Commanda Lake

Commanda began as a rank. An Anishinaabe warrior in the War of 1812 was addressed as Commander, the word stuck, and it became a family name.

From there it spread the way names do in this country. It became a creek, then a post office in 1877, then a village, and then this lake. The Commanda name stayed prominent in the region long afterwards, and a passenger vessel on Lake Nipissing still carries it.

The village exists because of a road. Between 1866 and 1873 the province cut the Rosseau to Nipissing colonization route through here to draw settlers north, having judged the land suitable for farming. It was not. The soil is thin over granite, and what took hold instead was logging camps, a sawmill, a hotel and a general store, which went up in 1885 and stands today as a museum. Most of the rest has gone back to bush.