Extra Credit is video series that examines topics related to history in the Thunder Bay District and exploring that history.
This episode takes us up one of the Norwester Mountains near my hometown Thunder Bay, Ontario. I’ve been going up the mountain since 2007 and it was a big part of my winter routine with my boys when they were younger. This time it is just Luna and myself as we take in a beautiful winter day and huff and puff our way up to the Lost Mountain Lookout and beyond.
Enjoy!
Then and now photos featuring Iron Range Hill west of Thunder Bay, ON. In the first photo, a 2-6-0 Mogul of the Canadian Northern Railway (either 107 or 108), is stuck in the snow on the hill sometime in late 1915 or early 1916. The railway was built as the Port Arthur, Duluth and Western in 1893, but at the time was known as the Canadian Northern Railway North Lake Subdivision.
Iron Range Hill, located between Mileposts 59 and 60.5, was the steepest grade on the line at nearly 2 percent. It can be found southwest of Thunder Bay between Sandstone Lake (known as Sand Lake at the time) and Iron Range Lake. Brakeman Jack Lalonde leans against the stack, while passenger J.T. Greer is the middle of the three men standing beside the boiler. Greer is headed to the station at North Lake (MP 71), from where he will proceed to his logging operation further west on the lake.
Today the hill is much quieter (photo taken March 2020). The North Lake Subdivision eventually became part of the Canadian National Railways network and in 1923 this section of line (Mackies to North Lake) was take out of service. The rest of the subdivision was abandoned by CNR in October 1938 and the rails pulled up in 1939.
Picture courtesy of Mary Wilson.
Do you ever feel like you’re in a funk? You know, when you’re spinning your proverbial wheels and not seeming to get anywhere. I think we’ve all been there at some point. For me, winter is always a time when I feel a little despondent, mostly because I can’t get out and hike where I want to (winter hiking just isn’t the same). I wish there was a way to describe it better…
Hey kids, I’m finally back. It’s been months since my last post, as the last time I put some thoughts down on the keyboard was back in May, so it’s been quite a while. I keep saying I have to write more regularly, but that never happens. I used to write this blog weekly or biweekly, then it became monthly and now I’m lucky if it’s a few times a year. I guess I’m just so busy with other things and at times lack the energy to collect my thoughts. I had the outline of a post in August all ready to go, but unfortunately never really got it started. I’m here now though, right?
Anyway, as I already stated, things are hectic as usual. The school year has been an insane whirlwind; I can’t believe we’re almost done the first semester. It was just yesterday that we were starting up the year. As typically happens, football makes the first part of the year fly by. Our season wasn’t particularly successful on the score sheet, but it was great to see the team improve immensely in a short period of time. Our senior team, with whom we won two Junior championships in the past, was able to capture the city title as well as a provincial bowl game. I had the privilege of travelling with the team to Guelph for the game, and it was especially memorable as my older son Ethan was a member of the squad.
So, speaking of school, there’s big things on the horizon. Finally, after several years of delays, we’re heading back to Europe. We planned this year’s trip back in 2019 following the previous jaunt across the pond. We were supposed to go in March 2021, but unfortunately this whole pandemic thing got in the way; you may have heard of it. In any case, excitement is building. All our previous trips were to northern Europe, but this time were going to sunny (hopefully) Italy. We just received our flight and some of our hotel information the other day, so excitement is building. As I’ve done in the past, I’ll be blogging daily about our adventures.
Since I haven’t written in such a long time, I should give you a hiking recap of the past year, as my last post was right at the start of the season. It was another prolific one, even though I said it wouldn’t be as busy as 2021. I hiked and biked 430 kilometres, drove over 9200 kilometres to those hikes and put together 139 videos (in 2021 it was 350km, 12000km and 134 videos). I was all over the area, from here in Thunder Bay all the way to Longlac and many places in between. This included a week-long trip to Geraldton in August, which was necessary to alleviate some of the driving to get to the east end of the line.
Some of the hikes involved redoing areas that I had covered in the past, either to improve the video or relay information that was not available when I first started exploring the Kinghorn. I also was out a lot with the drone, which really helps convey some of the detail about the line that you cannot see from the air. One of the big projects of the year was to finally finish the video about the Macdiarmid Tunnel, which I had started back in 2021. I had to record it twice, since I found out that my newer GoPro camera (Hero 9) doesn’t do as well in dark conditions as my old GoPro (Hero 7). You can check out some of my drone shots and the tunnel video below.
