Thunder Bay Unseen

Superior History

Centennial Park

Centennial Park was developed for the Canadian Centennial celebrations in 1967 by the city of Port Arthur. At 147 acres (60 ha) the park is easily one of the largest in the city, rivaled only by Chippewa and George Burke Parks. The park was designed as a compliment to the city's existing park at Boulevard Lake although it is interesting to note that there is no official paths or trails linking the two locations.

The entrance sign to Centennial Park.
The park is found off Arundel Street, at the end of Centennial Park Road.

At the entrance to the park lay three plaques - One about the dedication of the park and the other two about donations to the park from various groups. The main dedication plaque is mounted between two stone cairns and reads as follows -

Centennial of Confederation
Port Arthur
Centennial Park

Developed by the
City of Port Arthur
In Permanent Commemoration of
The Centennial
of Confederation in Canada
in 1967.
Construction was made possible
through the Co-opeation of
the Province of Ontario and
The Government of Canada.

The other two plaques are found nearby:

Flagpole

The flagpole has a small plaque on its base that reads as follows:

Presented To Centennial Park
By The Port Arthur
Women's Progressive
Conservative Association
June 1967

This plaque is on a small stone cairn near the edge of the Current River, near the bridge leading into the park. It reads:

Presented to Port Arthur
Centennial Park
By The
Thunder Bay North District
Women's Institutes

What they presented I could not tell you, apart from the small cairn itself.

The is the bridge into Centennial Park spanning the Current River. The bridge has a swing gate at one end to bar vehicles from entering the park. It also has four wrought iron Confederation Centennial maple leafs, one each on the four corners of the bridge.

The Chalet at Centennial Park is a very simple design with a steep-angled roof reminiscent of ski chalets in Europe.
The main floor features a small store operated by the city serving chips, ice cream, and drinks, as well as public restrooms and a large eating area.
The upstairs of the Chalet is an apartment that was once provided to the caretaker of the Park.

One of the garbage can murals around the park. This one depicts the Black Bay Bridge. There are a few of these specially decorated garbage cans around the park, each shows a different local image.

For outdoor winter excitement there are few better places in Thunder Bay than Centennial Park. Centennial boasts one of the longest open run areas in the city for sledding and snow boarding. This run is long enough for some basic downhill skiing as well.
The best part is the cost - Free! The right hand side of the hill once boasted a rope pull to the top of the hill but that has long been removed. The trail used by the rope pull, a much more gentle slope without all the ridges, is still there marked by light poles all the way to the top of the ridge.
So these days you have to haul your sled up on your own under those lights.

From the top of that hill a short walk will bring you to Centennial Park's three iced toboggan runs.
For un-motorized speed in the winter this is about the best it gets.
In the winter these three wooden runs are flooded with water, making giant ice slides. The long straight stretches at the bottom are needed just to control your path during your run out at the end of your ride.
Like the first hill, though, you still need to bring your sled back up to the top with you on your own.

Centennial Park is not all about winter fun though. The park boasts plenty of playground equipment for summertime enjoyment.

The above equipment is relatively recent, replacing much older and, some would argue, unsafe equipment dating from the park's construction.
The wooden horses at left are survivors from that earlier era of playground fun.

Centennial Park is also home to functioning educational farm. The barn is built in a classic style with attached wire bird cages for the feathered farm animals. The barn is occasionally open to visitors to wander through. It is the winter home for the farm's residents.

The doors to the hayloft, on both ends of the building, are marked with the Centennial Maple Leaf, another visual reminder of the park's beginning.

This is the sleigh used for the winter sleigh rides. It is a simple, classic design - a two-horse sleigh on four runners.
This sleigh is actually called a sledge, a sort of heavy-purpose sleigh, used by early settlers for heavy haulage loads like hay or stones.
The sleigh is pulled by two of the farm's Draft Horses, kept at the park year-round as part of the farm.
Also kept at the farm are cows, pigs, sheep, domesticated geese and turkeys, as well as chickens.

The park is home to one heritage plaque, commemorating one of Thunder Bay's unsolved mysteries:

Rosvall and Voutilainen
On November 18, 1929, Finnish-Canadians Viljo Rosvall and Janne Voutilainen left the Port Arthur area for Onion Lake. 20 kilometres upstream from here to recruit brushworkers for a strike. Their bodies were found at Onion Lake the following spring. Local unionists and many Finnish-Canadians suspected foul play, but coroner's juries rules the deaths accidental drownings. The two men's funeral on April 28, 1930, is remembered as the largest ever held in Port Arthur. As thousands of mourners marched to Riverside Cemetery, an eclipse of the sun darkened the sky. The mystery surrounding the deaths of Rosval and Voutilainen endures, sustaining them in public memory as martyrs to the cause of organized labour.

