Mariposa is a fictional Canadian town created by Stephen Leacock as the setting for a series of short stories. Originally commissioned by The Montreal Star newspaper, they were later collected and published in one volume as Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town. Since then, many attempts have been made to expand the canon, present it in a different form or make reference to it. Although the author publicly denied it, the town is closely modelled on the town of Orillia, Ontario and its inhabitants. He named it after one or more nearby communities, which had borne versions of that name in real life, and have since disincorporated: Mariposa, Ontario, and Mariposa Beach. Leacock was a professor of political economy at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, but he had a summer home at Old Brewery Bay. The names of the characters in the stories were altered to avoid potential libel lawsuits when the stories were published in book form in 1912. Mariposa has been a subject of academic research in a number of fields, such as small town heritage preservation, and in literary studies of Leacock writings. The remainder of this article will provide information on Mariposa in the form of a regular geographic entry as if it really existed, with references to the facts associated with the non-fictional models. Geography Mariposa, Ontario, nicknamed Hull Town, is situated between Lake Ossawippi and Lake Wissanotti (modelled on Lake Couchiching and Lake Simcoe, although with features that radically depart from both). The Ossawippi River joins these two lakes, and the Lower Ossawippi River feeds into the northern end of Lake Wissanotti. The community is located on the Canadian Shield and hence the soil is rocky and supports mostly slow-growing evergreen trees. Politically, Mariposa is located in Missinaba County (modelled on Simcoe County and possibly taking its name from the Missinaibi River near Chapleau, Ontario) which was surveyed in a grid pattern. The town is the metropolis of surrounding rural Tecumseh Township (modelled on Tecumseth Township in Simcoe County), from which it was created in the 19th century, and serves as the judicial district but not county seat. It is only one hundred miles north of the provincial metropolis (modelled on Toronto). Demographics The official census conducted by the federal government lists a population of about five thousand, not counting outlying districts such as Tecumseh Corners, Nichols Corners, Third Concession and Fourth Concession. Other