Description
Book Synopsis From Meteorite Impact to Constellation City is a historical geography of the City of Greater Sudbury. The story that began billions of years ago encompasses dramatic physical and human events. Among them are volcanic eruptions, two meteorite impacts, the ebb and flow of continental glaciers, Aboriginal occupancy, exploration and mapping by Europeans, exploitation by fur traders and Canadian lumbermen and American entrepreneurs, the rise of global mining giants, unionism, pollution and re-greening, and the creation of a unique constellation city of 160,000.
The title posits the book's two main themes, one physical in nature and the other human: the great meteorite impact of some 1.85 billion years ago and the development of Sudbury from its inception in 1883. Unlike other large centres in Canada that exhibit a metropolitan form of development with a core and surrounding suburbs, Sudbury developed in a pattern resembling a cluster of stars of differing sizes.
Many of Sudbury's most characteristic attributes are undergoing transformation. Its rocky terrain and the negative impact from mining companies are giving way to attractive neighbourhoods and the planting of millions of trees. Greater Sudbury's blue-collar image as a union powerhouse in a one-industry town is also changing; recent advances in the fields of health, education, retailing, and the local and international mining supply and services sector have greatly diversified its employment base. This book shows how Sudbury evolved from a village to become the regional centre for northeastern Ontario and a global model for economic diversification and environmental rehabilitation.
Trade Review``The title to Dr. Oiva Saarinen's new book is actually rather modest. It refers to âA Historical Geography,â and yet the book covers much broader ground from labour studies and local government restructuing to geology and landscape transformation. Saarinen is a well-respected geographer who taught for forty years at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario.... The breadth of his knowledge is evident in this work.... I particularly appreciated the maps, including those of the various company towns, and the detailed tables and aerial photos that accompany the entire text.... Anyone who wants to learn about, or teach about, the impact of resource development and the political changes that occur during annexation and amalgamation would be well advised to read this book. Saarinen may have been a long-time academic, but his writing style is immensely readable and his commentary easily blends material about local people and groups with the more technical aspects of mineral development and land survey techniques. His book will certainly interest long-term residents of Sudbury, but as a relatively recent migrant to the area I can attest to its appeal to a much broader readership.'' -- Sue Heffernan -- Canada' History, February-March 2014
Table of Contents
-
From Meteorite Impact to Constellation City: A Historical Geography of Greater Sudbury by Oiva W. Saarinen
- List of Illustrations
- List of Biographiess
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- 1. The Unfolding of the Natural Landscape
- 2. The Aboriginal/Colonial Frontier
- 3. Drawing Lines on the Map
- 4. Forging of a Local Monopoly: From Prospectors and Speculators to the International Nickel Company (1883-1902)
- 5. Sudbury (1883-1939)
- 6. Copper Cliff (1886-1939)
- 7. From Local to Global Monopoly: The Merging of Inco and Mond (1902-1928)
- 8. Beyond Sudbury and Copper Cliff: Railway Stations, Mining Camps, Smelter Sites, and Company Towns
- 9. Beyond Sudbury and Copper Cliff: Forestry, Agriculture, Indian Reserves, and the Burwash Industrial Farm
- 10. From Falconbridge Nickel and Inco to Xstrata Nickel and Vale Canada (1928-2012)
- 11. From Company Town Setting to Regional Constellation (1939-1973)
- 12. From Regional Constellation to Greater Sudbury (1973-2001+)
- 13. A Union Town?
- 14. Healing the Landscape
- 15. Beyond a Rock and a Hard Place
- Appendix
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
