Fort William was a city in

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, Canada, located on the

Kaministiquia River The Kaministiquia River () is a river which flows into western Lake Superior at the city of Thunder Bay, Ontario. ''Kaministiquia'' () is an Ojibwe word meaning "where a stream flows in island" due to two large islands (McKellar and Mission) at ...

, at its entrance to

Lake Superior Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. Lake Michigan–Huron has a larger combined surface area than Superior, but is normally considered tw ...

. Incorporated as a town in 1892 and as a city in 1907, it was amalgamated with Port Arthur and the townships of Neebing and McIntyre to form the city of

Thunder Bay Thunder Bay is a city in and the seat of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It is the most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario and the second most populous (after Greater Sudbury) municipality in Northern Ontario. Its population i ...

in January 1970.

Coat of arms and motto

The city's Latin motto was ''A posse ad esse'' (''From a possibility to an actuality''), featured on its coat of arms designed in 1900 by town officials, "On one side of the shield stands an Indian dressed in the paint and feathers of the early days; on the other side is a French voyageur; the cent econtains a

grain A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached husk, hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and ...

elevator, a steamship and a locomotive, while the beaver surmounts the whole."

History

Fur trade era 1671–1884

Fort William and

Grand Portage Grand Portage National Monument is a United States National Monument located on the north shore of Lake Superior in northeastern Minnesota that preserves a vital center of fur trade activity and Anishinaabeg Ojibwe heritage. The area became on ...

were the two starting points for the canoe route from the Great Lakes to

Western Canada Western Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces, Canadian West, or Western provinces of Canada, and commonly known within Canada as the West, is a list of regions of Canada, Canadian region that includes the four western provinces and t ...

. For details of the route inland see

French regime (Fort Kamanistigouian, Caministogoyan)

Kamanistigouian, as a place, is first mentioned in a decree of the Conseil Souverain de la Nouvelle-France dated 23 August 1681 instructing one of two canoes to make known the king's amnesty to coureurs de bois, although the

is depicted on the 1671 "Carte des Jésuites" as "R. ivièrepar où l'on va aux Assinipoualacs à 120 lieues vers le Nord-Ouest." In late 1683 or spring 1684, the adventurer Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut established a trading post near the mouth of the

. French authorities closed this post in 1696 because of a glut on the fur market. In 1717, a new post, Fort Kaministiquia, was established at the river mouth by Zacharie Robutel de la Noue. This post appears on 18th century French maps by Royal hydrographer Jacques-Nicolas Bellin as "Fort Caministogoyan". The post was abandoned in 1758 or 1760 during the British conquest of New France.

English regime (North West Company Fort William, 1803–1821)

The fur trade was quickly re-established with most people using

. By 1784,

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

merchants and their "wintering partners" had formed the

North West Company The North West Company was a Fur trade in Canada, Canadian fur trading business headquartered in Montreal from 1779 to 1821. It competed with increasing success against the Hudson's Bay Company in the regions that later became Western Canada a ...

(Nor'Westers). The North West Company continued to use Grand Portage as their centre of operations after the area was ceded to the United States after the colonists' victory in the

American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...

. Following the signing of the

Jay Treaty The Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation, Between His Britannic Majesty and the United States of America, commonly known as the Jay Treaty, and also as Jay's Treaty, was a 1794 treaty between the United States and Great Britain that averted ...

of 1794 between Great Britain and the United States, which acknowledged American control of the area, the North West Company required a new midway

transshipment Transshipment, trans-shipment or transhipment is the shipment of goods or containers to an intermediate destination, then to another destination. One possible reason for transshipment is to change the means of transport during the journey (e.g. ...

point between their inland posts and Montreal. The partners needed to meet and exchange furs and supplies without being subject to American taxation. Fort William 1811

In 1803, the Nor'Westers abandoned Grand Portage and established a new fur trading post on the Kaministiquia River on land acquired from the

Ojibwe The Ojibwe (; Ojibwe writing systems#Ojibwe syllabics, syll.: ᐅᒋᐺ; plural: ''Ojibweg'' ᐅᒋᐺᒃ) are an Anishinaabe people whose homeland (''Ojibwewaki'' ᐅᒋᐺᐘᑭ) covers much of the Great Lakes region and the Great Plains, n ...

by written agreement dated 30 July 1798. The post was named Fort William in 1807 after

William McGillivray Lt.-Colonel The Hon. William McGillivray (1764 – 16 October 1825), of Chateau St. Antoine, Montreal, was a Scottish-born fur trader who succeeded his uncle Simon McTavish as the last chief partner of the North West Company until a merger be ...

