Historical Plaques of
Thunder Bay District

Near here in 1882, Daunais made his first important discovery, the Rabbit Mountain Silver Mine. One of the best-known prospectors and mining promoters of his day, he was born at St. Ours, Quebec, and came to this region about 1870. Among other silver mines located in the area by Daunais in the 1880's were the Silver Mountain, Beaver, Badger and Porcupine. Though short-lived, they were good producers, and greatly encouraged prospecting and investment in the Thunder Bay district. In 1894-95 Daunais staked claims in Lake of the Woods, three of which became small gold mines. "The Silver King" became a prominent resident of Port Arthur and played a leading role in its early development.

Born in Scotland, Dawson emigrated to Canada as a young man and began his career as a civil engineer. In 1857 as a member of a Canadian government expedition he surveyed a line of road from the Lakehead to Fort Garry and in 1858-59 further explored that area. His report greatly stimulated Canadian interest in the West. In 1868 he began construction of a wagon and water route following his earlier survey. It was traversed in 1870 by the Wolseley Expedition sent to preserve order during the first Riel uprising. Dawson represented Algoma in the Ontario legislature 1875-78 and in the Dominion parliament 1878-91.

This celebrated Canadian army nurse and public health authority was born in Port Arthur. In 1901 "Beth" Smellie became night supervisor at McKellar General Hospital. Joining the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps in 1915, she served in France and England. Elizabeth Smellie was demobilized in 1920 and three years later became Chief Superintendant of the Victorian Order of Nurses for Canada. She re-entered the army in 1940 and a year later supervised the organization of the Canadian Women's Army Corps. The first woman to attain the rank of Colonel in Canada's Armed Forces, Col. Smellie achieved many honours, including Commander of the British Empire and the Royal Red Cross Medal. After World War II she returned to the V.O.N., and retired in 1947.

Here at Pijitawabik and other Lake Nipigon localities ancient rocks of the Precambrian Shield were overlain by a diabase sheet formed approximately 1,200 million years ago. Erosion by water and ice removed the covering rocks and sculptured the sheet into rounded, flat-topped hills bounded by escarpments which rise in some places 500 feet above Lake Nipigon. The hills are separated by deep, narrow valleys. The towering pillars of the cliffs are the result of columnar jointing, a cooling phenomenon developed during the solidification of the magma. Frost action along the cracks in and around the columns cause splintering of the rock and occasionally the collapse of entire pillars, leaving the imposing palisades seen here.

One of Ontario's most striking geological formations, this cuesta has at its base granite rocks formed deep in the Earth some 2,500,000,000 years ago and exposed after millions of years of erosion. Subsequently a thick deposit of sediment accumulated, possibly in the waters of an inland sea that once covered this region. The sediment was converted by pressure into layers of shale, impure limestone and sandstone, red in colour owing to the presence of iron-bearing hematite. A molton material, diabase, later forced its way horizontally between the sediments forming a 'sill' which was uncovered by subsequent erosion. This is the dark rock capping the hill. Its columnar structure was produced by shrinkage during the cooling process.

On September 7, 1850, a treaty was concluded at Sault Ste. Marie between the Hon. W. B. Robinson, representing the government, and nine Ojibwa chiefs and head men. Under its terms the Ojibwa surrendered territory extending some 400 miles along the shore of Lake Superior, from Batchawana Bay to the Pigeon River, and northward to the height of land delimiting the Great Lakes drainage area. In return, the Indians were allotted three reserves, a cash settlement and a further small annual payment. The Fort William reserve, assigned to Chief Joseph Peau de Chat and his band, was laid out in 1854 by J. W. Bridgland, P. L. S., substantially as it is today.

In 1950 archeological investigation in this area uncovered a site which had been used as a workshop camp by a group of the earliest known people in this part of the Upper Great Lakes basin. Called Aqua-Plano Indians because they migratedfrom the western plains to fossil beaches of glacial and post-glacial lakes in this region, they appeared about 9000 years ago following the retreat of glaciers and the northward movement of plants and animals. They developed a distinctive tradition based primarily on large game hunting using weapons and specialized tools made of taconite, a stone that was obtained locally. Their way of life, which was closely related to the environment, disappeared as the climate grew warmer.

