Moosonee, Ontario, Canada, is the railhead on James Bay of the Ontario Northland Railway where goods are transferred to barges and aircraft for transport to more northerly communities. Moosonee is not particularly far north (51°N) but is isolated due to its lack of road communication to the rest of Ontario. The community was the site of a fur trading post set up in 1903 by Revillon Freres, competitors to the Hudson Bay Company which later bought out Revillon.

Moosonee is inaccessible by road from the rest of Canada. The main method of access is the daily Polar Bear Express rail journey. There is also an airport and boat access.

Moosonee was formerly Ontario's only "Development Area" but became incorporated as a Town in 2000 with a population of about 3000 people (by municipal government estimate, the Statistics Canada 2001 census figures for Moosonee are inaccurate due to incomplete enumeration, a common problem with remote communities). More than 80% of the population is native Cree. Total private dwellings were shown as 297 but this has been revised to 659 and the population was revised from 936 to 1916. Population density per square kilometre is 1.8 in the 2001 census figure. Land area shown is 533.82 square kilometres.

External links

• www.polarbearexpress.ca
• Moosonee photos
• more Moosonee photos
• Town of Moosonee Official Site
• Statistics Canada - 2001 Community Profile - Moosonee - this information has been revised, see below
• Census Revisions contains the revisions to the 2001 census numbers for Moosonee.