Beaver Lake is a community in the Ontario city of Greater Sudbury.

From 1973 to 2000, Beaver Lake was part of the town of Walden, in the Regional Municipality of Sudbury. On January 1, 2001, the Regional Municipality was dissolved into the single-tier City of Greater Sudbury.

Better Known as Beaver Lake

The name "Beaver Lake" is one born of common practise rather than any formal recognition of a political boundary. In fact, it would be impossible to come up with a definition of the geographic area represented by the name "Beaver Lake" that would be acceptable to everyone that lives in the area.

Having said that, everyone who lives in or near Lorne Township, Ontario definitely knows something about Beaver Lake. They might know that there is a Beaver Lake store, or that there is a Beaver Lake Finnish Cultural Centre, or that there are not one, but two lakes called Beaver Lake.

They might have read a book about Beaver Lake, or, if they have been around for a while, they might have known someone who lived on Beaver Lake Road before it was renamed Ronka Road.

For those of us that grew up in Beaver Lake, the ambiguity of its name is part of its charm. It is a lost treasure, literally and figuratively. It is a place you find in your heart, not on a map or a road sign (although it does appear as a name on the Official Road Map of Ontario). In many ways it is a place you always want to get back to but know you never can.

Where is Beaver Lake?

The heart of Beaver Lake is at the intersection of Suomi Road and Highway 17, about 40 km west of Sudbury, Ontario. If you search for Sudbury, Ontario, Canada in Mapblast, then pan west and zoom in, you will find this intersection and you will see the network of roads that service Beaver Lake. The community extends east along Highway 17 to somewhere past Fen Road, and west to Nagy Road. The northern boundary is roughly the "old highway", now known as the Spanish River Road, and the southern boundary would be roughly the Vermillion River.

History of Beaver Lake

Like many communities in Northern Ontario, the modern history of Beaver Lake starts with the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway through the area in the late 1880's. The discovery of nickel deposits brought jobs and settlers to Sudbury. Experienced miners from Finland were attracted to the region whose geography was very similar to that of their homeland. Another incentive was the political unrest in Finland following proclaimation of the so-called "February Manifesto" by Russian Emperor Nicholas II in 1899, widely perceived as eroding the political independence of Finland. Finally, the availability of very cheap farmland in Canada gave Finnish immigrants the chance to create a new life for themselves.

By the time the larger wave of Finnish immigrants arrived in the area, much of the more desirable farmland had been homesteaded by French Canadians and other groups. However, a somewhat isolated area south of the CPR spur that joined Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie was still available. As Finnish settlers began clearing the lands of what is now known as Beaver Lake, word spread and the core of the community was established.