Kagawong Mill

This building is a monument to two major Ontario resource industries. Built to process local spruce into pulp, it diverted water-power from the Kagawong River to drive its heavy machinery. Wet pulp was baled and shipped to Michigan to make Sears-Roebuck catalogues. The pulp mill closed with the onset of the Depression, but re-opened in 1932 as a hydro-electric plant. Until 1949 it was the sole source of electric power for Manitoulin Island. Ontario Hydro operated the plant from 1946 until an increasing supply of electricity from the mainland led to its closing in 1961. Thirty years later, local volunteers restored the building for community use.