North Lake Station

North Lake was a stop on the Port Arthur, Duluth and Western Railway (mile 71). The station was named after the nearby North Lake, in the District of Thunder Bay. The original station was a 26 by 40 foot log structure that was used until approximately 1911. At that time the Canadian Northern Railway, which now owned the line (called the Duluth Extension) built the new station. It was an exact copy of the station that was built at Silver Mountain (mile 39-which still stands and is a restaurant). The station measured approximately 50 by 25 feet. It was located in the middle of a turning wye, which resembles an inverted Y and allowed trains to turn around. Approximately 150 metres west of the building was a coal bunker, one of only two on the line.

North Lake Station was only used until 1923. In that year, a forest fire burned a trestle 24 miles to the east at Mackies Siding. Canadian National, who now owned the railway after nationalization, elected not to rebuild the trestle due to a lack of business. CN abandoned the line, but did not remove the rails until 1937.

From 1923 to the 1970’s the station sat abandoned, exposed to the elements and steadily deteriorated. It was filled with a collection of old railway items such a train manifests. Plans were made in the 1970’s to restore and renovate the station to serve as a centrepiece for a proposed park. It was determined however that the station was beyond repair; a replica was built 3.5 km to the east on Addie Lake (the whole plan fell through and the rebuilt station sat abandoned until 2004 when it was burned by the MNR). Eventually the station collapsed and was overtaken by nature.

The station today sits just inside the brush on the south side of the old rail bed. Over the last 15 years the remains have been overtaken by forest growth, now obscuring it from the road. The best preserved piece of the site was the coal bunker, which sat in a near-perfect state, completely full of coal. Unfortunately it was extensively damaged in 1999 following a massive windstorm and subsequent efforts to clear the road. Despite this, there is a lot to see and the area is very accessible.