Essex County, Ontario

Essex County is the southernmost county and census tract of Canada, located in the southwest of Ontario. The county seat is the town of Essex. Essex County has a population of 177,891, and the census division, including Windsor, has a population of 388,782 as of the.

The city is a commercial and manufacturing centre serving a rich farming area that produces fruits, vegetables, corn (maize), soybeans, grain, tobacco, and potatoes. Manufactures include motor vehicles and parts, foods and beverages, medicinal and pharmaceutical preparations, salt, industrial machinery, and other iron and steel products. Windsor is also Canada’s leading port of entry from the United States; two tunnels, car ferries, and a suspension bridge connect it with Detroit. The city is the site of the University of Windsor, founded in 1963 when Assumption College (1857) federated into a university, and of St. Clair College of Applied Arts and Technology. Fort Malden National Historic Park is 16 mi south.

Geography
Essex County is largely made up of based soils, with sandy soils along the beaches and shores. For the most part, Essex County is flat with farmland and some groves. There is a small 30 ft-50 ft ridge near Leamington and Kingsville in the southern part of the province, and a large swamp near the Hillman Marsh Conservation Area, and the. The most urbanized part of the county is the city of Windsor. Excluding Windsor (which is a separate township), Leamington is the most urbanized part of the county.

The Town of Amherstburg sits on the banks of the Detroit River at the mouth of Lake Erie in the southwest quadrant of the county. It is one of the oldest towns in the province and steeped in history. It is home to Fort Malden, which played a pivotal role in the War of 1812, The town welcomed scores of refugee slaves who found freedom on the Underground Railroad.

Adjacent counties and municipalities

 * Windsor
 * Across Lake St. Clair lies Macomb County, Michigan, US (north)
 * Chatham-Kent (east)
 * Wayne County, Michigan, US (west and northwest)
 * Monroe County, Michigan, US (southwest)
 * Across Lake Erie lie Lucas (southwest), Ottawa (south), and Erie (southeast) Counties, Ohio, US

Demographics
Historical populations:


 * Population in 2001: 374,975
 * Population in 1996: 350,329

The city of Windsor makes up the majority of the county's population, skewing the census data. Statistics without Windsor are:


 * Land Area: 1,704.46 square kilometers (658.10 sq mi)
 * Population (2011): 177,891
 * Density: 104.4 inhabitants per square kilometer (270 / sq mi)

Administrative divisions
Essex County is composed of seven municipalities (in order of population):


 * Town of Lakeshore
 * Town of LaSalle
 * Municipality of Leamington
 * Town of Tecumseh
 * Town of Amherstburg
 * Town of Kingsville
 * Town of Essex

The City of Windsor and the Township of Pelee are within the Essex census division but are not part of Essex County. The census division had a population of 398,953 as of 2016. The population centres within Essex County are (in population order): Leamington, Amherstburg, Essex, Harrow, Colchester, McGregor, and Stoney Point.

Climate
Essex County hosts some of the warmest summer weather in Canada, given that it is the southernmost part of Canada. It has a ( Dfa) with four distinct seasons, with cold, wet winters with considerable amounts of snow, and warm or hot summers. Early spring and late summer are the likeliest time for thunderstorm development. Thunderstorms often break out every five to seven days during the spring and summer. Many storms are categorized as severe, often bringing small to significant-sized and strong, possibly damaging winds, as well as flooding in the relatively low-lying areas in the north of the county particularly near Belle River and St Clair Beach. es can be likely with certain storms. Southwestern Ontario averages the most tornadoes in Canada. Temperatures usually cool by mid to late October, making way for winter. Snowfall will usually start between mid-November and late-December.

Colonial settlement


The area that has come to be known as Essex was one of the first counties to be settled by non-indigenous people in, later to become Ontario. The settlements were mostly established by French people in the mid-18th century. Around 1749, the first permanent settlements began to appear on what is now the south or Canadian side of the Detroit River, across from the French Fort Detroit. They cultivate long, narrow plots of land along the river. Despite the name, this is not a river as such but a strait connecting Lake Huron and the smaller in the north to  in the south, as part of the  system in the middle of the n continent.