Constructed between 1918 and 1920 by the "AmusementKing" C. W. Parker of Leavenworth, Kansas, this carousel is a splendid example of three-dimensional folk art featuring 28 hand carved horses ornamented with corn cobs, dog's heads and fish. Only three of some 800 carousels produced by Parker remain today.

In the late eighteenth century, most of the fur traders using the Ottawa River-Great Lakes canoe route into the interior of North America belonged to the North West Company, which used Fort William as its inland headquarters. To the north, the rival Hudson's Bay Company exported furs by ship from its sub-Arctic posts. By 1810 both companies were expanding their operations inland into the fur-rich Athabaska area. Their intensifying competition provoked violent clashes between contending traders. Disturbed by the bloodshed and disruption of trade, the British government insisted that the two companies settle their difference. In 1821, they merged into a jointly owned monopoly which adopted the name and northern trade routes of the Hudson's Bay Company.

Joining rail and water transport, this station, which was built in 1905 at Port Arthur and which formed the end of the line from Winnipeg, was designed in what was commonly called the Canadian Railway style by Winnipeg architect, R. B. Pratt. It was acquired by the city from C.N.R. in 1978.

In 1897, Sir Sandford Fleming was knighted for his proposal outlining a worldwide uniform system for reckoning time. Fleming's concept of standard time brought him immediate international recognition. A brilliant energetic innovator, Fleming's many skills included engineering, surveying, mapmaking, engraving and writing.

Flemimg was born in Kirkcaldy, Scotland and emigrated to Canada, settling in Peterborough, Ontario in 1845. He soon moved to Toronto, where in 1849 he assisted in the founding of the Canadian Institute and two years later designed the first Canadian postage stamp. He was the builder of the intercontinental railway and as chief engineer of the Canadian Pacific Railway (1871-1880) conducted surveys of a transcontinental route.

Sir Sandford died in Halifax on July 22, 1915.

This marker commemorating Sir Sandford Fleming and the adoption of standard time as a worldwide concept, is embedded in Amethyst Ontario's official gemstone.

This uniquely attractive variety of quartz ranges in colour from violet to deep purple and is found in Northern Ontario and mined locally.

Amethyst is known by many names such as Indian stone, rain stone glass rock, quartz, wonder stone and signal stone.

As Ontario's official gemstone, its beauty and warmth reflects the character of the peoples of Ontario.

North of this watershed all flowing water eventually reaches Hudson Bay, while south of it all watercourses form part of the Great Lakes drainage system. The height of land follows an erratic course of some 1,400 miles across Ontario, ranging from 20 to 175 miles north of Lakes Huron and Superior. This watershed was declared the inland boundary of the tract surrendered to the Crown by Ojibwa Indians in the Robinson Superior Treaties of 1850. It was also widely considered to be the southern limit of Rupert's Land, the vast, ill-defined Hudson's Bay Company territory transferred to Canada in 1870, and it figured prominently in the Ontario-Manitoba boundary dispute of 1883-4.

Born in Inverness-shire, Scotland, McGillivray joined the North West Company in 1784, became a partner in 1790 and its principal director in 1804. Fort Kaministiquia, the Company's wilderness headquarters, was renamed Fort William in his honour in 1807. He was largely responsible for the Nor'Westers bitter opposition to Lord Selkirk's Red River Colony, but later supported negotiations which led to the union of the Hudson's Bay and North West Companies in 1821. He served as lieutenant-colonel of the Corps of Canadian Voyageurs during the War of 1812 and as a member of the legislative Council of Lower Canada 1814-1825.

When the boundary settlement of 1783 placed its major inland depot, Grand Portage, in U. S. territory, the North West Company was forced to seek a new site on British soil. Following the reopening of the Kaministiquia route a new post, later named for William McGillivray, the principal Montreal Agent, was constructed here at the river's mouth. Here each summer from 1803 to 1821 the Montreal and wintering partners held council, while trade goods were readied for the Indian country and furs brought down for shipment to Montreal. After 1821, changed supply patterns led to Fort William's gradual decline.

