Sudbury

Sister cities

• Gomel
• Kokkola

History

The original name for the region was N'Swakamok, which translates to 'where the three roads meet' in the Ojibwe language. The Sudbury region was home to by Ojibwe people, an Anishinaabeg group, as early as 9,000 years ago following the retreat of the last continental ice sheet. In 1850, local Ojibwe chiefs entered into an agreement with the British Crown to share a large tract of land, including what is now Sudbury, as part of the Robinson Huron Treaty. In exchange the Crown pledged to pay an annuity to First Nations people, which was originally set at $1.60 per treaty member and increased incrementally; its last increase was in 1874, leaving it fixed at $4. French Jesuits were the first to establish a European settlement when they set up a mission called Sainte-Anne-des-Pins, just before the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1883. The Sainte-Anne-des-Pins church played a prominent role in the development of Franco-Ontarian culture in the region. Coincidentally, Ste-Anne is the patron saint of miners. During construction of the railway in 1883, blasting and excavation revealed high concentrations of nickel-copper ore at Murray Mine on the edge of the Sudbury Basin. This discovery brought the first waves of European settlers, who arrived not only to work at the mines, but also to build a service station for railway workers. Provincial land surveyor JL Morris laid out the intersection of Elm Street and Durham Street in 1884 as he planned the township. Rich deposits of nickel sulphide ore were discovered in the Sudbury Basin geological formation. The construction of the railway allowed exploitation of these mineral resources and shipment of the commodities to markets and ports, as well as large-scale lumber extraction. Sudbury was incorporated as a town…

Geography

Sudbury has 330 lakes over in size within the city limits. The most prominent is Lake Wanapitei, one of the largest lakes in the world that is completely contained within a municipality. Ramsey Lake, a few kilometres south of downtown Sudbury, held a similar status before the municipal amalgamation in 2001 brought Lake Wanapitei fully inside the city limits. long thought to be the result of a meteorite collision, though more recent analysis has suggested that the crater may in fact have been created by a comet. Sudbury's pentlandite, pyrite and pyrrhotite ores contain profitable amounts of many elements—primarily nickel and copper, but also platinum, palladium and other valuable metals. Local smelting of the ore releases this sulphur into the atmosphere where it combines with water vapour to form sulphuric acid, contributing to acid rain. As a result, Sudbury has had a widespread reputation as a wasteland. In parts of the city, vegetation was devastated by acid rain and logging to provide fuel for early smelting techniques. To a lesser extent, the area's ecology was also impacted by lumber camps providing wood for the reconstruction of Chicago after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. While other logging areas in Northeastern Ontario were also involved in that effort, the emergence of mining-related processes in the following decade made it significantly harder for new trees to grow to full maturity in the Sudbury area than elsewhere. Conservation Sudbury operates a conservation area, the Lake Laurentian Conservation Area, in the city's south end. Other unique environmental projects in the city include the Fielding Bird Sanctuary, a protected area along Highway 17 near Lively that provides a managed natural habitat for birds, and a hiking and nature trail near…

Most-observed species

• Black-capped Chickadee

  Poecile atricapillus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  8,189
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  5,278
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  4,656
• Blue Jay

  Cyanocitta cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  4,411
• Mallard

  Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  4,329
• Canada Goose (canadensis Group)

  Branta canadensis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  4,094
• Song Sparrow

  Melospiza melodia (A.Wilson, 1810) · Aves
  3,837
• Common Raven

  Corvus corax Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  3,776

Most recent

• M 3 — 2025-10-20
  3 km NNW of Lively, Canada
• M 3.1 — 2019-02-08
  7 km SW of Azilda, Canada
• M 3.1 — 2015-09-30
  7 km ENE of Greater Sudbury, Canada
• M 3.8 — 2014-08-05
  6 km NNW of Lively, Canada
• M 3.3 — 2014-08-05
  5 km NNW of Lively, Canada
• M 3.8 — 2008-09-11
  4 km WSW of Greater Sudbury, Canada