Lower down the river, lands were occupied by native people known as or Huron, around the Jesuit Catholic Mission of Bois Blanc (French for White Wood), opposite the island of the same name. The Mission was eventually abandoned and re-established closer to what became Sandwich Township after the British took over the French territory following the Seven Years' War. It was closer to the safety of the British-fortified. When farmers arrived, they encountered difficulty in trying to clear the extremely thick forests that covered Essex County. The farmers grew to "hate" the trees, and chopped them down, starved them from nourishment by cutting deep gashes in the bark, and burned them to clear the way to get to the fertile soils underneath. The fires were so intense, that the reddish glow could be seen from Fort Chicago, 300 miles (500 km) away, as millions of cords of wood burned. Settlement continued southward along the river and was known as Petite Côte (Small Coast), which was a reference to the shorter length of river frontage compared to the Detroit/American side. Landmarks were named for settler  and the local, which continue to be in use. The first road in Ontario was laid out to connect the settlements, which is now over 200 years old and is known as (now County Road 20).

When river frontage along the Petite Côte was occupied, settlement began to extend toward, which became known as the "", for the name of its Catholic church. In the late 18th century and early 19th century the French ventured east along the south shore of Lake Saint Clair and settled in the present-day areas of Belle River (Belle-Rivière), Rochester, Tecumseh, Saint-Joachim and Stoney Point (Pointe-aux-Roches). These communities still have a large population.

Amherstburg and Sandwich were the first towns established in Essex County, both in 1796 after the British finally ceded and evacuated along the  under the terms of the "". This was negotiated by, and signed in 1794 following the American Revolutionary War. It was intended to settle the US northern boundary with Canada. It upheld the original boundary lines along the between the US and {{wikipedia|Upper Canada}] by the Treaty of Paris of 1783 and the wider set of treaties known as the, which ended the  (1775-1783) and overseas European and multi-continental wars. Britain the territory of eastern North America to be the.

The British built near Amherstburg, opposite, separating the British military presence from the more heavily populated area of Sandwich upstream, and positioned strategically to control the entrance of the river from  and  to the north. The populations of both towns were augmented by people immigrating from the southern United States after the (1775-1783), including from the new City of Detroit, who chose to remain, known as "" or "".

After the, and the (1812-1815), which also was a confrontation over the northern border, some people continued to migrate north to the area. Settlers also arrived from the east seeking land, traveling by and the  of. Settlers began to move eastward along the north shore of Lake Erie.

The colonial government purchased land for development from the Indians in the southern half of the current county, located in the four townships formerly known as Gosfield North and South, and Colchester North and South. The British Court made land available for settlement, provided that the colonist complete certain improvements within a year and that it not be used for speculation. This area became known as the "New Settlement" (as compared to the "Old Settlement" of the towns of Amherstburg and Sandwich. Settlers in this area included  who fought for the British against the American rebels, (especially known in history at the  in New Jersey on the morning of December 26, 1776) and  pacifists (ethnic German, many from Pennsylvania).

Formation of Essex County
In 1791, the province of was formed. In 1792, Upper Canada was divided into nineteen counties, of which Essex was the eighteenth and part of the Western District. At that time, the eastern boundary of Essex County extended further east into what is now Kent County. Settlement continued: on January 1, 1800 an Act for the Better Division of the Province established the Townships of Rochester, Mersea, Gosfield, Maidstone, Sandwich and Malden.

Settlement 1820 to 1870
Longer roads began to appear in the County after the War of 1812, the first of which followed Indian trails. Colonel Thomas Talbot contributed to road development, and Talbot Road was named for him. Talbot Road followed a natural ridge of glacial moraine which stretched from Windsor to Point Pelee.

The establishment of good roads led to further settlement along the 'Middle Road' and in the area of what is now Leamington. Settlers of this era were often emigrants from Britain and Ireland; in the 1840s the Great Famine led to significant immigration. The village of Maidstone was the centre of the Irish community, and an area known as the "Scotch Colony" appeared along the shore of Lake St. Clair to the north.

