Poverty, Agony, Distress & Want!

Then and now photos featuring Geraldton, Ontario. This is community was not an original stop when Canadian Northern Railway opened the line for traffic in 1915. In fact, it did not exist until the 1930s. Gold was discovered in the area at that time and the first railway stop was created in 1933 and a station was constructed two years later. The first photo, courtesy of Bill Magee, shows supplies for the gold mines being unloaded at the future town site.

The next two photos show how the community has grown by 1940. There are a large number of homes and the new station rests on the north side of the tracks. The third photo provides a close up of the station, with passenger coaches halted alongside.

The fourth photo shows the progress by the 1960s, with a new CN logo box car visible on the extreme left. The station, while partially obscured, is still prominent beside the grade, though it no longer saw any passengers after that service was discontinued in 1956.

The final photo shows the railway grade and the station grounds as they were in May 2023. The station is long gone, while the rail line, which became the Canadian National Railways Kinghorn Subdivision in 1924, was decommissioned in 2005. The rails were removed a few years later and all that remains is the ballasted roadbed and a few scattered remnants.