The railway, which once ran nearby, was originally incorporated in 1883 as the Thunder Bay Colonization Railway Company. Promoted during the Thunder Bay silver mining boom of the 1880s to serve the mining region southwest of Port Arthur and to tap the Mesabi iron ore deposits of northern Minnesota, the line was renamed the Port Arthur , Duluth and Western Railway Company in 1887. Financed mainly by subsidies and bond issues, when completed in 1893, it ran some 86 miles from Port Arthur to its Canadian terminus at Gunflint Lake, then continued six miles into Minnesota. The collapse of the silver boom dashed the company's hopes and in 1899 the line was purchased by the Canadian Northern Railway Company.

Location

At the site of the former railway station in Hymers - Highway 595 southwest of Thunder Bay

Themes

• Industry and trade
• Transportation systems and communications