Adjala-Tosorontio, Ontario
Encyclopedia
Adjala-Tosorontio is a township
Township (Canada)
The term township generally means the district or area associated with a town. However in some systems no town needs to be involved. The specific use of the term to describe political subdivisions has varied by country, usually to describe a local rural or semi-rural government within the county...
in south-central Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, in the County of Simcoe. It was created in 1993 when the County of Simcoe Act merged the townships of Adjala and Tosorontio. The amalgamation took effect on January 1, 1994.
A predominantly rural area, Adjala-Tosorontio contains numerous small villages and hamlets. Many communities were started in Adjala by Irish Catholics who named their hamlets after their home towns in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, or after prominent pioneer families who first settled the area. The municipality has increasingly become home to residents who commute to the Greater Toronto Area
Greater Toronto Area
The Greater Toronto Area is the largest metropolitan area in Canada, with a 2006 census population of 5.5 million. The Greater Toronto Area is usually defined as the central city of Toronto, along with four regional municipalities surrounding it: Durham, Halton, Peel, and York...
.
Geographically the area is rolling countryside below the Niagara Escarpment
Niagara Escarpment
The Niagara Escarpment is a long escarpment, or cuesta, in the United States and Canada that runs westward from New York State, through Ontario, Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois...
to the west, with the Nottawasaga River
Nottawasaga River
The Nottawasaga River is a river in southern Ontario, Canada. Its headwaters are located on the Niagara Escarpment and Oak Ridges Moraine. It flows through the Minesing Swamp, recognized as a wetland of international significance , and empties into Nottawasaga Bay, an inlet of Georgian Bay, at...
river cutting through it.
"Tosorontio" is Huron
Wyandot language
Wyandot is the Iroquoian language traditionally spoken by the people known variously as Wyandot, Wyandotte, Wendat, or Huron. It was last spoken primarily in Oklahoma and Quebec...
for "Beautiful Mountain", and Adjala was the name of the wife of Chief Tecumseh
Tecumseh
Tecumseh was a Native American leader of the Shawnee and a large tribal confederacy which opposed the United States during Tecumseh's War and the War of 1812...
, for whom the neighbouring township (now called New Tecumseth
New Tecumseth, Ontario
New Tecumseth is a town in south-central Ontario, in the County of Simcoe. While it is not officially a part of the Greater Toronto Area, it is counted, in terms of the census, as being a part of the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area.-Communities:...
) was named.