1612-Merchants of the London Company formed
1617-One Hundred Associates Company formed
1670-Hudson's Bay Company founded 1784-North West Company formed
1678-Fort Caministigoyan built here. It was the first and main trading post on the North West of Lake Superior built by the pioneer brothers Dulhut and LaFourette
1688-From here DeNoyon explored the first (whites) canoe route across the height of land to Rainy River.
1717-LaNoue built here a stockaded fort, the first of three planned and ordered to be built by the French government for stepping stones to the Western sea.
1731-The great LaVerendrye and party wintered and started from here in search of the Western sea. 1732-From here LaVerendrye discovered and built Fort St. Charles on Lake of the Woods
1743-DeNoyelles continued the operation from the Kaministiquia until 1748
1797-The British through Roderick MacKenzie of the North-West Company re-opened the Kaministiquia route The North-West and XY Companies had posts here near each other
1800-The North-West Company started building the new fort here.
1803-New Fort was finished and the supplies and plant moved into it from Grand Portage, their former post.
1803-The new fort was christened Fort William in honor of Honorable Wm. McGillivray
1803-The North-West Company and XY Companies amalgamated under the name North-West Company.
1816-Lord Selkirk arrived at Fort William with his small army of about two hundred De Meuron soldiers and canoemen made prisoners of the officers of the North-West Company, and sent them to Montreal for trial. N-W Co. governed Fort William with regal power 1800-1821.

In 1849 two priest of the Society of Jesus, Father Jean-Pierre Chone and Father Nicholas Fremiot established the Mission of the Immaculate Conception on the Kaministiquia River. From there the Jesuits travelled the north shore of Lake Superior on missionary journeys. They also supported Ojibwa demands for compensation for Indian lands acquired by the Crown in the region. Within five years the Mission, centered in an Indian village of about 30 dwellings had a large church, a day school, and numerous outbuildings. Four Sisters of the congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary arrived at the Mission in 1870 to teach and establish an orphanage. By 1908 the Mission had moved to sites located on this reserve.

In June, 1875, the first sod on the Canadian Pacific Railway's line from the Lakehead to the West was turned at Fort William. A government contract of that year called for the building of a line northwest towards Lake Shebandowan. In 1882 the government completed the railroad from Fort William to Winnipeg, while between 1882-1885 the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, incorporated in 1881, extended the railway across the prairies and through the Rockies via Kicking Horse and Rogers Passes. Meanwhile Andrew Onderdonk, under contract with the government and then the company, had constructed the line eastward from Port Moody, B. C. The last spike was driven at Craigellachie in Eagle Pass, November 7, 1885.

A small fort was established near here in 1717 by a French officer, Zacharie Robutel de la Nouë. First of a projected series of bases en route to the "Western Sea", it replaced a structure built in 1679 by Daniel Greysolon, Sieur Dulhut, on another branch of the Kaministiquia River delta. It served as a trading post and base of operations, 1727-43, for Pierre Gaultier de la Vérendrye, the famous explorer. Following the conquest of New France in 1760 this fort was abandoned. A later Fort Kaministiquia, built a short distance downriver by the North West Company, was renamed Fort William in 1807. It became the nucleus of this city.

This portage around Kakabeka Falls formed a link in the historic Kaministiquia canoe route connecting Lake Superior with Lake of the Woods and the West. First recorded in 1688 by the French explorer Jacques de Noyon, it was later abandoned in favour of the shorter Grand Portage-Pigeon River route. The latter came under American control following the treaty of 1783, and in 1798 the older route was rediscovered by Roderick McKenzie. From 1803 onward, the Mountain Portage was used by fur traders, explorers, soldiers and surveyors including Simon McGillivray, David Thompson, Sir George Simpson, Sir John Richardson, Simon J. Dawson, and Col. Garnet Wolseley.

This chain of rivers, lakes and portages linking the St. Lawrence system with the waterways of the prairies had been known to the Indians for centuries when Jacques de Noyon first travelled it in 1688. After 1800, when the boundary settlement had placed the more southerly Grand Portage in the United States, the North West Company re-opened the Kaministikwia route, which for almost 25 years was the main highway to the west. From Fort William at the mouth of the river canoes were tracked upriver to this point, the first major obstacle on the route.

