Ontario's northern gateway

Capreol - the Northern Gateway To Leisure

By Bala Menon

Capreol is a small town in Northern Ontario - located in a valley along the Vermillion River and surrounded by the magnificent Laurentian Highlands. The town is worth a day trip - if you get to Sudbury. It is just a little over 40 km north - and the town is known as the doorway to thousands of acres of quality hunting, fishing, hiking, camping, and canoeing. 

The scenery is magnificent and the area contains a treasure of natural resources for the traveler and outdoor sports enthusiast. The city itself is very small - home to only about 4,000 people and is part of the City of Greater Sudbury. 

There are fine recreational facilities available - a double rink, a curling club, downhill skiing and cross-country skiing. The most famous attraction is, of course, the Northern Ontario Railway Museum and Heritage Centre at Prescott Park. 

The museum's mandate is to provide a unique and educational tourist attraction that preserves and displays the railroading past and heritage of Northern Ontario. A locomotive simulator will let you explore life on the railroad through the 'box car house' and 'school wheels'. The Museum is housed in a Victorian-styled building, dating back to 1916 and is one of the oldest standing homes in the community.

Capreol is also considered a great place to to relocate to if you are considering a move to the wonderful North! 

The museum website says: 'The museum is open from the Victoria Day weekend until Labour Day weekend and hosts a number of guides and self-guided tours and special events as well as educational tours for school groups. The museum's main operations are at 26 Bloor Street and the Heritage Centre is at 59 Yonge Street in the Greater Sudbury Community of Capreol.'

 

Capreol formed around the Capreol railway station which was a major divisional point on the Canadian National Railway line, and was named for Frederick Chase Capreol, the original promoter of the Northern Railway of Canada. (This was first named as Toronto, Simcoe and Lake Huron Railroad and then renamed as the Ontario, Simcoe and Huron Union Railroad). Frederick Capreol was born in England and came to Canada in the early 19th century, to join the fur industry, but later became a successful auction house owner and visionary entrepreneur.

Many of the museum exhibits celebrates the contribution of Frederick Capreol and other prominent personalities of the area such as William A. Ramsey and Harold Prescott. 

© Bala Menon

All pics of the ‘Trains to Nowhere at the Capreol Rail Museum’. © Bala Menon