The
Cayuga people inhabited the area in the early 17th century, and there was a
Mississauga village named Cochingomink also in the 17th century. In 1778, a
fur trade post was established and the settlement was known as Smith's Creek. In 1793,
Loyalists from the northern colonies became the first permanent settlers of European heritage in the area, as the Crown granted them land as compensation for being forced to leave the colonies (much of their property was confiscated by rebel governments) and as payment for military service.
John Graves Simcoe, then
lieutenant governor of Upper Canada, established the Township of Hope in the early 1790s, named after Colonel
Henry Hope, lieutenant governor of the
Province of Quebec. From 1817 to 1819, the area was known as Toronto or "Toronto at Smith's Creek". In 1819, the village and township were united and named Port Hope. In 1834 Port Hope was incorporated as a town. Relatively slow growth from 1881 to 1951 resulted in much of the town's 19th-century architecture surviving. Port Hope's downtown is celebrated as Ontario's best-preserved 19th-century streetscape. The town's chapter of the
Architectural Conservancy of Ontario and the Heritage Port Hope Advisory Committee are very active and advise on the restoration and preservation of architecturally or historically significant buildings. With over 270 heritage-designated buildings, Port Hope has a higher per capita rate of preservation than any other town or city in Canada. In 1978, eight members of the
Satan's Choice Motorcycle Club were charged with a murder that occurred at Port Hope's Queen's Hotel. The trial and conviction of some members—the
Port Hope 8 case—has been described as a miscarriage of justice. In 2001, the original town amalgamated with Hope Township to form the Municipality of
Port Hope and Hope, which was renamed to its current name in November of that year. At the time of amalgamation, the census listed the town's population as 11,718 and the township's as 3,887. The 2017 supernatural horror film
It, its 2019 sequel
It Chapter Two, and its prequel television series
It: Welcome to Derry were all filmed in Port Hope, which portrayed the fictional town of
Derry,
Maine.
Radiation and cleanup Port Hope is known for having the largest volume of historic low-level
radioactive wastes in Canada. The waste was created by
Eldorado Mining and Refining Limited and its private sector predecessors, resulting from the refining of
radium from
pitchblende. Radium was used in
radioluminescent paint (such as aircraft dials) and in early cancer treatments. During World War II, the Eldorado plant produced exponentially more
uranium oxides, which the United States used in the
Manhattan Project to make nuclear weapons. This plant, now under the ownership of
Cameco, continues to produce uranium fuel for nuclear power plants. In 2002, a large amount of contaminated soil was removed from beachfront areas. More recently, testing of over 5,000 properties began, with a plan to remove and store contaminated soil that had been used as landfill. Over $1 billion is expected to be spent on the soil remediation project, the largest such cleanup in Canadian history. ==Geography==