While I’m patiently biding my time until I can get out hiking again, I have turned my attention to a project that has been put on the back-burner for quite some time. My planned book on the Pigeon River Lumber Company/Gunflint & Lake Superior Railroad is still alive, but because of Covid, I was not able to do some research to complete the book. In the fall, I received an email from the Thunder Bay Historical Museum Society regarding the progress of the book, indicating they might be interested in publishing it. I had done a little bit of digging while I was off in the spring, but I really needed to get to the Archives of Ontario in Toronto and hopefully into Minnesota for some archaeological work. Over Christmas, I cleaned up a few things and then sent in a proposal to the historical society for them to have a look at. With any luck, I’ll be able to head down to Minnesota in the spring and I’ll have to figure the whole Toronto situation. Ideally, I’d like to get the book completed next winter.
Anyway, it’s time to move on. I’ll be back soon, I promise. As I indicated earlier, I have the trip to Italy coming up in March, so I’ll definitely have a post before and during our time there. Until then…
On a cold winter day in the 1940s, Canadian National Railways 2-10-2 Santa Fe locomotive 4006 (Class T-1-a) idles at Jellicoe, Ontario. Jellicoe was a divisional point on the Canadian Northern Railway mainline when it opened for traffic 1915. After CN merged lines in 1960, it remained a crew change location until service was terminated in 2005.
Locomotive 4006 was one of ten constructed by Brooks Locomotive Works/ALCO for the Canadian Government Railways in 1916. They were all retired from use in 1960.
B. Franklin Collection
Some years it feels as though winter will never end. Some years it doesn’t. Living in northern Ontario you get used to cold weather and long winters. Seasons like spring and summer are a welcome respite that people long for. When they don’t arrive when they’re supposed to, it feels like a gigantic gut punch. This year put us down for the count.
Hey kids, I’m finally back. I know I say that literally every time I write this blog, but this time I not lying. This has been the longest stretch that I have not had a written post since I started this site back in 2011, as it’s been over 13 months. I know, I’ve been very remiss. My excuse? I’ve been busy? Never heard that one before, right? The last year has been rather crazy, especially the last number of months. Between Covid and everything else going on, I just haven’t been inspired to write. And when I am and have the time, I get distracted with something and then forget. My apologies!
So, one of the things that really messed with me was the ever-changing schedule with school because of Covid. We were in person, then online, then at home…it was quite the gong show! Thankfully I’ve had some time to recuperate. In February, my wife and I started another leave (sabbatical if you will) which will last until September. On our last one in 2016, we took time to travel with our kids and tend to projects around the house and camp. This time has been rather different, with Covid and the War in Ukraine influencing our plans. We did do a lot of work around the house, and I did manage to get some railway work in, which I’ll talk about later. As we roll further into spring, I can finally get out to do some hiking which I’ve been waiting patiently (or more correctly very impatiently) for.
Speaking of spring, I certainly have to have a big rant about the weather. I usually do, but this time it’s the real deal. We had, as far as I can remember, the worst winter and spring ever. Literally! After a relatively mild start to winter, we got hit with a storm right after Christmas and it just didn’t stop. It was almost one snowstorm after another, and when it wasn’t snowing, it was cold. Usually we have periods where it warms up at points in January and February, but that never happened. When March rolled around, there was hope that things would improve. Mother Nature teased us with a few days of warm temperatures during the March break, but then quickly slapped us back into reality. The next week we were hammered by a storm that dropped 51 centimetres of snow (at my house at least). Every week after that for the next month, we got snow mid-week. We broke the record for the most snow on the ground at this time of the year since they started recording that data in 1955. This past week the weather has finally started to turn with sun and temperatures near normal. A lot of the snow has gone, but there are still patches hanging around where it was deep or shaded.
Unfortunately I can’t say the same thing about the snow situation at camp. I’m actually writing this as I spend my first weekend out here and while there’s been a lot of melt, there’s still a ton of snow. I don’t think I’ve seen this much snow at this time of the year. We have a basement door that opens out to the lake side and it is still blocked by a snow drift 5 feet high. I was hoping to dig the door out this weekend but it will have to wait a bit. I even had to bring my bike inside the camp because there’s a drift about the same size blocking access to one of the sheds here that I store my bike in. They are calling for highs approaching or over 20 celsius this week, so with any luck it will put a dent in all this snow.
