| Official Name: | Redwater |
| Pushpin Map: | Canada Ontario |
| Pushpin Label Position: | none |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Location within Ontario |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | Canada |
| Subdivision Type1: | Province |
| Subdivision Name1: | Ontario |
| Subdivision Type2: | District |
| Subdivision Name2: | Nipissing |
| Subdivision Type3: | Geographic Township |
| Subdivision Name3: | Askin |
| Settlement Type: | Ghost town |
| Established Title: | Established |
| Established Date: | 1903 |
| Timezone: | EST |
| Utc Offset: | −5 |
| Timezone Dst: | EDT |
| Utc Offset Dst: | −4 |
| Coordinates: | 46.8964°N -79.6489°W |
| Coordinates Footnotes: | [1] |
| Postal Code Type: | Postal Code |
| Postal Code: | P0H |
| Area Code: | 705 |
Redwater is an unincorporated place and railway point in the municipality of Temagami, Nipissing District, Northeastern Ontario, Canada.[1] It is in geographic Askin Township and is located on the shores of Lower and Upper Redwater lakes along the Ontario Northland Railway.[2] [3] Redwater was the site of a settlement established in the early 1900s that survived into the 1950s.
The community of Redwater began its formation from a small request stop on the Northern Ontario Railway in 1903 when the railway reached the area of the Upper and Lower Redwater lakes.[4] During this time a small train station, telegraph key, a siding and water tank was constructed.[4] The several men that worked on the railroad either lived in the train station or in a bunkhouse and two houses.[4] At least one of the two houses was used to supply bosses of the crew.[4]
The newly formed settlement was the site of a murder in 1909 that began when two railway employees named Cornish and Morin attacked W.J. Dyston who worked as the Redwater telegraph operator.[4] After the attack took place, Dyston had been badly beaten and had to struggle in order to get to the telegraph key.[4] When Dyston reached the telegraph key he managed to call for help.[4] Subsequently, Dyston collapsed onto the telegraph key after he sent an incoherent message and died.[4] It was during this time the name Redwater retained a new meaning for the settlement.[4]
A few years after the death of W.J. Dyston, the Redwater Lumber Company constructed a small sawmill in the area.[5] Its lumber yards were located adjacent to Redwater's train station so that the lumber would easily be exported by train.[5] A bunkhouse was created to supply homes for those that worked at the sawmill and subsequent houses were built along the railway.[5] In 1916, a store and post office opened and were operated by a customer named T.J. Baker.[5] [4] The Redwater sawmill ceased around 1928 but the community still remained populated.[5] A railroad car was used to supply a school from the 1940s up until the 1950s when at least five homes still existed.[5]
Because of the closure of the Redwater sawmill, the residents of Redwater only lived there for a time.[5] The post office that opened in 1916 closed in 1942 but the train station still remained in 1945.[6] [7] Homes were subsequently destroyed, with the last burning down in the 1950s.[5] In 1957, the Redwater water tower was burnt down.[5] After this took place, a series of cottages were constructed on the townsite in the 1960s and are still used today.[5] Remains of the early ghost town of Redwater are buried under extensive overgrowth and include foundations where the houses were located and a few root cellars.[4] An aluminum shed behind the site of Redwater's original train station is used by the Ontario Northland Railway.[5]