Ontario Highway 812 History - The King's Highways of Ontario

Tertiary Highway 812 was originally a forest access road within the Districts of Rainy River and Kenora, which went on to form a strategic highway link between Fort Frances and Dryden. As part of a multi-year construction program carried out during the 1970s and early 1980s, Highway 812 was extended northerly to Dryden. Although it was more commonly known as the "Manitou Road", Highway 812 was ultimately designated as a Secondary Highway once the new through route between Fort Frances and Dryden was officially opened to traffic in the Fall of 1980.

Construction began on the new access road between Fort Frances and Dryden in 1972. Work on the new highway began at the Fort Frances end of the proposed route and extended north from Highway 11 for approximately 30 miles to the Rainy River-Kenora District Boundary. On January 7, 1975, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MTC) prepared a Preliminary Assumption Plan to acquire jurisdiction and control over the completed section of the Manitou Road. This plan was registered on January 27, 1975, and the new Manitou Road from the Highway 11 Junction northerly for a distance of 31.6 miles to the Rainy River-Kenora District Boundary was formally designated as a Tertiary Highway by an Order-in-Council, effective March 19, 1975. This new Tertiary Highway was subsequently assigned the Highway 812 designation in April 1975, which was the highest route number ever assigned to an Ontario highway at that time. While construction work progressed from the southern end of the new Manitou Road, construction work also began in 1975 from the Dryden end of the proposed highway. By 1979, these two separate construction projects linked up with one another in the area of Upper Manitou Lake. However, until the new road link was completed through to Dryden in late 1980, public access to Highway 812 was restricted from a point about 42 km north of the Highway 11 Junction northerly to Dryden due to ongoing road construction operations. By the Spring of 1980, it was apparently possible to drive between Fort Frances and Dryden via the partially-completed Manitou Road, but Official Road Bulletins issued by MTC throughout 1980 warned motorists that through travel on this unopened section of the Manitou Road was at the motorist's own risk.

The new paved highway link between Fort Frances and Dryden was completed and officially opened to traffic on October 31, 1980. Immediately after the official opening, the entire route of the Manitou Road was formally re-designated from a Tertiary Highway to a Secondary Highway by an Order-in-Council, effective November 1, 1980. A decision was made to renumber the Manitou Road from its original Highway 812 designation to a new Highway 502 designation. The highway route number change came into effect on February 10, 1981.