Orillia is located in Simcoe County, 104 km (65 mi) north of Toronto, near the narrows between Lake Simcoe and Lake Couchiching, close to the Georgian Bay and Muskoka Lakes regions. Samuel de Champlain visited Orillia in 1615, and a monument commemorating this event stands on the shore of Lake Couchiching. European settlement began in 1833. The settlement was incorporated as a town in 1875 and as a city in 1969. A 2006 real estate survey has estimated the population of Orillia, Ontario at 40,532.