Calabogie

Calabogie is a tiny ski village on Calabogie Lake in Greater Madawaska Township, Renfrew County. Perched at the edge of eastern Ontario's Ottawa Valley, it primarily attracts visitors from the Ottawa-Hull capital region.

Understand
Calabogie was originally named Madawaska for the Madawaska River system, on which Calabogie Lake is one of four reservoir lakes. The river runs from Algonquin Provincial Park down to the Ottawa River at Arnprior.

When the Kingston &amp; Pembroke Railway reached Calabogie Lake from Kingston in 1883, the local station was named for the lake as a "Madawaska" station existed on the Ottawa, Arnprior and Parry Sound Railway Company line through Barry's Bay. The K&amp;P was completed to the Canada Central Railway junction in Renfrew in 1884.

The village was founded a lumber camp; a dam on the Madawaska River had created the lake and the river was used to transport logs to Quebec City. Water power was used to power a sawmill and later the river was dammed at various points to generate hydroelectric power. The railway brought visitors and industry; by the end of 1912, the K&amp;P became part of the Canadian Pacific Railway. As these were steam trains and stopped in every village on the 180-km (110-mile) journey from Kingston to Renfrew (they never did reach Pembroke), the "Kick and Push" was a slow means of travel which began to be dismantled in the 1950s as travellers increasingly took to the highways in motorcars.

While lumber and mining declined, the village kept its tourism role, with Calabogie Peaks ski resort opened on Dickson Mountain in 1970 and Calabogie Motorsports Park constructed in 2006.

Get in
The train no longer runs and the tracks have been removed. Access is by car, usually from Trans-Canada Highway 17 (east of Renfrew) by heading southwest on Calabogie Road (old Hwy 508).

The closest intercity bus stop is in Renfrew.

Go next

 * Renfrew and Arnprior
 * Ottawa