THUNDER BAY — This week marks the 150th anniversary of an important event in the history of Thunder Bay, but the occasion has gone largely unnoticed.
On May 25, 1870, Colonel Garnet Wolseley arrived at the waterfront en route to what is now Manitoba, to quell the Red River Rebellion with the Canadian Expeditionary Force.
Before proceeding west on the newly-surveyed Dawson Trail, Wolseley named his campsite Prince Arthur's Landing, in honour of Prince Arthur, the 10-year-old son of Queen Victoria who later became the Governor-General of Canada.
The community that developed there was renamed Port Arthur by the CPR in 1883.
A Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada plaque commemorating both events is tucked away in a corner of Marina Park, near the Baggage Building.
Historian Brent Scollie, a former Thunder Bay resident now living in Ottawa, says Wolseley's expedition was the only time a large military force has arrived on Lake Superior's shores.
Scollie told Tbnewswatch "A huge forest fire had swept the area days before. Wolseley found a few shanties erected by the (federal) Department of Public Works that had been spared."
He quotes Wolseley as writing that "It was an ugly-lookng spot, for everything, including the ground and trees recently burnt black...I never looked upon a drearier or less inviting prospect in any of my many wanderings."
The colonel would never have imagined the dramatic transformation of that dreary sight to the modern day Prince Arthur's Landing and what the City of Thunder Bay promotes as a jewel among local attractions.
Scollie said it's disappointing that such a significant event in local history has passed so quietly, without even a press release.
A spokesperson for the city said she was unaware of any plans to commemorate it.
