Silver Mountain

Hillside Station Silver Mountain Station Whitefish Station

Silver Mountain Station was located at Milepost 39 on the railway. One of the original stops on the line, the station was a simple log structure that measured 20 feet by 10 feet (6.1m x 3m). There was also a short 700-foot (213.4m) siding there as well.

Silver Mountain was located approximately 1 mile (1.6km) north of two silver mines located on either side of nearby mountain for which it was named. Silver Mountain took on greater importance in 1900 due to two significant events. First, the nearby silver mines, which had closed in the early 1890s, were re-opened and there was an influx of men and materiel to the area. Second, the Pigeon River Lumber Company and the Alger Smith Company were logging along the Pigeon and Arrow Rivers and Silver Mountain was an important transshipment point for their supplies.

In March 1907, construction began on a new station at Silver Mountain. It was one of CNoR’s Third-Class stations, which were used in rural areas, and was designed by Ralph Benjamin Pratt. Many of these Plan 100-3 buildings were constructed in northern Ontario and the Prairies. The station was a two-storey structure with an attached freight shed that measured 42 feet by 22 feet (12.8m x 6.7m). A similar, but larger station was built at the same time at North Lake, 32 miles further west.

For a time, the station master was Dorothea Mitchell, who was one of the leading frontier entrepreneurs in the area, earning her the nickname “Lady Lumberjack.”

The station was abandoned in 1938 when the line was removed by Canadian National Railways (CNR). It was used as a residence by a series of owners since that time, several of whom built additions on to the structure. Today it is a seasonal restaurant, known as the Silver Mountain Station.

For more information, please visit the Silver Mountain Station Wikipedia page here.

For more information and pictures on Canadian Northern’s Third-class stations, please see: Canadian National’s Western Depots : The Country Stations in Western Canada by Charles Bohi