Erected on the Kaministikwia River by the Ogilvie Flour Mills Company in 1904, this elevator shared the distinction, along with the Empire at the river's mouth, of being one of the first non-railway owned elevators at Thunder Bay. The moorings of the elevator's steel-plate tanks slipped when weakened by dredging of the river and the structure tipped dangerously into the river. Fortunately, there were no injuries, and by the following year the elevator had been rebuilt further back from the river's edge. More common disasters befalling elevators were fires caused by spontaneous combustion.
Ogilvie's is an example of the kind of processing industry Fort William and Port Arthur tried to attract through tax incentives and bonuses in order to broaden the area's economic base. Along with the Lake of the Woods Company, with mills at Kenora, Ogilvie's was one of the two greatest flour milling companies in Canada with offices in Montreal as well as New York and warehouses in seven cities across the country. Its total milling capacity at Montreal, Winnipeg and the 3,000 barrel mill built at Fort William in 1906 equalled 16,300 barrels daily. The Company president and vice-president, C.R. Hosmer and F.W. Thompson, were also owners of the Kaministikwia Power Company, constructed at Kakebeka Falls in 1906 to supply electric power for its Fort William operations. The power company's largest customer was the municipality of Fort William which purchased electricity for the community's residential and commercial needs, as well as those of its smaller industries.
