The Port Arthur, Duluth and Western Railway Company

Photo by contributor Dave Fernie - Posted September, 2005

Plaque Location

The District of Thunder Bay
The Township of Gillies
From Thunder Bay, follow 11/17 west to Road 588
then south and west for 15.1 km to Road 595
then 1.6 km north to a sharp bend in the road

Coordinates: N 48 18.361 W 89 42.383

Plaque Text

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 1880's 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 130 km from Port Arthur to its Canadian terminus at Gunflint Lake, then continued 10 km 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.

Related Ontario plaques
Silver Islet 1868
Canadian Northern Railway

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Railways

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