| Black River-Matheson | |
| Official Name: | Township of Black River-Matheson |
| Settlement Type: | Township (single-tier) |
| Pushpin Map: | Canada Ontario |
| Pushpin Mapsize: | 200 |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | Canada |
| Subdivision Type1: | Province |
| Subdivision Name1: | Ontario |
| Subdivision Type2: | District |
| Subdivision Name2: | Cochrane |
| Government Type: | Township |
| Leader Title: | Mayor |
| Leader Name: | Vacant |
| Leader Title1: | Governing Body |
| Leader Name1: | Black River-Matheson Township Council |
| Leader Title2: | MP |
| Leader Name2: | Charlie Angus (NDP) |
| Leader Title3: | MPP |
| Leader Name3: | John Vanthof (NDP) |
| Established Title: | Established |
| Area Land Km2: | 1163.45 |
| Population As Of: | 2016 |
| Population Footnotes: | [1] |
| Population Total: | 2438 |
| Population Density Km2: | 2.1 |
| Timezone: | EST |
| Utc Offset: | -5 |
| Timezone Dst: | EDT |
| Utc Offset Dst: | -4 |
| Postal Code Type: | Postal code FSA |
| Postal Code: | P0K |
| Coordinates: | 48.5333°N -108°W |
| Area Codes: | 705, 249 |
Black River-Matheson is a township in the Cochrane District of the Canadian province of Ontario. The municipality is astride the Black River, for which it is partly named. The Matheson railway station was serviced by the Northlander until 2012.
Matheson was first known as McDougall's Chute after an early trapper. Renamed for Arthur J. Matheson (1842–1913), provincial Treasurer and M.P.P. for South Lanark.[2]
Mining, forestry and farming are some of the principal industries in the area, augmented by outdoor tourism in the summer, such as fishing and hunting. There are three elementary schools within the municipality.
The communities in the township are Holtyre, Matheson, Ramore, Shillington, Val Gagné and Wavell. The main community of Matheson is located at the intersection of highways 11 and 101.
Prospecting started in 1909. The Croesus Mine (1914–1918) became "one of the richest mines in Canada," according to Barnes. Gold was like "plums in pudding" and "one gold nugget was egg shaped, two inches long and one and a quarter across." A total of 16 companies operated in the Harker Holloway area from 1917 to 1925, including Harker Gold Mines. P.A. McDermott found a gold-bearing zone in 1922, which became American Barrick's Holt-McDermott Mine in 1988. Located in the Abitibi greenstone belt, the mine produced 60,000 ounces of gold in 1994.[3]
The Great Fire of 1916 left 243 dead.[3]
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Black River-Matheson had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of 1161.89km2, it had a population density of in 2021.[4]
Population trend:[5]