Physical Features
Huntsville lies within the Canadian Shield landform region. The landscape is made up of hills. There are many lakes in the area, along with many forests. Muskoka is home to many of Ontario's national and provincial parks, including Algonquin Park.
The Canadian Shield was formed in the Precambrian Era. Mountains formed there 570 to 1500 million years ago. They have eroded significantly since then and now the land consists of rounded hill of rock that were originally mountains. The land is also quite flat compared to other places in Canada.
Huntsville is part of the wet-climate soil region, which means that its soils are fertile but quite prone to leaching.
It is part of the mixed forest vegetation region. The mix of deciduous and coniferous trees can be seen within any of the many forests in and surrounding Huntsville.
It is also part of the Boreal Shield ecozone. The vegetation here includes black spruce, white spruce, Jack pine, balsam fir, yellow birch, sugar pale and black ash. Human activities include forestry, mining, tourism, recreation and trapping.
Climate
A climagraph for Huntsville, Ontario
The temperature range in Huntsville is 29.6 degrees Celsius. This indicates that Huntsville has a continental climate. The distribution of precipitation is fairly equal, but the town receives a few more millimeters of precipitation in the winter, which indicates a maritime climate. The total annual precipitation in Huntsville is 1031.9mm, which indicates a maritime climate. The temperature however, goes below zero and therefore one can conclude that Huntsville is not on the west coast. The average annual temperature is 5.5 degrees Celsius, which indicates an area in the Great Lakes - St Lawrence Lowlands or the East Coast.
Huntsville actually has a continental climate and though it is not in the Great Lakes - St Lawrence Lowlands region, it is closest to this region. The reason why Huntsville gets so much precipitation is because it is surrounded by many lakes. The water from the lakes turn into turn into vapor and form clouds, creating more precipitation. Huntsville is in the Southeastern climate region. The winters are long and cold while the summers are short.
Population
A population pyramid for Huntsville, Ontario. The red symbolizes young dependents, the yellow shows the working class and the blue shows the older dependents.
Being a small town, Huntsville has a population of 18 280 people, which accounts for 0.15% of Ontario's total population of 12 160 282 people. The population density is 26 people per square kilometer, which is almost double Ontario's population density of 13.4 people per square kilometer. There are an average of 2.5 people per household.
It is very homogeneous with non-immigrants making up 90% of the population. The total amount of immigrants in Huntsville comes out at 1 515 people. The total visible minority population is only 260. The biggest visible minorities include Chinese (90 people), Black (80 people), Latin American (35 people) and West Asian (20 people). There are 335 Aboriginals living in Huntsville.
The working class makes up 2/3 of the population while 1/3 of the population is part of the dependency load. The largest age group is the 45-49 group, while the smallest is the 85+ group. The smallest age group in the working class is the 25-29 group. There are only 20 more of them than there are of 0-4 year olds.
There are many more elderly females than elderly males. This is likely because females have a higher average lifespan. Other than that, the genders are spread out quite equally.
Economy
There is a total labour force of 9880 people. There is an unemployment rate of 4.8%, 2.5 percentage points smaller than that of Ontario's (6.4%). Unemployment is not much of an issue here. The top 5 employers are sales and service occupations, trades, transport and equipment operators & related occupations, business, finance & administration occupations, management occupations, and occupations unique to processing, manufacturing & utilities.
The main natural resources in this area are water, due to the vast amount of lakes, and forestry, due to the large amount of forests.
History of Huntsville
Huntsville was first settled in 1869 by Captain George Hunt, hence the town's name. He built a small agricultural centre there. A year later a post office was built. A water route and a railway built in the next few years encouraged the development of the town. Huntsville was an important industrial area in the late 19th century. Today its biggest income comes from tourism.
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