Orford is a township municipality of about 5,000 people in Memphrémagog Regional County Municipality in the Estrie region of Quebec, Canada.
Orford's main attraction is its ski resort on Mount Orford, attracting thousands of people every winter.
Orford is well known for the Mont-Orford National Park. The park has thousands of acres of forest and two major lakes, Stukley and Fraser. Cherry river runs through the park and ends up in Lake Memphremagog. The township has many lakes and is a tourist destination in Quebec.
History A region still little frequented at the beginning of the 19th century, the township of Orford was proclaimed in 1801 on the lands of the county of Buckinghamshire. The name refers to the village of Orford in Suffolk, England. In 1855, the municipality of the township of Orford was created. Its initial development was ensured by loyalist immigration. This founded the village of Cherry River, north of Magog. Nevertheless, the rest of the municipality remains mostly wild, until the advent of the project to create a national park.
The Huntingdon Mine was discovered in 1865 by Avary Knowlton. In 1951 it was bought by the Quebec Copper Corporation Limited, which shipped the ore to Noranda's Horne Smelter.
The Mont-Orford National Park, which was created in 1938, was allocated nearly half of the territory. Cherry River then becomes the gateway to the park. The creation of a ski resort and a golf course created a tourist craze for the region. Today, the population is divided between 40% permanent residents and 60% vacationers.
Demographics In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Orford had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.
Population trend:Statistics Canada: 1996, 2001, 2006, 2011, 2016, 2021 census Census Population Change (%) 2021 5,007 15.4% 2016 4,337 21.3% 2011 3,575 20.0% 2006 2,979 25.0% ADJ 2,383 (+) 19.9% 2001 1,987 39.2% 1996 1,427 44.9% 1991 985 N/A ADJ = adjusted figure due to boundary change.
Mother tongue (2021) Language Population Pct (%) French only 4,650 92.9% English only 185 3.7% Both English and French 80 1.6% Other languages 80 1.6%
See also List of township municipalities in Quebec
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