About the town » Brent, Ontario, Canada

Brent is a community on Cedar Lake on the Petawawa River in northern Algonquin Provincial Park, and is located in geographic Deacon Township in the Unorganized south part of Nipissing District in Northeastern Ontario, Canada. It was originally a station and divisional point on the transcontinental main line of the Canadian Northern Railway, and was named for Brentwood, England, the home of Robert M. Horne-Payne, a director of the Canadian Northern. During the late 19th and early 20th century, a number of lumber companies operated at Brent. It later became a Canadian National Railway divisional point between the Alderdale Subdivision to the west and the Beachburg Subdivision to the east; the next railway points were Government Park to the west and Acanthus to the east. In 1995, Canadian National Railways decided to close the Northern Algonquin line to rail traffic, stating that operational costs were too high. With the railway went the electrical grid, and all power had to be supplied by generator. When this happened, most of the inhabitants left. Brent is now basically a recreational camp site with some park services and access point to the interior of Algonquin Park, its permanent population in the single digits. The Brent crater is located north of the village.