THUNDER BAY

27th – 30th September THUNDER BAY

Thunder Bay, with a population of about 110,000 people, is the largest city along the north shore of Lake Superior.
Europeans first settled in the area in the late 1600’s with 2 fur trading posts. These were later abandoned and in the early 1800’s Fort William became a permanent settlement. Several years later Port Arthur was established a few miles further north.
In 1970 the 2 cities were amalgamated and renamed Thunder Bay.

Amethyst is found in rich supply on the north shore of Lake Superior near Thunder Bay and is Ontario’s mineral emblem. Two mines close to the highway are open to the public where you can bring your own hammer and dig for yourself. We did not make it to a mine ourselves but I was able to buy a few gorgeous rocks, with the reflective purple crystals still attached to the grey rock.
“The earliest mention of amethyst near Lake Superior dates back to the 1600s, but the first large deposit was discovered in 1955 just east of Thunder Bay. In the Thunder Bay area, amethyst crystals formed in cavities created during the faulting of the Lake Superior basin about 1.1 billion years ago.”

Sleeping Giant Provincial Park is east of the city on the Sibley Peninsula, which juts into Lake Superior. On Sunday 28th September we headed out with a picnic lunch to spend the day in the park.
“The Sleeping Giant is a formation of mesas on Sibley Peninsula which resembles a giant lying on its back” when viewed from Thunder Bay. This is the main feature of the park, which has lakes, a campground and many miles of hiking trails.
We walked one short trail to see a spectacular landform known as the Sea Lion, jutting out into Lake Superior. This is a “diabase dyke formed after molten rock had squeezed up into a crack, hardened, and the surrounding softer rock eventually eroded away over time.” It was a bit of a stretch to see the sea lion in the rock, but the waves are battering away at it constantly so perhaps it doesn’t look so much like that anymore. To me it looked more like an elephant.

At the south tip of the peninsula, outside the border of the park, there is a small seasonal community named Silver Islet, consisting of privately owned cottages and a general store. A short distance off shore is a small rocky island of the same name, where a rich vein of pure silver was discovered in 1868. At that time the island was only 50 sq metres and 2.5 m above the waters of Lake Superior.
“In 1870, the site was developed by Alexander H. Sibley's Silver Islet Mining Company, which built wooden breakwaters around the island to hold back the lake's waves and increased the island's area substantially with crushed rock. The islet was expanded to over 10 times its original size and a small mining town was built up on the shore nearby.”
This was the first silver mine in Ontario and was in operation for 16 years.
“By 1883, most of the highest quality silver had been extracted and the price of silver had declined. The final straw came when a shipment of coal did not arrive before the end of the shipping season. The pumps holding back the waters of the lake failed and the mine shafts which had reached a depth of 384 metres were flooded in 1884.”
The houses on the tip of the mainland that were built to accomodate the miners are now the small group of privately owned cottages. Silver Islet Store, built at the water’s edge is 130 years old and the only original building still standing from the days of the operation of the mine.
“Throughout the spring breakup and fall, Silver Islet was cut off from the rest of the world. As the mine’s principle warehouse of supplies for the miners, the store was an important structure.” I’ll say!
“The store’s quarried stone foundation accounts for its longevity.”

Today, an older couple, the Saxbergs, owns the store, which has retained its historic character. Eric and I came upon it and wandered in. Mr Saxberg works the front of the store, selling groceries and hardware items that are kept on shelves behind the counter. An amiable man, he was seemed eager to chat to Eric about the history of the area. At the back of the store there is a Tea Room decorated with antiques and pictures from the mining period. We followed the aroma of homemade soup and baking and found an aproned Mrs Saxberg busily rolling pastry for pies in the kitchen. Wow! Sitting at a sunny table by a window looking out at the crashing waves of Lake Superior and the rocky outcrop that is Silver Islet, on a chilly windy fall morning, we ordered coffee and warm cinnamon buns with melting butter. We couldn’t believe our sheer good luck, a real old-time tearoom, where nothing else tastes this good.

The next afternoon we decided to visit the Fort William Historical Park, on the west side of Thunder Bay, which tells the story of the North West Company and the Canadian Fur Trade in this area. We were taken on a tour of some of the 40 buildings, depicting the fur trade life, as well as the medicine, business, domestic life and heritage farming of the time.
Fort William was an intermediary point between the west and Montreal, from where the furs were shipped to sell on the European market. Top hats made of beaver felt were all the rage in Europe in the 1700’s. Furs were brought to trading posts across North America, such as the one we’d visited at Fort Langley near Vancouver or Fort William, where they were traded for such items as blankets, glass beads, needles and provisions. The French Canadian voyageurs then undertook the dangerous journey, transporting the furs in 26ft. birch bark canoes along the fur trading routes, ultimately reaching Montreal.

A beautiful 9 ft. bronze statue of Terry Fox, set on a granite base, commemorates the courageous young man, who had lost one leg due to cancer. He is shown running his “Marathon of Hope”, raising money for cancer research. The site of the monument is on the outskirts of Thunder Bay and overlooks the massive Lake Superior. It is close to the point on the highway where he finally had to end his run, in August 1980, stricken by his illness. He died on the 28th June 1981.