Marathon (Ontario)

Marathon is a town of 3,100 people (2021) on the north shore of Lake Superior in Northern Ontario. It is the largest town on the Trans-Canada Highway between Sault Ste Marie and Thunder Bay.

Understand
Marathon's resource economy was built on wood pulp. In 2009, the Marathon Pulp Mill was shut down indefinitely shutdown, eliminating hundreds of jobs from the region. Starting in the mid-1980s Marathon's economy expanded to include gold mining.

History
As long ago as 500 BC the area was inhabited by Ojibway First Nations (Indigenous) people who lived along the Pic River. Their descendents still live in the area.

Marathon was born as a railway community named Peninsula, due to its location on a peninsula on Lake Superior.

The pulp mill was constructed between 1944 and 1946, the population rose to 2,500, and the town's name was changed, first to Everest - after D.C. Everest, president of Marathon Corporation of Wisconsin, owners of the pulp mill in the town - then, later that year, to Marathon, in honor of the paper company. The Everest name was discarded because it was too similar to Everett, Ontario.

In the early 1980s, gold was discovered at Hemlo, an uninhabited area adjacent to the Trans Canada highway some 40 km east of Marathon. By the late 1980s, three mines were running at Hemlo, with two of the three mines locating their employees in Marathon, which effectively doubled its population and made it the largest town along the North Shore between Sault Ste. Marie and Thunder Bay.

Visitor Information

 * Town of Marathon

Get in
Marathon sits just off of Highway 17 (Trans-Canada Highway), 5 km down Peninsula Rd.

, just north of the Trans-Canada Highway, approximately 4 km (2.5 mi) northeast of the town, has no scheduled traffic.

By bus

 * Operates a bus route multiple days per week between Thunder Bay and Sault Sainte Marie including stops in Red Rock, Nipigon, Schreiber, Terrace Bay, Marathon, White River, and Wawa.
 * Operates a bus route multiple days per week between Thunder Bay and Sault Sainte Marie including stops in Red Rock, Nipigon, Schreiber, Terrace Bay, Marathon, White River, and Wawa.

Do
Marathon has a challenging 9-hole golf course, Cross-country skiing trails and downhill skiing, a 4-sheet curling venue, and the only indoor swimming pool between Thunder Bay and Sault Ste. Marie.



Go next

 * Manitouwadge — a small, former mining town, north of Marathon on Highway 614.
 * Nipigon — to the west, a popular launching point for fishing trips, and along the route to the Ouimet Canyon.
 * Terrace Bay — the next town to the west, along the Trans-Canada Highway. Home of the 30-m Aguasabon Falls, and a short boat ride away from Slate Islands Provincial Park, a group of islands believed to have formed by a meteorite impact.
 * White River — the next town to the east, along the Trans-Canada Highway, and birthplace of a bear named Winnie, who would travel to Europe in 1914 and inspire a collection of popular stories and illustrations.