Canada and NewfoundlandCarpenter, Frank G. (Frank George)
History
Canada and Newfoundland
Carpenter, Frank G. (Frank George)
Canada -- Description and travel; Newfoundland and Labrador -- Description and travel
These cities are on the north shore of Lake Superior, two or three
hundred miles from Duluth, and within four hundred miles of Winnipeg.
Port Arthur is situated on Thunder Bay, opposite the rocky promontory
of Thunder Cape, and Fort William is a short distance farther inland
at the mouth of the Kaministiquia River. Both towns have harbours deep
enough for the largest lake steamers, and during eight months of the
year a great caravan of boats is moving back and forth between here and
the East. By the Canadian Pacific and the Canadian National railways,
Port Arthur and Fort William have connection with every part of the
wheat belt, and almost the entire amount of wheat exported, or about
seventy per cent. of the total production, is brought here for storage
and transportation.
The two cities are so full of the spirit of the breezy West that one
feels it in the air. The region is in step with twentieth-century
progress. The people look at the future through the right end of
the telescope, and most of them have microscopes in front of the
lenses. Everyone is building air castles--not in Spain, but upon
Lake Superior--and although he acknowledges that he has not yet got
far beyond the foundations, he can in his mind’s eye see cities far
surpassing those of the present.
Speaking of the enthusiasm of the Port Arthurites--the night I arrived
I walked up the street and entered a stationery store. While making a
purchase I happened to remark that the town was beautifully located.
“It is,” said the clerk, “and if you will come with me I will show you
one of the finest views in the world just behind this store.”
Supposing it to be a walk of a minute or so, I consented. The clerk
grabbed his hat and out we went. He tramped me two miles up the hills
back of Port Arthur, leading me on and on through one district after
another, until I wondered whether I was in the hands of a gold brick
agent or some other confidence man. At last, when we were out among the
real estate signs, he struck an attitude and exclaimed:
“Behold Port Arthur.”
It was moonlight and I could see the ghost-like buildings scattered
over the hills, while down on the shore of the lake was the skyline of
the business section with the mighty elevators on the edge of the water
beyond. It was a fine moonlight view of Thunder Bay, but being tired
out after my trip from the “Soo,” I was not enthusiastic.
[Illustration: The government-owned wheat elevator at Port Arthur is
the world’s largest grain storage plant. The greater part of all the
wheat grown on the western prairies comes to this city or to Fort
William for shipment down the lakes.]
[Illustration: The beautiful falls of Kakabeka are almost as high as
those of Niagara. They generate hydro-electric power that is carried to
Fort William, twenty-three miles away, to light the city and run its
factories.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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