2020. In the early 2000s, various proposals were put forward to reestablish Burwash as an intentional community, which would be built on principles of environmental sustainability; to date, no such project has been formally launched. Several community reunions were held in the 1990s and 2000s. An Ontario Heritage Trust plaque was unveiled at the site on August 6, 2006. As of 2012, the site is no longer directly accessible from the route of Highway 69. As part of the ongoing freeway conversion of the highway, its route was realigned to the east, and the Burwash road is now accessed from a decommissioned highway segment leading to Ontario Highway 637. In March 2020 Avalon Eco Resort purchased the old Camp Bison Jail Center and lands around it with the hopes of one day putting in a hiking trail with access off Ontario Highway 637. Elk population The site also hosted an attempt to replenish the decimated elk population of Ontario. Beginning in the 1930s, a herd of elk was transported from Alberta to be raised in the safe confines of the prison farm. Because the proximity of a human community provided the elk with an additional source of food, this population thrived more successfully than a similarly-sized population that was transferred to the Chapleau Crown Game Preserve at the same time. By 1950, however, concerns that the elk were spreading liver fluke to other local animal populations led the provincial government to institute a program of reducing the population by permitting hunting of the elk. A reevaluation of the problem in 1970 revealed that the parasites had in fact travelled the other way, from the indigenous wildlife to the transplanted elk, and the government reinstituted a ban on hunting the animals in the hopes of allowing the population to rebuild again. By 1985 the elk population had not significantly recovered, and an additional herd was transported from Alberta to Burwash in 1997. The 1997 transfer had some success in rebuilding the elk population, which was cited as one of the reasons for the construction of a grade-separated wildlife crossing over the realigned route of Highway 69 in the area. See also List of correctional facilities in Ontario References External links Citizens' Advisory Group for Burwash Ghost towns in Ontario Communities in Sudbury District Populated places established in 1914 Populated places disestablished in 1975 1914 establishments in Ontario 1975 disestablishments in Ontario