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Thunder Bay
KNOWLEDGE OF Thunder Bay
European settlement on Thunder Bay began with two French fur trading posts (1679, 1717) which were subsequently abandoned (see Fort William, Ontario). Permanent settlement began in 1803 with the establishment of Fort William by the Montreal-based North West Company as its mid-continent entrepôt. The fort thrived until 1821 when the North West Company merged with the Hudson's Bay Company and Fort William lost its raison d'être. By the 1850's the Province of Canada began to take an interest in its western extremity, largely because of a demand for mining locations on the Canadian shores of Lake Superior following the discovery of copper in the Keweenaw Peninsula of Michigan. In 1849 French-speaking Jesuits established the Mission de l'Immaculée-Conception (Mission of the Immaculate Conception) on the Kaministiquia to evangelize the Ojibwe. The Province of Canada negotiated a treaty with the Ojibwe of Lake Superior known as the Robinson Treaty in 1850. As a result, an Indian reservation was set aside south of the Kaministiquia River. And in 1859-60 the Department of Crown Lands surveyed two townships (Neebing and Paipoonge) and the Town Plot of Fort William.
Another settlement developed a few miles to the north of Fort William with the construction by the federal Department of Public Works of a road connecting Lake Superior with the Red River Colony under the direction of Simon James Dawson. This public works depot or construction headquarters acquired its first name in May 1870 when Colonel Garnet Wolsley named it Prince Arthur's Landing. It was renamed Port Arthur by the CPR in May 1883 (see Port Arthur, Ontario).
The arrival of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1875 sparked a long battle for supremacy which did not end until the amalgamation of 1970. Until the 1880s, Port Arthur was a much larger and dynamic community, but the CPR in collaboration with the Hudson's Bay Company preferred east Fort William (the lower Kaministiquia river where the fur trade posts were). Further provoked by a prolonged tax dispute with Port Arthur and the seizure of a locomotive in 1889, the CPR relocated all its employees and facilities to Fort William. The collapse of silver mining after 1890 further undermined the economy of Port Arthur which entered a period of deep depression while Fort William thrived.
Thunder Bay began a period of extraordinary growth in the era of Sir Wilfrid Laurier as a result of transcontinental railway building and the western wheat boom. The CPR double-tracked its Winnipeg-Thunder Bay line. The Canadian Northern Railway established facilities at Port Arthur. The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway began construction of its facilties at the Fort William Mission in 1905, and the federal government began construction of the National Transcontinental Railway. Grain elevator construction boomed as the volume of grain shipped to Europe increased. Both cities indebted themselves by granting bonuses to manufacturing industries. By 1914 the twin cities had modern infrastructures (sewers, safe water supply, street lighting, electric light, etc.). Both Fort William and Port Arthur were proponents of municipal ownership. As early as 1892 Port Arthur built Canada's first municipally-owned electric street railway, and both cities spurned Bell Telephone Company of Canada to establish their own municipally-owned telephone systems in 1902.
Another settlement developed a few miles to the north of Fort William with the construction by the federal Department of Public Works of a road connecting Lake Superior with the Red River Colony under the direction of Simon James Dawson. This public works depot or construction headquarters acquired its first name in May 1870 when Colonel Garnet Wolsley named it Prince Arthur's Landing. It was renamed Port Arthur by the CPR in May 1883 (see Port Arthur, Ontario).
The arrival of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1875 sparked a long battle for supremacy which did not end until the amalgamation of 1970. Until the 1880s, Port Arthur was a much larger and dynamic community, but the CPR in collaboration with the Hudson's Bay Company preferred east Fort William (the lower Kaministiquia river where the fur trade posts were). Further provoked by a prolonged tax dispute with Port Arthur and the seizure of a locomotive in 1889, the CPR relocated all its employees and facilities to Fort William. The collapse of silver mining after 1890 further undermined the economy of Port Arthur which entered a period of deep depression while Fort William thrived.
Thunder Bay began a period of extraordinary growth in the era of Sir Wilfrid Laurier as a result of transcontinental railway building and the western wheat boom. The CPR double-tracked its Winnipeg-Thunder Bay line. The Canadian Northern Railway established facilities at Port Arthur. The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway began construction of its facilties at the Fort William Mission in 1905, and the federal government began construction of the National Transcontinental Railway. Grain elevator construction boomed as the volume of grain shipped to Europe increased. Both cities indebted themselves by granting bonuses to manufacturing industries. By 1914 the twin cities had modern infrastructures (sewers, safe water supply, street lighting, electric light, etc.). Both Fort William and Port Arthur were proponents of municipal ownership. As early as 1892 Port Arthur built Canada's first municipally-owned electric street railway, and both cities spurned Bell Telephone Company of Canada to establish their own municipally-owned telephone systems in 1902.
Chapi