On November 18, 1929, Finnish-Canadians Viljo Rosvall and Janne Voutilainen left the Port Arthur area for Onion Lake, 20 kilometres upstream from here to recruit bushworkers for a strike. Their bodies were found at Onion Lake the following spring. Local unionists and many Finnish-Canadians suspected foul play, but coroner's juries ruled the deaths accidental drownings. The two men's funeral on April 28, 1930, is remembered as the largest ever held in Port Arthur. As thousands of mourners marched to Riverside Cemetery, an eclipse of the sun darkened the sky. The mystery surrounding the deaths of Rosvall and Voutilainen endures, sustaining them in public memory as martyrs to the cause of organized labour.

In response to a brief from Lakehead educators and business representatives outlining northwestern Ontario's need for an institution of higher education, a provincial Order-in-Council established the Lakehead Technical Institute in 1946. Two years later the Institute was opened in temporary quarters on Cumberland Street, Port Arthur. An act of 1957 gave control of the institute to the Board of Governors of the newly-created Lakehead College, constructed that year on land donated by the City of Port Arthur. The original Lakehead College Act was amended in 1962 to permit the granting of degrees in Arts and Science. In 1965 Lakehead University was created by a provincial Act and conferred its first degrees.

In aboriginal times the Kaministikwia river was an important link between the Great Lakes and the northwest, and from the late 17th century French posts here at its mouth served as bases for the penetration of the interior. Between 1804 and 1821 this was the depot from which the North West Company tapped the rich fur resources of half a continent. In 1875 construction was begun for the lake terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and in 1883 the first grain from the prairies reached here for trans-shipment to the east. In 1905 a second transcontinental line, the Grand Trunk Pacific, was begun from here.

This road was constructed to facilitate the transportation of mail between Thunder Bay and Duluth during the winter months when navigation was closed on Lake Superior. Demands for a reliable year-round mail service arose with the development of the Silver Islet mine in 1870. A temporary mail trail was opened in 1872 before a 39 mile winter road was constructed from Fort William to the Pigeon River by John Carroll in 1873-74. The poorly built road was used by mail carriers until the completion of the C.P.R. to Thunder Bay in 1882. As the area traversed by the road remained sparsely settled, it was little used and much of it was abandoned when the International, or "Scott" Highway (later No. 61) was constructed in 1913-17.

The first bridge across the Pigeon River was opened near here on August 18, 1917. In the previous year the government of Ontario had completed a road from Port Arthur to link up with one which the state of Minnesota had earlier constructed from Duluth. Since no provision for a bridge had been made, the Rotary Clubs of Port Arthur-Fort William and Duluth collected funds and materials to construct one and bore the greater part of the cost. The bridge, erected without any formal international agreement, was therefore locally named "The Outlaw". This route soon became a popular tourist road, thus greatly benefitting the Lakehead area. The original wooden bridge was replaced in 1930.

Circumventing 21 miles of falls and rapids, this portage ran some nine miles from Lake Superior to a point upstream on the opposite side of the Pigeon River. It was first mentioned in 1722 by a French trader named Jean Pachot. Following its use in 1732 by La Verendrye, it replaced the Kaministiquia Route as the canoe route to the West. About 1767 the Grand Portage became a rendezvous for Canadian fur traders and, after 1778, the North West Company's inland headquarters. By the Treaty of Paris, 1783, the Portage fell within American territory. In 1803, the Company moved its headquarters to Fort Kaministiquia (Fort William), and the Pigeon River route was then abandoned.

The Boundary Waters-Voyageur Waterway forms the international boundary between Canada and the United States from the mouth of the Pigeon River at Lake Superior to Lac La Croix in Quetico Provincial Park. This 250 kilometre waterway was once the main trade route linking the vast St. Lawrence River watershed to the west. Today's travellers of the Boundary Waters-Voyageur Waterway retrace the footsteps and paddlestrokes of First Nations people, fur traders, and explorers through three provincial parks - Pigeon River, LaVerendrye, and Quetico - in one of the most popular wilderness canoeing areas in North America. Designation of the Boundary Waters-Voyageur Waterway as a Canadian Heritage River will give national recognition and protection to this important waterway, and ensure that the spirit of the Voyageurs will live on.

On May 29, 1667 beside the Nipigon River Father Claude Allouez, S. J., celebrated the first Mass west of Sault Sainte Marie, thus reestablishing spiritual contact with the Nipissing Indians who had fled from their home area during the Iroquois onslaught of 1649-50. After visiting their village on Lake Nipigon he returned to his Mission of the Holy Spirit on Chequamegon Bay (now Ashland Bay, Wisconsin). Father Allouez, born in St. Didier-en-Florenz, France, had entered the Jesuit order in 1642 and come to Quebec in 1658. He established the Chequamegon Mission in 1665 and, until his death, ministered to the Indians of an area including much of the present North Central United States.