, chief director of the North West Company from 1804-1821.

Hudson's Bay Company 1821–1884

After the union of the North West Company with the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) in 1821, the fort lost its ''raison d'être'' because most trade shifted to

York Factory York Factory was a settlement and Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) factory (trading post) on the southwestern shore of Hudson Bay in northeastern Manitoba, Canada, at the mouth of the Hayes River, approximately south-southeast of Churchill. York ...

on Hudson Bay. It became a minor HBC fur trading post. The original site disappeared under development of Canadian Pacific Railway railroad tracks and coal piles in the 1880s. A replica of the Fort William post was built further upstream on the Kaministiquia River at

Pointe de Meuron Fort William was a city in Ontario, Canada, located on the Kaministiquia River, at its entrance to Lake Superior. Incorporated as a town in 1892 and as a city in 1907, it was amalgamated with Port Arthur, Ontario, Port Arthur and the townships of ...

, a Hudson Bay Company post, later used as a military staging location named after Lord Selkirk's Swiss de Meuron Regiment. It is now known as the

Fort William Historical Park Fort William Historical Park (formerly known as Old Fort William) is a Canadian historical site located in Thunder Bay, Ontario, that contains a reconstruction of the Fort William, Ontario, Fort William fur trade post as it existed in 1815. I ...

Surveying and municipal incorporation 1859–1892

Two townships (

Neebing Neebing is a municipality in the Canadian province of Ontario, located in the Thunder Bay District immediately south of the city of Thunder Bay. It is part of Thunder Bay's Census Metropolitan Area. History Neebing comprises the former geograph ...

and Paipoonge) and the Fort William Town Plot were surveyed in 1859–1860 by the

Province of Canada The Province of Canada (or the United Province of Canada or the United Canadas) was a British colony in British North America from 1841 to 1867. Its formation reflected recommendations made by John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, in the Report ...

's Department of Crown Lands (surveyor Thomas Wallis Herrick) and opened to purchase in 1861. A large section of land adjacent to the Hudson's Bay Company post was set aside as the Hudson's Bay Company Reserve, and remained in dispute until 1875, when it was surveyed as Neebing Additional Township. Vickers Street (named after absentee landowner John Joseph Vickers of Toronto) is the dividing line between Neebing Township and Neebing Additional Township. Most land was acquired by absentee landowners speculating on the decision of the new Dominion of

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

to build a railway to the Pacific that would begin somewhere along the north shore of Lake Superior. The selection of the Fort William Town Plot (later known as West Fort) as the eastern terminus for the CPR stimulated development, as did the construction of the railway, begun in June 1875. Under Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie, the federal Department of Public Works, and later under Prime Minister John Alexander Macdonald, the Department of Railways and Canals, took seven years (1875–1882) to build the Thunder Bay Branch from Fort William to

Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is centred on the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. , Winnipeg h ...

. The Ontario Legislature incorporated the Municipality of Shuniah in March 1873. This early form of regional government comprised a vast area from Sibley Peninsula to the American border. For eight years the residents of Neebing and Neebing Additional townships battled Port Arthur residents for the Thunder Bay terminus. In March 1881, the inhabitants of Neebing and Neebing Additional petitioned the Ontario Legislature successfully to separate the southern townships from Shuniah and to create the Municipality of Neebing. By 1883–1884, the Montreal-based CPR syndicate, in collaboration with the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...

, clearly preferred the low-lying lands along the lower Kaministiquia River to the exposed shores of Port Arthur, which required an expensive breakwater if shipping and port facilities were to be protected from the waves. The CPR subsequently consolidated all its operations there, erecting rail yards, coal-handling facilities, grain elevators and a machine shop. In April 1892, Neebing Additional Township and parts of Neebing Township were incorporated as the town of Fort William. Fort William was incorporated as a city in April 1907. The city of Fort William ceased to exist at the end of December 1969.

