Thunder Bay is rich in history and culture. Being the geographical centre of North America allowed for this town to be an important area for trading back in pioneer days and trade routes for many years since.
Geology
The rocks that form the Canadian Shield were formed about four billion years ago during the Archeon Eon of the Precambrian Era. Erosion of this extremely rugged, mountainous landscape deposited enormous quantities of clays, silts, sands and gravels into the surrounding waters. Compressed by their sheer cumulative weight and the heat of the shifting Earth’s crust, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks formed during the Proterozoic Eon of the Precambrian Era.
More recent rocks that were formed above these ancient layers have since been largely removed by the scouring action of glaciers that covered northern North America in the several ice ages in the past 100,000 years.
The last ice age scraped the rocks in a NNE (north-north-east) to SSE (south-south-east) direction. At the end of the last ice age, all the waters in this part of North America flowed toward the Mississippi. As the weight of the ice lifted off the rocks, they rose, and now water flows eastward toward the St Lawrence. The soil on which trees and other vegetation grow in this part of the continent are the result of gradual sediment buildup since the last ice age.
First Nations
Thunder Bay’s history dates as far back as the Paleo-Indian civilization over 11, 000 years ago. Even back then being located in the middle of the continent and at mouth of the Great Lakes was a key ingredient in its success as a thriving communtiy. It was an ideal area for a meeting ground and trade site. Europeans first arrived on the scene in the 17th century and immediately established many fur trading outposts. They named this place “Baie de Tonnerre”, or Thunder Bay. It was in 1798 that the North West Company built Fort William along the Kaministiquia River. Rapidly this became a lively community of Scottish traders, French voyageurs and Native trappers.
Exploration
Thunder Bay’s history dates as far back as the Paleo-Indian civilization over 11,000 years ago. Even back then being located in the middle of the continent and at mouth of the Great Lakes was a key ingredient in its success as a thriving communtiy. It was an ideal area for a meeting ground and trade site.
Europeans first arrived on the scene in the 17th century and immediately established many fur trading outposts. They named this place “Baie de Tonnerre”, or Thunder Bay. It was in 1798 that the North West Company built Fort William along the Kaministiquia River. Rapidly this became a lively community of Scottish traders, French voyageurs and Native trappers.
Settlement
Thunder Bay-Fort William Visitor Centre-sliver
In 1820 the Hudson’s Bay Company acquired all the assets of the North West Company, ending a long-standing fur trade war. Ironically, at the same time, the fur stocks were declining in the centre of the continent. In the mid-1800s, mining became the focus of international attention, as people began to prospect for & find copper, silver and gold, as well as amethyst, Ontario’s official gem.
In the mid 1880s, the final links in the nation’s trans-continental Canadian Pacific railroad was completed. Heavy shipping on the upper Great Lakes was initiated to supply the fast-growing heavy industry in the American midwest. Fort William in the south and Port Arthur to the north had secured itself as a significant port for grain from Western Canada and ore shipments from Northern Ontario. The region continued to grow with the development of manufacturing, shipbuilding and pulp and paper industries.
Cultural Diversity
Along with the growing industries came immigrants from all over the world. The forestry industry was a special attraction for the Finnish. This is noticeable today with the omnipresent saunas, the shops of Little Finland on Bay Street and the prevalence of nordic-style skiing, Thunder Bay boasts one of the largest settlements of Finnish people outside of Finland.
Other ethnic groups, including large numbers of Poles, Italians, and Ukrainians, settled close to the factories and dockyards, creating early working class settlements around the communities now known as “West Fort William” and the “East End”.
When the St Lawrence Seaway project was completed in the late 1950s, connecting all of the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean, abnd allowing ocean-going freighers to reach any port in the Great Lakes, Thunder Bay’s importance as a port for grain shipment grew.