Removing the rails on the Pee Dee. This photo, taken circa 1939, shows crews in an unknown location removing the remaining 35 miles of what was the Port Arthur, Duluth and Western Railway.

The PAD&W was constructed from 1889 and 1893 to provide a link between Port Arthur, ON and Duluth, MN as well as tap nearby iron deposits. Eighty-five miles of rail were laid to the international boundary and six miles into Minnesota to the Paulson Iron Mine, but unfortunately the iron enterprise collapsed just as it was supposed to open. The planned connection to Duluth was never built (despite many later attempts to complete it) which left the line with no real terminus.

It was abandoned in sections, with the last trains running in March 1938. The line’s owner at the time, Canadian National Railways, petitioned the federal government to completely abandon the North Lake Subdivision as it was called which was granted in October 1938.

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