Facts and Trivia

GEOGRAPHY

  • Sables-Spanish Rivers is a township in Ontario, Canada, on the north shore of Georgian Bay in an area called The LaCloche Foothills.  It is located in the Sudbury District, approximately 70 kilometeres west of Sudbury. (Source)

 

  • The Township of Sables-Spanish Rivers is a restructured municipality.  The Township of Spanish Rivers, the Towns of Massey and Webbwood and the previously unincorporated townships of Tennyson, Gough, Shakespeare and McKinnon were restructured as the Township of Sables-Spanish Rivers on July 1, 1998.

 

POPULATION

  • The township's population was 3,075 in the Canada 2011 Census (Source)

 

FIRSTS

  • Massey is the home of broomball.  Though many communities claim to be the hometown of the sport, there is evidence that the sport was played in the Massey area in the 1890s, well before being played in Saskatchewan, Montreal or the United States.  (Source)
  • Many students from the community attend Espanola High School, the home of Spartan Youth Radio, Canada's only high school podcast radio station.

 

FAMOUS LOCALS

  • BROUSE, Cynthia of Massey was an an award-winning writer, editor and teacher/trainer with more than two decades' experience in the Canadian magazine industry.  She worked for such prestigious magazines as Maclean's, Chatelaine, Toronto Life, Report on Business Magazine, Canadian Business, the Globe and Mail and Saturday Night.  She was also a writer, lecturer, guest speaker and university professor. 

 

  • DRAKE, Doctor Theodore of Webbwood was a Canadian pediatrician and one of three doctors that developed Pablum. The cereal marked a breakthrough in nutritional science: it helped prevent rickets, a crippling childhood disease, by ensuring that children have enough vitamin D in their diet. Dr. Drake was awarded the Order of the British Empire. 

 

  • HANLEY, Barbara of Webbwood was elected the first woman mayor in Canada and served for EIGHT consecutive terms before retiring.

 

  • HORECK, Pistol Pete of Massey was an NHL hockey player from 1944 to 1952 and played for the Chicago Black Hawks, Detroit Red Wings and Boston Bruins. 

 

  • HOULE, Albert Ulrich "Bert" was a flying ace in WWII.  A member of the Royal Canadian Air Force, Houle was given the Award of the Distinguished Flying Cross for shooting down two enemy planes in Egypt. 

 

  • HUGHES, James was an NHL hockey player who played the 1929-1930 season with the Detroit Cougars (later the Red Wings). He had previously played in the old Central League and the Can-Pro Loop and then later for the International American Hockey League.  

 

  • LOUGHHEED, Robert of Massey was an artist who specialized in images of the American West. He was commissioned by the US Postal Service to design a six-cent buffalo stamp. 

 

  • SMITH, Charlie currently lives outside the town of Massey and is a poet, columnist, farmer, municipal councilor and a good rifle shot.  Smith has produced two audio CDs of poetry and stories and two collections of poetry.