The Founding of Orillia

Photo by Alan L Brown - June 28, 2004

Plaque Location

The County of Simcoe
The City of Orillia
On the NW corner of Mississauga Street West and West Street North

Plaque Text

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 centre with two churches and a population of some 200. Advantageous transportation links with Toronto and Georgian Bay stimulated Orillia's development as a commercial centre 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.