Friday, March 29, 2024
Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
Fun Facts about MMWeek 6: Facts about MM

Week 6: Facts about MM

In celebration of Canada’s 150th birthday we’re sharing some fun & fascinating Mississippi Mills trivia. These tidbits of local info will include stories about local sports stars, award recipients & other residents who have helped put Mississippi Mills on the map. We’ve included quirky or funny stories, tragic historic events, geographic info and more recent history too. Learn how some of our local clubs started and how our individual communities began.


36) Dentist on the run 
One of Almonte’s first dentists was a glamorous character. Dr. T.W. Raines arrived in Almonte in 1866, on the run from the United States where he had been an officer in the Civil War. He was an escaped prisoner of war from Jacksonville and was in constant fear of arrest. Almonte proved safe, however since he ran a dental practice here until his death in 1889.

37) We take recycling seriously!
In Mississippi Mills in 2015: (most recent audited figures)

  • 779 tonnes of blue-box materials were collected
  • 702 tonnes were marketed (Sold to processors use in new products)
  • 387 tonnes were paper products
  • 24.2 tonnes of waste electronics were recycled
  • 68.24 tonnes of containers were recycled through the local beer store
  • 88 tonnes of used tires were recycled
  • 21.64 tonnes of Hazardous waste to the Hazardous waste depot

39) Tracey Brown
Mississippi Mills Resident Tracey Brown is a Canadian Country Music Association inductee and a Ottawa Valley Country Music Hall of Fame inductee. As a former member of Canada’s most awarded country band, The Family Brown, Tracey began a career on stage, record and television at the tender age of 10. Tracey went on to form Prescott-Brown with her brother, award winning songwriter, Barry Brown, and her husband, Grammy nominee and multi-award winning producer and instrumentalist, Randall Prescott.

Tracey and Randall at Old Town Hall, 2014

40) Pakenham Five-Span Bridge
The Pakenham Bridge is a stone bridge with five arches that crosses the Mississippi River at the town of Pakenham within Mississippi Mills. The bridge measures 268 feet (82 m) long, 22 feet (6.7 m) high, and 25 feet (7.6 m) wide. It is the only one of this type in North America. It was built in 1901 by O’Toole & Keating, Scottish masons from Ottawa, for a cost of $14,500. The stones, the largest of which weighs 5 tons, came from a local quarry. As a result of local pressure to preserve it, the bridge was never replaced with a newer one and restored in 1984. At that time, the bridge was also strengthened with reinforced concrete to accommodate car and truck traffic.

Photo: Brent Eades

www.lanarkcounty.ca/AssetFactory.aspx?did=4511

41) Famous Geologist not to be forgotten in Mississippi Mills
James Mackintosh Bell, noted geologist, scholar, explorer, and soldier, was raised in Almonte. He passed away at his residence at Old Burnside in 1934. A mural depicting Bell was unveiled at the North Lanark Regional Museum (NLRM) in Appleton Thursday, Aug. 25, 2016 before a crowd of historic society representatives and members of the public. It was completed by young artist Alexander Braun, a recent graduate of Notre Dame Catholic High School in Carleton Place.

http://www.northlanarkregionalmuseum.com/

42) Local treasure discovered in 2016
A masonry crew discovered a 1880 time capsule encased in the stone wall of Millfall Condominium, which once housed the Rosamond Woolen Mill. The treasure which was embedded in an exterior wall contained a photo of Bennett Rosamond, some coins, an Almonte Gazette, and an Ottawa Citizen.

http://mvtm.ca/

43) Puppets Up! is powered by volunteer energy
It took more than 210 volunteers working over 300 shifts and doing at least 15 different types of tasks to put on the 2016 Puppets Up! festival. The festival ran for 24.5 hours over 3 days in August, and brought more than 15,000 people to downtown Almonte. And those are all conservative estimates!

https://puppetsup.ca/

We’re proud to share our new Canada 150 logo with you. You will see this used across the Municipality to promote and identify the many projects and events being planned in celebration of Canada’s 150th Birthday year!

Related

FOLLOW US

Latest

From the Archives