MUSKOKA PARRY SOUND
GENEALOGY GROUP

Sudbury District Cemeteries, McDougall Township
Copananing Cemetery

Location

Located at French River Village in the French and Pickerel districts.  Pioneer burying place located on the east bank of the French River and Georgian Bay.

Status No Longer in use
Oldest Known Internment 1904
Inquiries
Maps Not Available Yet
Directions

This cemetery is actually located in Sudbury District and not Parry Sound.  But it was included with other Parry Sound cemeteries in the book, "These Our Ancestors Were".  It is located in a very remote area that is not accessible by road, only by boat.  The village of French River is now a ghost town and is mentioned in the book, "Ghost Towns of Ontario", by Ron Brown.  You can get their by boat from either Key Harbour or Henvey Inlet.

The following is the transcript from the book "These Our Ancestors Were", 1974.

Apparently this was quite a sawmill area and in 1875 was known as Copananing.  This is the area where the famous ship Asia went down with everybody being lost but two.

The village was later known as French River Village and was a thriving community in the late 1800’s.  There remains here a trace of the old Copananing Hotel, a jail and the trace of a cemetery, with a few headstones standing.  Some of the headstones are believed to have been moved elsewhere. There is a Catholic Cemetery inland from the village on the river but is inaccessible because of musky and high water.

The hand drawn gravestones are located behind Reg McIntosh’s on east bank of the French River.  (1974)

Gone But Not Forgotten
In Memory Of

WILSON WICKS
Drowned November 26, 1903
Found April 25, 1904

LORA WILSON
Born October 1, 1905
Died October 15, 1906
BABA WILSON
Died August 1904
ELSIE ANN BROOKS
Died April 23, 1907
Aged 4 years 4 months 14 days

Parry Sound District Cemeteries