One of the things that I’ve been doing to occupy my time since I can get out hiking has been some visits to the Thunder Bay Museum to do some research. My book on the Pigeon River Lumber/Gunflint & Lake Superior Railroad is still way behind schedule due to all those Covid issues, but I’m trying get it finished. I was able to locate information to complete the end of the book, and hopefully next year I can get the visit to the Archives of Ontario and the Minnesota field work done. I need to win the lottery and do this full time!
Alright, lets get to meat and potatoes as they say. As I mentioned earlier I’ve been dying to get out hiking and I’m not kidding. Not to make light of something like this, but I really think that I was suffering from some depression being cooped up in the house. Last year I did my first hike on April 15th. This year we’re about 3 weeks behind and I didn’t do my first hike until May 4th. I feel like I’m under the gun because I am trying to get in as many hikes as I can before the leaves come out.
I had a crazy hiking season last year. I biked and walked 350 kilometres, drove 12,000 kilometres to those hikes and created 134 videos. There was definitely a lot to see and do, especially since I wanted to really work in the drone I bought. With that in mind, one of my biggest projects was a very ambitious video on the Blende River Viaduct, which most people know as the Pass Lake Trestle. It’s just a short distance from camp, so it was easy to make numerous visits. Those trips produced some great photos and a video that I am very proud of. You can see more of my videos on my YouTube Channel.
This year will be less ambitious, but still there’s a lot planned. My goal is to finish exploring the Kinghorn, of which I’ve covered about 80% of its nearly 200 miles. I also want to redo certain sections that I did back in 2020 because my knowledge of the line has increased greatly since that time. The big highlights will be two trips, one to Jellicoe later this month and a week-long one in August to Geraldton. Fingers crossed Mother Nature cooperates!
Anywho, it’s time to get rolling. I’ll try to write again soon, but I can’t make any promises. Hopefully it won’t be May of 2023! Until then…
Extra Credit is video series that examines topics related to history in the Thunder Bay District and exploring that history.
The Global Positioning System has revolutionized many areas, including history and hiking. My experience with GPS dates back over 20 years and first started as a school curriculum requirement. Join me as I talk about my GPS receiver and head outdoors along the former Kinghorn rail line for the first ever field segment of Extra Credit.
*The current comparable Garmin model is the eTrex 32x.
Feature Friday
Then and now photos of the former Northern Empire Gold mine and railway line northeast of the community of Beardmore, ON. The first was taken in the 1930s when the mine went into operation looking east along the grade. The mine produced nearly 150,000 ounces of gold from 1934 to 1941.
The second photo was taken in May 2021 looking west at the remains of the concrete foundations. The mine was located at Milepost 19.8 of the then Canadian National Railways Dorion Subdivision (MP 69.5 of the later CN Kinghorn Subdivision).
Extra Credit is video series that examines topics related to history in the Thunder Bay District and exploring that history.
Do you hike in the winter? For me, it isn’t my favourite time of the year to get out, enjoy the fresh air and explore, but since we get several months of it around here, you have to roll with what you get. So here are a few of my gear suggestions of make your winter adventure potentially more enjoyable.
Almost sounds like it would be a title for a great movie doesn’t it? I should come up with a plot and write a movie based on it don’t you think? Maybe it would make me famous and rich, and then I could do all my history stuff fulltime. Why didn’t I think of this earlier? Talk about completely missing the ship or what!
Hey kids, I’m back! I know, I know, I was supposed to be back a month ago, but I have an excuse…I was busy. Never heard that one before, right? It’s a well-worn rationalization, but that’s all I got. In all honesty, I haven’t been my usual insanely busy self, but rather it’s how I’ve chosen to spend my time. I have not been writing because I’ve been working away on this website. There are no dramatic changes, but there’s been some important updates to some the sections and the menus. Take a look around!
I guess I would be remiss if I did not wish everyone a Happy 2021! I don’t even have to say how challenging the last year was and how hopeful the entire population of the planet is for things to improve moving forward. Speaking of the current situation, myself and a good chunk of the population of the province of Ontario find ourselves at home under lockdown. This latest stay at home order began December 26th, and lasts, at least for us in the northern part of the province, until January 11th. This means, like in the spring, I am teaching from home. The distinction this time however is that we’re expected to deliver “synchronous” learning, that is teaching real time. It’s been going well, though it is somewhat weird teaching from my dining room dressed in shorts and a t-shirt. Our internet connection is taking a beating as well, with two teachers and two kids working from home. We’ll be back in the classroom soon, but it’s doubtful the Covid restrictions will end anytime soon.
