Owen Sound is located on the southern shores of Georgian Bay in a valley below the sheer rock cliffs of the Niagara Escarpment. The city is located at the mouths of the Pottawatomi and Sydenham Rivers. It has tree-lined streets, many parks, and tree-covered hillsides and ravines.This area of the upper Great Lakes was first surveyed in 1815 by William Fitzwilliam Owen and Lieutenant Henry W. Bayfield. The inlet was named "Owen's Sound" in honour of the explorer's older brother, Admiral Sir Edward Owen.The city was first known as Sydenham when it was settled in 1840 by Charles Rankin. Prior to his arrival, the area was inhabited by the Ojibway people. In 1857 the name was changed to Owen Sound. For much of its history, it was a major port city known as the "Chicago of the North."The Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery is located in Owen Sound. Tom Thomson was born in 1877 and grew up in a home that appreciated literature and music. He worked as an engraver. In 1912, he sketched in Algonquin Park and canoed the Spanish River. The result was a full size canvas, Northern Lake. He returned each year to Algonquin Park where he supported himself as a ranger and guide as he continued to paint, producing masterpieces such as Autumn Foliage, The West Wind, and Northern River.William Avery "Billy" Bishop was born in Owen Sound in 1894. Given a .22 rifle one Christmas, Billy was offered 25 cents for every squirrel he shot. "One bullet - one shot" became Billy's motto. Bishop flew planes in the First World War. Courage and marksmanship made him one of the war's greatest fighter pilots.Norman Bethune was born in 1890 in Gravenhurst. From childhood he dreamed of becoming a doctor like his paternal grandfather, one of the founders of the University of Toronto's Medical School. The family moved to Owen Sound where Norman finished high school. In 1914, one year short of finishing his medical training, he left for France as a stretcher bearer, Navy surgeon, and as a senior medical officer in the new Royal Canadian Air Force. After returning home to Canada, he was appointed to the McGill University teaching staff where, as a thoracic surgeon he invented new surgical instruments. He supported a universal health insurance plan for Canadians. While in Spain during the Spanish Civil War, he organized a mobile blood transfusion service, the first of its kind. In 1938, Bethune went to China to work in Mao Tse-Tung's 8th route army, performing surgical operations in field hospitals. He cut his hand and it became infected and led to his death in 1939. The Gravenhust home where he was born has been restored as the Bethune Memorial Home.Agnes Campbell Macphail was born in 1890 in Grey County. In 1921, she became the first woman to be elected to the Canadian parliament. She was later elected to the Ontario Legislature where she was responsible for the province's first equal pay legislation.