The name Killaloe hails from an Irish community in Ireland of the same name and salutes the Irish heritage of many of the first settlers to this area who came to Canada in the early 19th century seeking a better life. The early beginnings of this little town centered on the lumber trade. Built in 1849, and rebuilt in 1870 after a devastating fire, the mill at Old Killaloe harnessed waterpower to grind grain for area residents up to 1930, and planed lumber until the 1960s. For years, Killaloe was known across Canada for its radio and weather station, which operated here from 1938 to 1972 as part of a country-wide chain of sites designed for aircraft communication. Killaloe is the birth place of the BeaverTail pastries which are a line of fried dough pastries, individually hand stretched to resemble a beaver’s tail. The BeaverTails pastries were first produced in Killaloe, Ontario in 1978. Killaloe gained media attention during U.S. President Barack Obama’s first official visit to Ottawa when he stopped at the Byward Market on his way to the airport specifically to buy a BeaverTails pastry. With the railroad construction essentially finished, and the forestry industry declining many of the people took to farming. Unfortunately the soil was poor. Rocky land and short growing seasons meant that many farms failed. The population went into a steady decline which has only leveled off in the past few decades. Today the lumber industry is still important to the livelihood of many in the surrounding communities. Both large and small logging operations and sawmills still support the local economy even though the railway no longer runs through the village. The last passenger train rolled through in 1962, and in 1968 the train station was torn down. Killaloe still maintains a flavour of the turn of the century in many of the commercial buildings which are more than 100 years old.