So, it is January if you’ve lost track of time like many have. That means we’re well into winter and that means it’s usually time for a rant about the weather. However, I really don’t have much to say. What, really? I know, shocking isn’t it? Well, truth be told it hasn’t been too bad. In my last post I complained about some early snow, but after that things settled down and then some. We had some fantastic weather in November and December, including a record breaking +20C day in in the former. Since then it’s been seasonal or above seasonal, with only 10cm or so of snow. We’ll see what the rest of winter has in store for us…hopefully we don’t pay for it in the spring and summer. I have a lot of hiking to do!
With the continued Covid issues, work to complete my book on the Pigeon River Lumber Company and its operations at Gunflint Lake continue to sit in a holding pattern. There are a few things I’ll be working on in the next few months, but the really important stuff that needs to happen, some field work in Minnesota and a trip to the Archives of Ontario in Toronto, have to continue to wait. It is very frustrating, since I’d like to move on from this project, even though it has been very enjoyable. I have some other plans, but I don’t want to bounce around too much without fully completing this first. I guess we’ll see how things pan out in the next year.
In my last post, when I was complaining about the weather, I mentioned that I was doubtful I’d be able to squeeze in any more hikes, but fortunately the weather gods took pity on me. The warm up we had after that early snowfall allowed me to complete two more hikes, but that was not the end of it. Although I decided to put the bike away until spring, I figured why stop exploring? With that in mind, I did 6 more “mini” hikes sans bicycle before the end of the year, plus a few more since the new year started. I consider these to be reconnaissance for the real explorations, or using the proper Commonwealth term, a “recce” (pronounced rekke). One of the most time-consuming tasks of my hikes is stopping to check out spots and then entering the data into my GPS. This way, most of that work is now out of the way and I can then concentrate more on the photo and video part. I’m not the biggest fan of winter, but if I have to be outside to get some fresh air and exercise, why not do it on a railway line?
CNoR/CN grade, October 2020.
CNoR/CN grade, October 2020.
Wolf River Bridge, October 2020.
CNoR/CN grade, October 2020.
Bridge, October 2020.
Insulator, October 2020.
CNoR/CN grade, October 2020.
CNoR/CN grade, October 2020.
CNoR/CN grade, October 2020.
Rails, October 2020.
CNoR/CN grade, October 2020.
Coldwater Creek Bridge, October 2020.
Flanger sign, October 2020.
CNoR/CN grade, November 2020.
Telegraph pole, November 2020.
Luna, November 2020.
CNoR/CN grade, November 2020.
Switch, November 2020.
Rails, November 2020.
CNoR/CN grade, November 2020.
Mackenzie River Bridge, November 2020.
Culvert, December 2020.
CNoR/CN grade, December 2020.
Culverts, December 2020.
CNoR/CN grade, December 2020.
CNoR/CN grade, December 2020.
CNoR/CN grade, December 2020.
CNoR/CN grade, December 2020.
Crossing sign, December 2020.
CNoR/CN grade, December 2020.
Selfie, January 2021.
CNoR/CN grade, January 2021.
CNoR/CN grade, January 2021.
CNoR/CN grade, January 2021.
Those extra hikes I was able to complete in the fall has helped me to almost complete my documentation from Red Rock to Pass Lake. There is one section left to do around Ancliff Station, while I would like to redo 3 sections from Pearl to Pass Lake since they were not done with the full bike effect. Meanwhile, those “recces,” including one at Ancliff, has prepared me to cover the reminder of the line right up to the outskirts of Thunder Bay. All told I travelled nearly 5700 kilometres and recorded over 800 minutes of video…I have no idea how many photos in the process. Probably way too many!
I have a very ambitious 2021 hiking season laid out, as I hope to get in at least 19 separate hikes. Some of these will take me much farther out to the east on the line, particularly around places like Macdiarmid, Beardmore and Jellicoe. One of the more interesting ones will be around Macdiarmid and the large tunnel just south of the community. A few weeks back I learned in a social media post that there were purportedly workers killed while constructing the tunnel; intrigued, I began to dig into the circumstances. As it turns out, the rumours were correct, and the workers were even buried nearby. I plan to incorporate this tragic event into my videos, which adds a very important human and personal element to the story.
