Arkona, Ontario
Arkona is a community located in the municipality of Lambton Shores in southwestern Ontario near the Lambton-Middlesex county line, situated beside the Ausable River, on Former Kings Highway 79, Arkona is roughly halfway between Thedford, and Watford.
History
Prehistory
The site of the village is at the base of the Wyoming Moraine which formed along the shores of ancient Lake Arkona during the retreat of the Wisconsin Glacier some 16,000 years ago. Rich deposits of fossils are revealed at nearby Hungry Hollow. Evidence of early human habitation exists at the site of Paleo hunting camps which were found just a kilometre south of Arkona dating back some 11,000 years. Subsequent migrations of Archaic and Woodland peoples moved into the area as the climate and vegetation changed. Evidence of this long-standing habitation is frequently discovered in the fields surrounding the current village.Arrival of European settlers
The first known permanent settlers of European background were Asa Townsend and his wife Huldah Barstow, who first settled in Westminster Township near what became the City of London, Ontario. After his lands ultimately became incorporated in London's Springbank Park, Townsend and his wife removed westward in 1821. They settled east of present-day Arkona on the banks of the Ausable River in what later became Bosanquet Township in Lambton County. Townsend operated a salt well there, and remained in the area as late as 1851, living next door to his son Ezekiel Townsend.In 1833, the Townsends were joined by Henry Utter, who settled on a farm in the recently surveyed Warwick Township, across the township line from Bosanquet. Utter was subsequently joined by members of the Smith and Eastman families and a settlement gradually grew up that straddled the Warwick-Bosanquet Township line.. The Eastmans and one branch of the Smith family were the ancestors of Alexander Phimister Proctor who was born in the village in 1860.
The village was surveyed in 1851 and known variously as Bosanquet Corners, Eastman Corners and Smithfield. In 1857, it was renamed 'Arkona' after the rugged cape on the Baltic Island of Rügen, a name suggested by resident cabinet maker Ephraim Brower and possibly by the incumbent postmaster Levi Schooley. The village continued to grow and develop so that by the 1870s, with hopes of attracting a railway, the community incorporated in June 1876. While its population surpassed 700, the failure to attract a railway led to a population decline and the loss of its first known newspaper, the East Lambton Advocate, which moved to the nearby railway village of Watford.. Even without the railway, however, Arkona remained an important service centre for the surrounding rural farming district and boasted many important industries such as a basket factory, woolen mill, apple evaporator, and a series of mills. Various businesses continued to service the local area including numerous stores and other enterprises.