In 1854 the Great Western Railway connected the Detroit frontier with the east, crossing Essex County. The Canadian terminal was in Windsor, which consequently forged ahead of the other towns of the county. Other railway lines were built that connected settlements in Kingsville, Harrow, Essex and Leamington.

Essex County was also a destination of the Underground Railroad. In the 19th-century Black Americans came to Essex county by way of Pelee's Point, Gosfield (now Kingsville), Colchester, Sandwich, and Windsor. Those who stayed in the area settled in the communities of Fort Malden, Sandwich, New Canaan, Mersea, and nearby Dawn Settlement (now Dresden), Buxton (now North Buxton and South Buxton), Chatham, and Elgin. The major settlement areas were Amherstburg and Windsor. The John Freeman Walls Historic Site in Maidstone (Lakeshore) is testament to this period. Many of the descendants of the fugitives moved back to the United States to support the Northerners (Union Army) in the American Civil War, (1861-1865), or to reconnect with family after emancipation. Many families stayed.

Late 19th century


By the late 19th century Essex County had seen fur trading and logging, land clearing and farming, road building and railway development, saw mills and gristmills, railway stations and water ports. By this time the forests were being removed to make way for farmland.

Also noticeable in some farmers' fields, are oil pumps, particularly near Belle River and Leamington, in the northern and eastern parts of the county, respectively. This is from oil shale within the bedrock of the Marcellus Formation.

Essex County restructuring, 1990s
In 1992, discussions began to take place to reduce the number of individual municipalities, which at the time numbered 21 in the County. This culminated on January 1, 1999 when a Minister's Order by the Ontario Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing was implemented, putting in place the new municipal structure for the County of Essex.

Townships:
 * Anderdon - Now part of Amherstburg
 * Colchester North - Now part of Essex
 * Colchester South - Now part of Essex
 * Gosfield North - Now part of Kingsville
 * Gosfield South - Now part of Kingsville
 * Maidstone - Now part of Lakeshore
 * Malden - Now part of Amherstburg
 * Mersea - Now part of Leamington
 * Pelee - Still exists
 * Rochester - Now part of Lakeshore
 * Sandwich East - Parts in Windsor and in Tecumseh
 * Sandwich South - Now in Tecumseh
 * Sandwich West - Parts in LaSalle and in Windsor
 * Tilbury North - Now in Lakeshore
 * Tilbury West - Now in Lakeshore

Towns:
 * Amherstburg, Ontario (former town of, now merged with Anderdon Twp. and Malden Twp.)
 * Belle River, Ontario
 * Essex, Ontario (former town of, merged with Colchester N. Twp. and Colchester S. Twp.)
 * Harrow, Ontario
 * Kingsville, Ontario (former town of, merged with Gosfield N. Twp. and Gosfield S. Twp.)
 * Lasalle, Ontario (former part of Sandwich Town)
 * Leamington, Ontario (former town of, merged with Mersea Twp.)
 * St. Clair Beach, Ontario
 * Tecumseh, Ontario (former town of, merged with Sandwich S. Twp)

Emergency medical services
Essex-Windsor Emergency Medical Services (EMS) provides pre-hospital treatment and transportation to over 45,000 patients per year. The service operates out of 12 bases, and employs over 260 Primary Care Paramedics. Essex-Windsor EMS covers all of Essex County, Windsor, and Pelee Island.

Energy
Essex County is home to Canada's largest as of June 2012. This is due to both its ideal wind conditions and abundance of available farmland.

Tartan
Essex County also has an official tartan.

The tartan's colours correspond to different meanings.


 * Golden/Yellow is meant to stand for sunshine, also for the rich agriculture and golden harvests of the many farmed plants (grains, corn, soybeans, barley, oats and wheat).
 * Green stands for the spring fields around Essex County.
 * Red represents tomatoes, as Leamington is the "Tomato Capital of Canada", and for other fruits, such as apples.
 * Blue stands for the blue skies and the waterways of the county.
 * Black is meant to represent the automotive industry that fuels Windsor and Essex County.
 * White represents the salt mines in Windsor and western Essex County, and fish in the surrounding rivers and lakes.