Corunna

Corunna is the community that almost became Canada’s Capital.

The town sprang up in 1823, after Sir Charles Beresford was sent to find a good place for Canada’s Capital.  Beresford and his survey team found the site behind a wide crescent shoreline and named it Corunna, after the Spanish town of La Corunna where Beresford had seen action in during the Napoleonic Wars.

The government eventually decided against making it Canada’s capital, reasoning it was too close to the American border.  In the end, it chose a place called Bytown instead.

But that wasn’t the end of Corunna; Gristmills, saw mills and two taverns sprang up a few years after Beresford arrived.  According to the 1851 Canadian Gazetter, there were two taverns, both of which proved to be “a great curse to the neighbourhood.”  At one point, there were no less than six drinking establishments, all located in hotels.

The town’s first school was built in 1853 and some of its initial graduates went on to amazing careers.  In fact, three of them were elected to the United States senate, a third became a U.S. congressman, a fourth became a South African member of parliament and a fifth was elected mayor of Sarnia.

But Corunna’s most intriguing pioneer was probably John Bulley.  He came to town in 1860, started a blacksmith shop, got into wagon making and built a wharf, gristmill and saw mill.  And he came within an eyelash of putting Corunna in the map as a shipbuilding centre.  It happened in 1870 when Bulley built the schooner Kate Bulley as a timber carrying cargo vessel.

But on its maiden voyage to Chigaco it sank with the loss of its Captain and all but two of the hands.  With it went Bulley’s bankroll and the hope of creating a shipbuilding and lumber empire.  It was, in fact, the only commercial ship ever built in Corunna.