Arnprior is a town in Renfrew County, Ontario, Canada. Arnprior has experienced significant growth in populations with the widening of the Ontario Highway 417 to four lanes. The town experienced an increase in population by 8.4% from 2011 to 2016, at which time its population was 8,795. It was also during these critical 5 years that the Town of Arnprior surpassed the neighboring Town of Renfrew, Ontario, to become the county's third-largest town or city by population, behind Petawawa and Pembroke. The town is a namesake of Arnprior, Scotland, and is known for its lumber, hydro power generation, aerospace, farming, and proximity to the National Capital Region.
Bell Homestead National Historic Site
Alexander Graham Bell made the world's first long-distance telephone call from his father's homestead in Tutela Heights, just minutes from West Brant. The Bell Homestead National Historic Site preserves the farmhouse and coach house where Bell conducted his early telephone experiments in the 1870s. Open seasonally for tours.
Timeline
Full History
The land occupied by what is now called Arnprior is part of the traditional territory of the Algonquin nation of indigenous North Americans. The first European explorers, led by Samuel de Champlain, first visited the area in May 1613. In 1823, a surveyed block was ceded to Archibald McNab and named McNab Township. McNab had approval from the Family Compact to treat the settlers on his land in the feudal manner practised in Scotland. In 1831 the town was named by the Buchanan Brothers after McNab's ancestral home of Arnprior, Scotland. Tired of the harsh treatment, the settlers revolted and, after a government investigation, McNab was forced to vacate the area in 1841. Arnprior and Braeside and McNab township grew as separate communities and boomed when they became integrated into eastern Ontario's massive timber industry. One of the most successful businessmen of the upper Ottawa was Daniel McLachlin, who built a massive sawmill at the confluence of the Madawaska and Ottawa rivers, and expanded the community of Arnprior. The lumber industry maintained a significant position until the closing of the Gillies Mill. One of the most enduring structures of the day was a grist mill built by the Buchanans on the west bank of the Madawaska River. By 1869, Arnprior was an incorporated village with a population of 2,000 in the Township of McNab. It was on the Brockville and Ottawa Railway at the junction of the Madawaska and Ottawa rivers. The average price of land was $20 to $40. The grey stone building served many purposes after it stopped being used as a grist mill, finally being operated as a restaurant and a gas station, first by the Beattie and then the Baird families, ending in 1974. The facility was bought by Ontario Hydro prior to the restructuring on the bridge and the creation of a new weir to control the river. The building was consumed by fire in 1976. The forests of the period are represented in the Grove which is an example of indigenous forest, grown after a fire in the 18th century. With individual specimens reaching , these are the tallest white pines in Ontario. Arnprior was incorporated as a village in 1862. Thirty years later (in 1892), it was incorporated as a town. On June 8, 1944, a , , was recommissioned as HMCS Arnprior until 1946. Arnprior became a recognized name in the numismatic trade. This has a special link to a local employer. In 1955 Playtex ordered some silver dollars for their employees. These coins were later found to show only two and one-half water lines instead of four to the right of the canoe. This variety becomes known as the Arnprior dollar. The history of Arnprior is preserved and documented at the Arnprior and District Museum (located in the former post office building and library) and the Arnprior and McNab/Braeside Archives, located next door in the basement of the public library. The sandstone building is the defining element in local architecture.
Source: Wikipedia