Off this shore lies Silver Islet, once a barren rock measuring about eighty feet in diameter, where silver was discovered in 1868 by Thomas Macfarlane. The claim was purchased in 1870 by a company headed by A. H. Sibley, and one of the partners, W. B. Frue, was appointed mine captain. Frue waged a constant battle against the lake which undermined extensive crib work used to bolster the restricted working space. Despite this problem and the difficulty of housing miners and transporting supplies in the isolated region, this famous mine produced $3,250,000 worth of silver ore before it was closed in 1884.

In 1812, the Earl of Selkirk settled dispossessed Scottish highlanders on Red River valley lands granted by the Hudson's Bay Company. The HBC's rival in the fur trade, the North West Company, feared the new colony would block its' trade and supplies. Clashes between traders and colonists culminated with the killing of twenty settlers in the Massacre of Seven Oaks on June 19, 1816. News of Seven Oaks reached Selkirk as he was travelling westward with Swiss mercenaries hired to defend the colony. On August 13, he seized Fort William, the Nor'Westers' inland headquarters, and arrested several senior partners. A bitter court battle ensued. The incident contributed to the British government's decision to pressure the two fur trade companies to merge in 1821.

In the late 1860s the need to develop a local agricultural base to serve a growing population of the Thunder Bay region became apparent, and when the 1873 survey of Oliver Township indicated that it contained good agricultural land, attention focused here. Active efforts were begun to encourage farmers from the region and elsewhere in Ontario to settle on the free grant lands in the Township, and within five years some seventy families had moved there. In 1878 to facilitate a construction of badly needed roads two settlers, Robert Hopkins and David Squiers, led a movement to establish a local township government. Elections were held on December 30, 1878, and three days later the newly elected township officials were sworn into office.

This community, originally known as Isbester's Landing, was named in 1885 after Collingwood G. Schreiber. Born at Bradwell Lodge, near Colchester, England, Schreiber emigrated to Canada West in 1852. His training in England as a civil engineer enabled him to play a significant role as a field surveyor and administrator in Canada's era of railway expansion. Schreiber was associated with the Northern Railway between 1860-1864 and the International between 1868-1875 before succeeding Sandford Fleming in 1880 as Engineer-in-Chief of the Canadian Pacific. Schreiber retained this position until 1892 when he became deputy minister of the federal Department of Railways and Canals. He was knighted in 1916 for his public services.

During the Second World War, the federal government forcibly evacuated Canadians of Japanese ancestry from the coast of British Columbia. In the spring of 1942, several hundred young men were sent to Ontario to help build the Trans-Canada Highway. They were accommodated in four camps between Schreiber and Jackfish. Most soon left the road camps for work on farms or in lumber and pulp mills. Others interned in prisoner-of-war camps for resisting separation from their families, accepted similar employment. Once established in jobs, the men encouraged relatives and friends to migrate east. Thousands settled permanently, establishing the basis of a significant Japanese-Canadian community in Ontario.

Discoveries of gold in the vicinity of Lake Kenogamisis in 1931-2 mushroomed into an extensive gold-mining field in this region. Prospector Tom Johnson, mining promoter Joseph Errington and geologist Percy Hopkins played important roles in its establishment. Geraldton was founded and grew into the principal community. Of the twelve mines operating at the field's peak of activity about 1940, Little Long Lac and MacLeod-Cockshutt are probably the best-known. By 1971, when all operating gold mines had closed, the camp had produced gold valued at more than one hundred and fifty-six million dollars. Geraldton's commercial and service industries with pulpwood-cutting and logging operations in the region, have helped to offset the loss in mining.

About 20,000 years ago Ontario was covered by a great glacier, the fourth glaciation in this region within the past million years. The meltwaters from these gigantic icesheets filled the Lake Superior basin and progressively developed new drainage patterns which gradually lowered the level of the lake. As the waters receded from old shorelines more recent lake deposits where exposed and new shorelines established. This process produced a succession of terraces, separated from one another by escarpments or shore cliffs formed by wave erosion. Flat terraces, composed mainly of sand and gravel deposits, are found at various places around the Lake Superior shoreline and their prominence gave Terrace Bay its name.

