807 Area Code – Thunder Bay, Ontario: Location, Time Zone & History

Northwestern Ontario dials out on area code 807, split from area code 705 in early 1962 -- a division made mainly to streamline call routing between Western Canada and the region rather than to relieve any shortage of numbers. It remains the only area code in Ontario that has never received an overlay, and it stays that way in one of the country's least populated numbering plan areas, with under 40 percent of its numbers assigned. Around 2000, regulators briefly floated erasing the 807/705 boundary entirely to form one overlay complex, but shelved the idea over fears of public confusion.

Thunder Bay serves as the region's anchor, its port the westernmost on the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway and the holder of North America's largest grain storage capacity, shipping Prairie grain to world markets. Forestry, led by Resolute Forest Products, and mining exploration across the district round out an economy tied closely to the land and water, alongside Lakehead University and the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre.

The territory stretches from Lake Superior to the Manitoba and Minnesota borders, encompassing numerous First Nations communities. Overlooking the lake west of Thunder Bay, the Terry Fox Memorial and Lookout, dedicated in 1982, marks where Fox ended his 1980 Marathon of Hope after 5,373 kilometres -- a stop still drawing travelers along the Trans-Canada Highway. Ten-digit dialing became mandatory across 807 by May 2023.