Champlain

Vankleek Hill is a town in Champlain Township in Eastern Ontario. It has a population of 1,996.

The town was named after Simeon Vankleek, a United Empire Loyalist who settled there near the end of the 18th century. The agricultural-based community became a thriving community in the 1890s and still retains many of the buildings and structures of the time. 

Simeon Van Kleeck and his wife Cecilia Jaycox arrived in Nova Scotia from the former British Province of New York in 1783. Simeon, of Dutch descent, was a demobilized officer who had supported the British crown during the American Revolution. His wife Cecilia had witnessed her brother's capture and execution for his British allegiance.

As a United Empire Loyalist, Simeon was to receive land in payment for his services, and he applied for his grant several times. The legend is that while waiting for a decision, he sighted high ground on a plane of flat land south of the Ottawa River. Simeon and his son Simeon Jr. settled c.1797 on Concession IV, Lots 7,8 and 9, Hawkesbury Township. Today this is the location of Vankleek Hill.

Vankleek Hill's prosperity began with the VanKleeck's family inn that served travellers from the Ottawa River port of L’Original to southern ports on the St. Lawrence River. Soon tradesmen and merchants were established at the four corners where today Highway 34 intersects with Main Street (County Road 10).

Since 1998 Vankleek Hill has been one of four municipalities that make up the Township of Champlain, including L’Original, and the Longueuil and West Hawkesbury townships. These four communities were historically linked through family and social ties, farming and commerce, and today with a new joint municipal government.

Chaplain Fire Station 

Bruce Barton Station

11 Main St. Vankleek Hill

Vankleek Hill Fire Station has over 25 volunteer firefighters with three (3) trucks and an ambulance.