French River, also known as Rivière-des-Français, is a municipality in the Canadian province of Ontario, in the Sudbury District. The municipality had a population of 2,662 in the Canada 2016 Census. It was formed in 1999 through the merger of the Township of Cosby, Mason and Martland and surrounding unincorporated portions of the Unorganized North Sudbury District. It was named after the French River, which flows through the municipality. The borders of the municipality are composed of Highway 69 to the west (the French River Trading Post and French River Inn properties are also included within the municipal boundary), West Arm to the north on Highway 535 (just east of Shaw Rd.), the end of Wolseley Bay Rd to the east (Highway 528) and the community of Monetville to the northeast. Along with the municipalities of St. Charles, Killarney, and Markstay-Warren, it is part of the region known as Sudbury East. These communities partner together on several ventures, including the Sudbury East Planning Board, Sudbury East Municipal Association, Manitoulin-Sudbury District Services Board (MSDSB) and Sudbury East Board of Trade. Communities The municipality comprises the communities of Alban, Bigwood, Chartrand Corner, Delamere, Dokis First Nation, French River Station, Happy Landing, Jamot, Monetville, Noëlville, North Monetville, Ouellette, Rutter, Sucker Creek Landing and Wolseley Bay. Alban The community of Alban was originally established in 1907 as Rutter, named for the nearby railway station in 1907, but in 1937 the community was renamed for Rev. J. Alban Filiatrault. In 1934, the Parish of Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes was created. Jean-Baptiste Rochon donated several acres of land to the people of Alban to erect a church. During the night of February 6, 1953, the church burned to the ground. The following Sunday, Father Oliva Campeau proposed the immediate reconstruction of the church. This time, it was to be constructed with brick and the walls of plaster instead of wood. Monetville Originally known as Martland, the community was first settled in 1895 by Cyrille Monette (né Alexandre Boisvert) and four other pioneers. It became a municipality in 1906 and adopted the name Monetville. Monetville is divided into two areas; North Monetville and Monetville. "South" Monetville is generally from Dokis Road south to Bear Lake and Shanty Bay (Baie des Chantiers) of Lake Nipissing. North Monetville extends generally from Dokis Road north to the West Arm of Lake Nipissing and Chapel Island, which Highway 64 crosses on the West Arm.