Then and now photos highlighting an unknown location on the former Grand Trunk Pacific Lake Superior Division/CN Graham Subdivision. This postcard, dated April 1906, states “Construction of Grand Trunk Pacific.” It also bears a message to Mr. and Mrs. Thompson of Tacoma, Washington (address indicated on the back) from Mr. and Mrs. C. Devere Fairchild of “Oskondaga Stn, Savanne, Ont.”
While the date of the photo corresponds with the construction of the GTP in the area, the exact location is a mystery. Savanne was (and still is) a station on the Canadian Pacific Railway (now CPKC) and is likely mentioned as it was the closest community/post office. Oskondaga, which is also a nearby river, was a former station on the line situated between Finmark and Raith (often labelled “Okso”). A short distance to the west, the GTP station known as Horne would eventually be established.
This area is dominated by rocky ridges and ravines of the Canadian Shield, which had to be blasted through and spanned. Almost all of the ravines were subsequently infilled and some given concrete culverts in the late 1910s and early 1920s. With the exact location of the original photo impossible to determine, I picked a place just west of Horne Station. This spot had a concrete culvert that was added in 1919 and rehabilitated in 1983, but most likely a stone or wooden box culvert as well. Whatever that second structure was, it has collapsed since the line was abandoned in 1994, creating a large, lengthy depression in the grade.
Poverty, Agony, Distress & Want! 