In the age of steam, the lifeblood of the economy was coal. Not only was coal a major source of heat and energy for domestic and industrial consumption, it was also the motive power for locomotives and steamships. The volume of coal handled at Port Arthur and Fort William was second only to that of wheat, and as early as 1903, the Canadian Pacific's coal handling facilities on the Kaministikwia River were said to be the largest and most modern in North Armerica. Built in 1906 to handle coal for consumption in Western Canada and New Ontario, Canadian Northern's docks handled over one million tons of coal in 1913. About half was for its own requirements and the other half for its commercial customers. Because it was cheaper to have coal brought as ballast in grain ships than to transport it by rail from Alberta, the coal used at Thunder Bay came from the United States. The photograph shows the unloading of a freighter from Lake Erie and the simultaneous loading of Grand Trunk Pacific freight cars destined for points farther west.
Courtesy: Whalen Collection, Lakehead University Library
