Text from the Plaque
In 1820 the government surveyed Orillia Township and a decade later located Chief William Yellowhead's Ojibwa band on lands near the "Narrows". By 1839, when the government laid out the Orillia town plot, these Indians had been moved across Lake Couchiching to Rama. The first white settlers arrived about 1832 and by the 1850's the community had become an agricultural and lumbering center with two churches and a population of some 200. Advantageous transportation links with Toronto and Georgian Bay stimulated Orillia's development as a commercial center and summer resort. In November, 1866, with a population of over 750, Orillia was incorporated by Simcoe County as a village. Its elected council first met in 1867.
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