Rosvall and Voutilainen Plaque

The remainder of Centennial Park is given over to a recreation of a 1910 logging camp and other forestry related exhibits, including a Forestry Museum and a narrow gauge railroad that had previously been used in timber cutting operations.
To the left is the park's logging museum, home to a number of artifacts dating from earlier logging days in Northwestern Ontario. It also houses a collection of documents outlining the construction and opening of the park.
The building also serves as the station for the park's narrow gauge railroad.
Like all of the buildings in the logging camp area of the park the museum is built as a log cabin. Unlike traditional log houses, however, the logs making up the building are placed vertical rather than laying horizontal.

This crew car was donated by CP Rail, Lakehead Division. It is used to get railway maintenance people to small job sites along rail line with a minimum amount of energy and time.

I do not know who donated this loader machinery.

The park has a number both of historical and recent examples of equipment used in the logging industry. They are found along the main road from the Logging Museum to the Logging Camp.
Above is a Watering Sleigh or Sprinkler

The classic horse drawn sprinkler has a plaque that read as follows

Watering Sleigh or Sprinkler
The Watering Sleigh (or Sprinkler as it was called) was equipment used for making iced roads to facilitate the movement of heavy loads of logs along bush trails.
The tank consisted of a water-tight box mounted on a logging sleigh. Sprinkling was accomplished by means of drain hole in the tank's bottom and was controlled from up above by the teamster (sleigh driver).
The tank was refilled by using a water barrel suspended from a pulley at the top of the tank and powered by a team of horses.
The barrel moved on a slide and on its bottom was a trap door which could be opened. When drawn to the top of the slide, the barrel tipped and emptied its contents into the tank. Once refilling was complete, road icing resumed.

The plaque on top of the Bulldozer reads:

TD - 14 International Bulldozer
No. 1
30 Years of Service
1945-1974
This TD-14 INTERNATIONAL BULLDOZER was the first Bulldozer purchased By
NORTHERN FOREST PRODUCTS LTD. - WOODS DEVISION
OF NORTHERN WOOD PRESERVERS, LIMITED
from Port Arthur, Ontario.
The dealer was TWIN CITY INDUSTRIAL EQUIPMENT LTD. later
VULCAN MACHINERY AND EQUIPMENT LTD.

At left is a horse drawn plow. The metal blade can be angled by turning a large wheel behind the driver.

It may have been used to plow snow from roads although that is unlikely as the metal wheels would have found no traction on icy surfaces and have been difficult for horses to pull.

One of the key features of Centennial Park is the replica of a 1910 Logging Camp. The logging camp has seen various amounts of activity over the years but currently exists as a mostly static museum of life 'In The Camps' at the turn of the century.
The camp consists of about a dozen separate buildings, all built in the more a more traditional log house style, centered around an open square.
The students of Lakehead University's Department of Forestry used to (and might still) spend on overnight or two in the camp as part of their graduation celebrations. It was felt that a night at the logging camp would help the new foresters to gain an appreciation of the humble roots of their industry.

The bunkhouse, where all the men slept. Some descriptions inside the building tell of how the loggers would sleep sitting up due to a popular belief that laying down to sleep led one's heart to stop.

The stable where the camp's horses were kept. Sometimes, in the summer, the horses from the farm are brought down to this building.

For many years the city of Thunder Bay operated the camp's cookhouse as a restaurant where one could get a meal of typical lumberjack fare - roast beef and potatoes.

The restaurant's operations licence from 1976 is still posted at the rear entrance of the kitchen area.

The camp office is where the camp's officials did all their official work and also where they slept.

This building is the only one in the camp without any posted information telling of its purpose and function. It currently appears to be in a state of restoration.

The blacksmith's shop used to be a working shop with live demonstrations. This feature of the camp has also been discontinued but all of the tools and paraphernalia associated with the trade and building are still in place inside.

No Scandinavian bush camp is complete without a steam bath (sauna).
This sauna sits a little ways away from the main part of the camp, very close to the tracks of the Muskeg Express.

The plaque on the sauna reads -
Steam Bath (Sauna)
To have a Sauna, a fire was lit underneath the rock pile. There was no chimney so the steamroom filled with smoke which was let out through the vent window.
When the steamroom and rock pile were sufficiently heated, the fire was allowed to die out.
Water could be put on the hot rocks to create steam and a sauna could be had.

A period specific logging sled. Any sort of materials that needed to be hauled could be placed on the sled's axles and drawn through the snow with ease. This is the sort of sled used to haul the sprinkler seen above.
This is another example of a sledge mentioned above at the farm.

Another logging sledge. Although this one seems to have been claimed by the forest around it.
A fitting end to a logging sled and to our visit to Centennial Park as well.

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Centennial Park