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Owen Sound (44° N 81° W1; EST; 2001 population 21,431) is a city located on an inlet of Georgian Bay that is also called Owen Sound. The city is at the mouth of the Sydenham River. Owen Sound is in western Ontario, Canada and is the county seat of Grey County.
This area of the upper Great Lakes was first surveyed in 1815 by William Fitzwilliam Owen and Lieutenant Henry W. Bayfield. The inlet was named "Owen's Sound" in honour of Admiral Sir Edward William Campbell Rich Owen, the explorer Owen's older brother.
The city of Owen Sound was originally known as Sydenham when it was first settled in 1841 by Charles Rankin. Prior to that the area had been inhabited by the Ojibway people. The city gained its current name in 1851 and was incorporated in 1857. For much of its history, Owen Sound was a major port city, known as the "Chicago of the North". Its location on Georgian Bay gave it access to the upper Great Lakes, and major rail lines moved cargo south from there. Port duties have declined dramatically since the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway allowed shipping directly to the lower lakes and dramatically lowered costs compared to transhipment via Owen Sound. Farming in the local area and tourism are now integral parts of the local economy.
Owen Sound was the hometown of the World War I flying ace Billy Bishop and the local airport (Billy Bishop Regional Airport) is named after him. His boyhood home is now a museum dedicated to his life and to Canada's aviation history. The town was also the home of the artist Tom Thomson (buried in the nearby village of Leith) and the surgeon Dr. Norman Bethune.
The city has an Ontario Hockey League team, the Owen Sound Attack.
Community profile
According to the 2001 Statistics Canada census:
| Population: | 21,431 (+0.2% from 1996)
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| Land area: | 23.51 km²
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| Population density: | 991.5 people/km²
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| Median age: | 40.9 (males: 38.9, females: 42.7)
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| Total private dwellings: | 9,532
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| Median household income: | $20,126 per person aged 15+
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