Anyway, it’s time to move on. I’ll try to get back a little sooner next time, but I make no promises! Until then…
Have you ever started on something and thought “this is a piece of cake; I’ll be done in no time”? We’ve all be there before, right? Sometimes the task is small, you know, like making dinner or cleaning the house; other times, it’s a big, complex project like renovating a room or say writing a book. Wait, what? Writing a book? Who casually writes a book? Haha, I guess the percentages of people doing renos is much higher than people writing a book. Are there bonus points for doing both? Asking for a friend.
Hey kids, I’m (finally) back. I know I said in my last post I’d be back before Christmas and well, it’s now the end of January. My bad? I guess it’s the difference between aspirations and reality. I really did intend to post before Christmas and then, as usual, life gets in the way. Hey, I’m busy guy…I’m writing a book and doing some renovations. Okay, I’ll be honest, there isn’t a ton of work with the renos, but I have been doing a lot of work on the book. That’s a topic for later though.
So, if it’s the end of January, that means I’m in a bit of a down time. What does that mean? Well, it means that the first semester is almost over and we’re gearing up for the second half of the year. The good news is that, as JBJ would say, “we’re halfway there;” bad news is that there is still half a year to go. Oh well, we’re on what I call the downward slide. Second semester always goes faster, the days are getting longer, and winter will, eventually, be over. Yay!
Speaking of the weather, no post would be complete without some mention (or rant) about it. Funny thing is that there isn’t too much to complain about. The winter so far, fingers crossed, hasn’t been too bad. We haven’t had very many cold days, and it’s been fairly mild at times. The only issue is that we’ve had quite a bit of snow; according to the data there is officially 35cm of snow on the ground, but some areas are reporting upwards of 80cm. I’d say my house is somewhere in between, probably around 60cm. I’m getting rather tired of cleaning snow, but I decided to live here right?
Winter snowfall, January 2020.
Winter snowfall, January 2020.
Winter snowfall, January 2020.
Alright, so what’s going on with this book Dave? Well, a lot actually…thanks for asking. When we last left off, I mentioned that I would be starting to write again soon. And write I did, maybe not necessarily by word count, but certainly in reorganization and revising. When I started this project back in 2014, never in a million years did I think I’d be at it 6 years later (and counting). This was supposed to be a short paper, like my first published work on the ghost town of Leeblain. Boy did it ever blow up! The scary thing is that I’m just supposed to be writing, not digging up new information. However, since I’ve never done this before, I have no idea of how it works.
If you’re wondering why I’m still gleaning the interwebs for information, it has come out of the fact that I’ve had to re-jiggle my chapters slightly and add to what I wanted to discuss in the book. I must admit I’m not really sad or upset about this; I love doing research. I enjoy the thrill of the hunt and testing my ability to find new material. It can be very frustrating, tedious and expensive. I’ve requested documents from the Minnesota Historical Society, and Library and Archives Canada, plus from the Wisconsin Historical Society if they can turn anything up. I have no idea what I’ve spent on this project in these six years, but it’s now in the thousands. Ya, I know, I’m crazy.
Piles of documents, January 2020.
Now speaking of expenses, I still have two trips (or more) that I need to undertake to finish this odyssey. The first is to Toronto, where I will need to visit the Archives of Ontario to find information about timber licenses and the incorporation of a company, the Arrow River & Tributaries Boom & Slide. My wife has bought tickets to see Bon Jovi on July 10th, so it will be somewhere around that time. Thankfully my brother lives in Toronto, so we have a place to stay while we’re there. Hopefully I can find all the material I need.
My second trip is one that I’ve discussed several times in the past and was actually supposed to happen in October. If you read my last post, I always travel to Gunflint for Canadian Thanksgiving with the boys. One of the big goals for the trip, one which I was very excited for, was the planned visit to Camp 8 with USFS archaeologist Greg Heide. Unfortunately, it snowed that weekend, which forced us to postpone until this spring. May cannot come soon enough! It is so important to the book to get some professional exploration of the site, which has already and might continue to provide a treasure trove of information. Hopefully the weather cooperates this time!
Anyway, I better get moving; there are always a million things to do around here. I’ll be back as soon as I can with the latest updates. Until then…
Poverty, Agony, Distress & Want! 