When Europeans reached the Thunder Bay region, the boreal forest they travelled through was very different from the one we see today.  It was dominated by centuries old coniferous trees: stands of black and white spruce, jackpine, tamarack and balsam fir interspersed with the deciduous species white birch and aspen.  West of the great lake, on the south slope of the mountain, sugar maples reached their extreme northern range.  White and Norway pine thrived in numerous stands south of the Kaministiquia and along the Pine River to the Pigeon River and its tributaries, and in small patches to the north and east.
    These forests survived the early days of the lumber trade in British North America.  In the first half of the nineteenth century this trade flourished along the Ottawa River and in the maritime provinces, where huge pines were plentiful and logs could be transported downstream with the current on rivers free of waterfalls and rapids.  By the 1850s railway transportation was available, and timber slides had been created to bypass rough water.  Still logging centred on the areas south of the Great Lakes, where old-growth pine was still relatively plentiful.
      As late as 1871 the forests in the Thunder Bay area were intact, except for small cuts to build Fort Caministigoyan in 1678, Fort Kaministiquia in 1717, and Fort William in 1803.  Then, in the late nineteenth century, lumbering began in earnest, beginning in 1871 with a breakwater and dock built at the Silver Islet mine, from nearby pines. That same year the first timber rights were assigned to Adam Oliver and Joseph Davidson.  In 1873 these two also obtained rights to pine on Mount McKay.  In both cases the wood was used for local construction.
    Late in 1876 the Department of Crown Lands opened up timber limits north from the border and east to Nipigon, for use on the railway and to build a number of private wharves and docks on the Kaministiquia and the lakeshore.  Construction of the railway to Winnipeg began in June of 1875, and from this time and up to the late 1880s, the forests of northwestern Ontario supplied the bulk of railway ties.  In the mid 1880s a breakwater 5000 feet in length was constructed in front of the wharves in Port Arthur.  The rock core was contained by tamarack and other wood pilings, which were taken from the Kam watershed and the Sibley and Black Bay peninsulas.  In 1882, C.W. Carpenter cut one million board feet of pine on the land formerly leased to Oliver and Davidson, and more from land south of the Cloud River.  Later in 1882 new pine limits were made available in the watershed of the Kaministiquia River.   Much of the timber was used locally, although some was shipped to markets in Manitoba for the construction of buildings and homes.
    It was not until the 20th century, when the pine in southern Ontario and the east began to run out, that there was reason to undertake the transport of lumber across the lakes.  By that time the best pine in the north also had been cut, and spruce and jackpine were the new source of timber.  As for tamarack, except for railway ties, there was little external demand.  The great trees no longer stood in the forests of the north west - but much of the lumber they provided remained in the region, as a result of the patterns of trade.  The railway ties have long been replaced, but some of the great tamaracks remain submerged in the waters of Thunder Bay and the Kaministiquia.  Any church, hotel, store, school, barn, home, or summer camp constructed while the supply was still available is a potential repository of lumber from the white pines of Thunder Bay region, and with a little research, may be identified as such.  For example, several summer homes at Silver Islet are former miners' cabins or mine offices which are known to have been constructed from this local white pine.

copyright B.C.J. Yurkoski, 2002

- to be continued