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Elliot Lake (2001 population 11,956) is a city in Northern Ontario, Canada. It is located midway between the cities of Sudbury
and Sault Ste Marie near the shore of Lake Huron.
The town was first established as a uranium mining town in 1958. The uranium was extracted by underground hard-rock mining techniques and when competition from lower cost open pit mines forced the Elliot Lake operations out of business in the 1980s, the town looked elsewhere for its survival. Now, tourism is a major business in Elliot Lake, and the town is actively seeking retirees to move there.
Built on the shores of Elliot Lake, the town is surrounded by lakes and forests. Local wildlife include Moose, White-tailed Deer, American Black Bear, Beaver, Loon, Muskrat, Otter, Canada Goose, and Lynx, to name but a few. Fish species include Lake Trout, Speckled Trout, Rainbow Trout, Smallmouth Bass, Pickerel, Northern Pike and Sturgeon.
The local forests are mixed deciduous and coniferous, with colourful displays in the autumn. The ground is hilly, with prominent outcropings of the pre-cambrian bedrock.
Since December 1990 the town has been home to the Elliot Lake Research Field Station, established by Laurentian University to investigate environmental radioactivity.
Until the 1870s an Ojibwa village existed near the present hospital site on the lake shore-line.
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