydenham Rivers on the eponymous inlet of Georgian Bay.
Read more on WikipediaHistory & geography
History
The area around the upper Great Lakes has been home to the Ojibwe people since prehistory. In 1815, William Fitzwilliam Owen surveyed the area and named the inlet after his older brother Admiral Edward Owen. The name of the area in Ojibwe language is Gchi-wiigwedong. A settlement called "Sydenham" was established in 1840 or 1841 by Charles Rankin in an area that had been inhabited by First Nations people. John Telfer settled here at that time and others followed. By 1846, the population was 150 and a sawmill and gristmill were operating. The name Sydenham continued even as the community became the seat for Grey County in 1852. An Ontario historical plaque explains that a First Nations Band, led by Chief Newash had a reserve in the area totalling about . In 1842, they established the village of Newash which initially contained fourteen log houses, a school and a barn; the population was served by Wesleyan Methodist missionaries. In 1857, the government took over the reserve area and moved most of the Chippewa inhabitants of Newash to the Cape Croker Hunting Ground 60B reserve north of Owen Sound. Supporting this reputation was a tavern named "Bucket of Blood", located on the corner of an intersection known as "Damnation Corners", because of taverns on all four corners, but this location was also only a block away from an intersection with four churches called "Salvation Corners". Sydenham was renamed Owen Sound in 1851; by then, it was served by a direct road to Toronto Township (today Mississauga), the Toronto-Sydenham Road; which still exists as Highway 10 and the southern portion of Hurontario Street. In 1873, the Toronto, Grey and Bruce Railway from Weston arrived and allowed for shipping goods to and from the community. It was originally a home (built in 1881),…
Geography
Owen Sound experiences a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification Dfb) that is moderated by Lake Huron. Winters are cold and very snowy, while summers are warm and humid, but cooled by the lake waters (Georgian Bay and Lake Huron on either side) more than most other areas of southwestern Ontario. Precipitation is moderately high, as Owen Sound is in the direct line of the Great Lakes snowbelt, with an annual average precipitation of . Summer thunderstorms are a common occurrence. The highest temperature ever recorded in Owen Sound was on July 3, 1911. |date=August 2010 }} The Sydenham River is a waterway that connects to Owen Sound Bay and was formed from a pre-glacial river cutting into the limestone of the Niagara Escarpment.
Excerpted from the corresponding Wikipedia article (CC BY-SA).
Geography
Coordinates & boundaries from the US Census TIGER/Line shapefiles.
Climate
Air quality
Walkability
Amenities nearby
Wildlife & biodiversity
Earthquake history
Photos
Sights & places nearby
Notable people from here
People born within ~10 km, from Wikidata (CC0). Click any name for their Wikipedia article.
Nearby places in Ontario
Geography & sun
Elevation, sunrise/sunset and daylight from Open-Meteo. Solar climatology from NASA POWER.
Nearby airports
Public attention
Pageview totals from the Wikimedia Pageviews API.
Books about Owen Sound
Search results from Open Library.
Recent natural events nearby
Ground air-quality sensors
Recently spotted species
Research-grade observations from iNaturalist (within ~15 mi).
Events
Gallery
Official Identifiers
StatCan — Statistics Canada
- SGC code
- 3542059
- Population (Wikidata)
- 21,612
- Wikidata
- Q1017735
Standard Geographical Classification (SGC) via Wikidata P3012
Sources
- • Wikipedia
- • Wikidata
- • iNaturalist
- • Open-Meteo / sunrise-sunset.org
- • Wikipedia Pageviews API
- • Open Library
- • StatCan — Statistics Canada — Standard Geographical Classification (SGC) via Wikidata P3012