Grant is an

unincorporated place An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

, former railway point and now a

ghost town Ghost Town(s) or Ghosttown may refer to: * Ghost town, a town that has been abandoned Film and television * Ghost Town (1936 film), ''Ghost Town'' (1936 film), an American Western film by Harry L. Fraser * Ghost Town (1956 film), ''Ghost Town'' ...

in the Unorganized North Part of

Cochrane District Cochrane District is a district and Census divisions of Canada, census division in Northeastern Ontario in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. It was created in 1921 from parts of Timiskaming District, Timiskami ...

northeastern The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, located east of Nakina, Ontario.

History

The town came into being with the construction of the

National Transcontinental Railway The National Transcontinental Railway (NTR) was a historic railway between Winnipeg and Moncton in Canada. Much of the line is now operated by the Canadian National Railway. The Grand Trunk partnership The completion of construction of Canada's ...

(NTR) in 1913. It was established as a

divisional point In Canada, a divisional point (or division point) is a local operational headquarters for a railway. Divisional points are significant in railway maintenance of way operations. Especially historically, they could be the location of facilities and in ...

between the Grant Subdivision, leading west to the next divisional point of

Armstrong Armstrong may refer to: Places * Armstrong Creek (disambiguation), various places Antarctica * Armstrong Reef, Biscoe Islands Argentina * Armstrong, Santa Fe Australia * Armstrong, Victoria Canada * Armstrong, British Columbia * Armstrong ...

, and the Hearst Subdivision, District 2, leading east to the next divisional point of Hearst. The National Transcontinental Railway was in length, from

Moncton, New Brunswick Moncton (; ) is the most populous city in the Canadian province of New Brunswick. Situated in the Petitcodiac River Valley, Moncton lies at the geographic centre of the Maritime Provinces. The city has earned the nickname "Hub City" because of ...

, to

Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

. The last spike of the NTR was driven at Grant on November 17, 1913, west of Moncton.This information is suspect. The November 1913 issue of Canadian and Marine World makes reference to a November 17, 1913 press dispatch from Cochrane, Ontario which states that the last section of steel on the NTR was laid 200 miles East of Cochrane near Nellie Lake. The town of Grant lost its importance as a railway divisional point following the 1924 completion of the Longlac-Nakina Cut-Off. The

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN i ...

, which had assumed control of both the National Transcontinental Railway and the

Canadian Northern The Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) was a historic Canadian transcontinental railway. At its 1923 merger into the Canadian National Railway , the CNoR owned a main line between Quebec City and Vancouver via Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Edmonton. Ma ...

railway, built this new section of line to connect the two transcontinental main lines. At that time most of the buildings were removed to the new divisional point at Nakina at Mile 15.9 of the former Grant Sub-Division. The portion of the former NTR from Hearst to Nakina became the Pagwa Sub-Division, with Grant located at mile 125.1, between the railway points of Opemisha to the west and Jobrin to the east. By 1960, this section track was part of a marginal secondary main line, with little in the way of through freight, or passenger traffic. A section of this line between Nakina and

Calstock Calstock ( kw, Kalstok) is a civil parish and a large village in south east Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, on the border with Devon. The village is situated on the River Tamar south west of Tavistock and north of Plymouth. The parish had ...

, the route through Grant, was abandoned in 1986. A now abandoned airfield, created by the Department of National Defence in the mid-1930s in part using 4,281 person-days of unemployment relief labour, lies to the south of the place. The airfield became in the late 1930s part of a string of emergency landing sites for

Trans-Canada Air Lines Trans-Canada Air Lines (also known as TCA in English, and Trans-Canada in French) was a Canadian airline that operated as the country's flag carrier, with corporate headquarters in Montreal, Quebec. Its first president was Gordon Roy McGreg ...

(today

Air Canada Air Canada is the flag carrier and the largest airline of Canada by the size and passengers carried. Air Canada maintains its headquarters in the borough of Saint-Laurent, Montreal, Quebec. The airline, founded in 1937, provides scheduled and ...

) to support their transcontinental flight operations. Transcribed from

References

{{authority control Ghost towns in Northern Ontario Communities in Cochrane District Railway towns in Ontario