Kapuskasing is a town on the Kapuskasing River in the Cochrane District of Northern Ontario, Canada, approximately 92km east of Hearst. The town was known as MacPherson until 1917, when the name was changed so as not to conflict with another railway stop in Manitoba.EtymologyThe town of Kapuskasing  gets its name from the Kapuskasing River, which was so named long before the existence of the town. Kapuskasing is a word of Cree origin, and its true meaning has been the question of debate. A long established local belief suggests the word Kapuskasing means "Bend in River".The first reported survey of the district in which Kapuskasing lies was carried out in 1875 by Dr. Robert Bell of the Geological Survey of Canada. He referred to the Kapuskasing River as the "Kai-bush-ka-sing". According to Bell's information, the Kapuskasing River derived its name from the lake at its head.In 1900, the Bureau of Colonization of the Ontario Department of Agriculture sent parties to survey the north of the Canadian Pacific Railway between the Quebec border and Lake Nipigon. Their main interest was to seek out and delimit areas for further agricultural settlements that would give Ontario a new farming frontier to offset the attraction of the western prairies.