This portage was one of the steepest on the Kaministiquia canoe route between Lake Superior and the West. First recorded in 1688 by the French explorer Jacques de Noyon, it was abandoned after 1732 in favour of the shorter and easier Grand Portage-Pigeon River route. The latter came under American control following the treaty of 1783, and about 1803 traffic was resumed on the older route. Over 3 km in length and involving an ascent of nearly 150 metres northbound, Great Dog Portage connected Dog Lake and Little Dog Lake. It was one of the major obstacles bypassed by a road built 1868-70 from Fort William to Lake Shebandowan as part of the "Dawson Trail".

In 1814 the Hudson's Bay Company set up a trading post on Long Lake about 3 km southwest of here, close to one established prior to 1800 by the North West Company. The latter had been intercepting trade which would otherwise have gone to Henley House, an H.B.C. post on the Albany River some 225 km to the northeast. The two local posts continued in bitter competition until the union of the rival companies in 1821. In subsequent years Long Lake House was a relay post on the winter "express route" between Red River and Moose Factory. The post was moved in 1921 to its present location in Longlac.

Born in Chelsea, Illinois, Van Horne, after a brilliant career with a number of railway companies in the mid-western United States, accepted the position of general manager of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1881. Construction of this pioneer Canadian transcontinental line was pushed ahead rapidly under his energetic supervision, despite many difficulties of a physical and financial nature which would have discouraged a man of lesser ability. Its completion in 1885 ensured Canadian unity. Through his influence this community, previously known as Prince Arthur's Landing, was named Port Arthur in 1883-84. Elected president of the company in 1888, Van Horne was knighted in 1894 for his services to Canada.

Indigenous peoples who hunted and traded here thousands of years ago developed a water route by which they could travel from Lake Superior to James Bay via Lake Nipigon and the Albany River. Archaeologists have unearthed evidence that people living in the Lake Nipigon region were part of an intricate system of trade that extended to the Atlantic coast. In the 1600s, native people began to share their knowledge of canoe travel on North American waterways with European explorers and traders. During the fur trade era, the Nipigon water route became a scene of intense rivalry between English traders on Hudson Bay and French, then Scottish, traders based on the St. Lawrence River.

The mouth of the Pic River has been the centre of native trade and settlement for thousands of years. It was a strategic location in the region's water transportation network because it offered access to northern lands and a canoe route to James Bay. The halfway point for canoers travelling the north shore of lake Superior, "the Pic" first appeared on European maps in the mid-seventeenth century. Local natives began to trade furs with the French in the late 1770s' prompting a French trader to set up a post here by 1792. The Hudson's Bay Company operated the post from 1821 until encroaching settlement led to its relocation in 1888. In 1914 the Pic became a treaty reserve of its traditional inhabitants, the Ojibways of Pic River No. 50 First Nation.

The railway which once ran nearby was originally incorporated in 1883 as the Thunder Bay Colonization Railway Company. Promoted during the Thunder Bay silver mining boom of the 1880's to serve the mining region southwest of Port Arthur and to tap the Mesabi iron ore deposits of northern Minnesota, the line was renamed the Port Arthur, Duluth and Western Railway Company in 1887. Financed mainly by subsidies and bond issues, when completed in 1893 it ran some 130 km from Port Arthur to its Canadian terminus at Gunflint Lake, then continued 10 km into Minnesota. The collapse of the silver boom dashed the company's hopes and in 1899 the line was purchased by the Canadian Northern Railway Company.

Born in Carlisle, England, Baxter came to Canada as a child. He studied in Toronto and at the Sulpician College in Montreal before becoming, reputedly, the first English-speaking Jesuit novice in Canada. After his ordination in New York in 1854, he served at various missions in the United States and Canada and arrived in Fort William in 1872. He quickly became renowned for his selflessness and the legendary stamina he displayed on arduous trips along the Dawson Road and the C.P.R. line. He was responsible for the building of the original St. Andrew's Church (1874-75) and is credited with establishing churches at Fort William, White River and Schreiber. From 1881 until his retirement in 1893 he worked tirelessly as a railroad missionary.