Politics and government to 1969

From 1892 to 1937, Fort William was divided into four wards for electoral purposes.

Neighborhoods

The first area developed was the Fort William Town Plot and adjacent subdivision (Oliver Davidson Addition), renamed West Fort by the CPR. It lay between Empire Avenue and the Kaministiquia River. This was electoral Ward 4. The next area to develop was the land in Neebing Additional Township owned by the McKellar and McVicar families that became the central business district (see John McKellar). It lay between Arthur Street and Dease Street. This became electoral Ward 2. The third area was the East end, a large subdivision jointly developed by the Hudson Bay Company and the CPR in 1890. It lay between Dease Street and the Port Arthur boundary. This became electoral Ward 1. The last area to develop was Ward 3, the area between Arthur Street and Empire Avenue. Until about 1956, this was the most prestigious area to live, containing the hospital, the two secondary schools, and Vickers Park. In the postwar period 1945–1959, subdivisions were opened west of Vickers Park and the Canadian National Railway train tracks, such as the Green Acres subdivision (1956). Development of the Northwood subdivision, the area northwest of the Neebing River, began in 1960–61, and that of the Edgewater and Windsor Park subdivisions in 1964.

Notable people

* Jack Adams, professional hockey player, coach and general manager * Mary J. L. Black, first librarian of the Fort William Public Library * Gus Bodnar, professional hockey player * Larry Cahan, professional hockey player * Marc Chorney, professional hockey player * Joe Comuzzi, lawyer and cabinet minister * Tom Cook, aka Tommy Cook, professional hockey player *

Alex Delvecchio Alexander Peter "Fats" Delvecchio (born December 4, 1931) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player, coach, and general manager who spent his entire National Hockey League (NHL) career with the Detroit Red Wings. In a playing career tha ...

, professional hockey player * Jeff Heath, professional major league baseball player in the 1930s and 1940s *

Bora Laskin Bora Laskin (October 5, 1912 – March 26, 1984) was a Canadians, Canadian jurist who served as the 14th Chief Justice of Canada, chief justice of Canada from 1973 to 1984 and as a List of justices of the Supreme Court of Canada, puisne just ...

Chief Justice of Canada The chief justice of Canada () is the presiding judge of the nine-member Supreme Court of Canada, the highest judicial body in Canada. As such, the chief justice is the highest-ranking judge of the Canadian court system. The '' Supreme Court Ac ...

* Danny Lewicki, professional hockey player * James Maloney, lawyer and politician *

Paul Shaffer Paul Allen Wood Shaffer (born November 28, 1949) is a Canadian musician, actor, and comedian who served as David Letterman's musical director, bandleader, and sidekick on ''Late Night with David Letterman'' (1982–1993) and ''Late Show with D ...

, musician, TV personality * H. J. Sterling, president of the

Canadian Amateur Hockey Association The Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA; ) was the national governing body of amateur ice hockey in Canada from 1914 until 1994, when it merged with Hockey Canada. Its jurisdiction included senior ice hockey leagues and the Allan Cup, ...

, Thunder Bay Amateur Hockey Association and the Fort William and Port Arthur Grain Exchange

Cited sources

Bibliography and websites

* * Morrison, Jean F., ed. ''Lake Superior to Rainy River : three centuries of fur trade history : a collection of writings.'' Thunder Bay, Ont. : Thunder Bay Historical Museum Society, 2003. * Scollie, Frederick Brent. ''Biographical Dictionary and History of Victorian Thunder Bay (1850-1901).'' Thunder Bay: Thunder Bay Historical Museum Society, 2020. *''Thunder Bay from rivalry to unity'' / edited by Thorold J. Tronrud and A. Ernest Epp. Thunder Bay : Thunder Bay Historical Museum Society, 1995.

External links

* * {{Authority control Former cities in Ontario History of Thunder Bay North West Company North West Company forts Hudson's Bay Company forts Neighbourhoods in Thunder Bay Populated places disestablished in 1970 Pemmican War