THUNDER BAY -- At one time farm animals ran wild through the streets of Fort William and Port Arthur.
A bylaw sometime around the First World War or just after put an end to that but people people could keep cows, chickens, pigs and other animals in areas of the city. When those areas became too populated, public health officials would get town councils to pass new bylaws, pushing livestock further and further out of the city.
It's just part of the story being told by the city of Thunder Bay's archives as part of Archives Awareness week. Every year archives across Ontario participate, showing the public what the departments have to offer. This year, in tandem with a proposed bylaw to allow backyard chickens, the theme in Thunder Bay is local food planning.
Associate archivist Christina Wakefield spent about a week researching maps, memos and bylaws that tell the history of Port Arthur, Fort William and now Thunder Bay's relationship with its meals.
"These bylaws really show the growth of both cities," Wakefield said.
Bylaws in 1959 pushed everything out of the limits of the two towns. Now that the city is looking into the issue of chickens, Wakefield said it was a good time for the city to know how it got to this point.
"It's important for everybody to understand where we've come from and what we're doing when we're revisiting those issues again," she said.
The archives also hold letters from both sides of debates when bylaws came up. A letter from 1959 from the local rabbit breeders association argued that a bylaw being debated at the time would stop children from raising rabbits to show off at the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition.
"We also have those available for people to take a look at," Wakefield said.
The archive will be holding an open house Thursday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. But Wakefield said its open to the public Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. for anyone who wants to do research whether its on a property, family members or the city in general.
