A 1906 manhole cover from the former Port Arthur Public Utilities Commission, now part of Thunder Bay’s unified public works system. Before amalgamating with Fort William in 1970, Port Arthur operated its own water, sewer, and electrical services, reflecting the industrial ambitions of this Lake Superior port. Cast in iron more than a century ago, the cover remains a tangible remnant of early municipal engineering in northwestern Ontario.

This steel swing bridge in Thunder Bay, Ontario, carries the Canadian Pacific Railway line across the Kaministiquia River near the city’s grain terminals. Built in the early 20th century, the structure allowed both rail and maritime traffic to pass through the busy industrial waterfront—pivoting open for ships bound to and from Lake Superior. The bridge remains an important relic of Thunder Bay’s era as one of Canada’s foremost grain-shipping hubs, linking prairie rail lines to Great Lakes freighters and global export routes.

Grain Elevator in Thunder Bay, Canada.

Grain Elevator in Thunder Bay, Canada.

The rusting conveyor systems and storage bins of the former Great West Lumber Sawmill stand as remnants of Thunder Bay’s once-thriving forest industry. Established near the Lake Superior waterfront in the early 20th century, the mill was part of a vast network that processed and shipped lumber across North America. Its maze of steel ducts and conveyors once carried sawdust, chips, and milled timber, feeding the region’s economic boom. Today, the overgrown machinery reflects a post-industrial landscape—silent evidence of a city that helped fuel Canada’s forestry trade for generations.

The remains of the Saskatchewan Pool B complex in Thunder Bay, Ontario, stand as a testament to the city’s industrial and maritime heritage. Once part of one of the largest grain handling networks on the Great Lakes, these structures were built in the early 20th century to serve the growing wheat trade flowing from the Canadian Prairies to Atlantic markets. Operations here slowed by the 1980s as newer, more efficient elevators replaced them. Today, the site lies silent along the waterfront, its silos and offices weathered by decades of Lake Superior winds.

Overgrown foliage surrounds the rusting stairway of the former Saskatchewan Pool B grain elevator in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Built in 1928 as part of the cooperative grain-handling network operated by the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, the facility once stored and shipped millions of bushels of prairie wheat through the Lake Superior port. After decades of service under the Canadian Wheat Board era, the elevator was decommissioned and left to decay, its concrete silos and steel infrastructure now reclaimed by vegetation and time along the industrial waterfront.

A rusted steel door and staircase, now surrounded by dense summer growth, mark one of the remaining entrances to the Saskatchewan Pool B grain elevator in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Completed in 1928, this concrete complex was once among the largest cooperative elevators on the Lakehead, operated by the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool to handle prairie grain for export through the Great Lakes. After the decline of Canada’s centralized grain trade, the elevator was shuttered and abandoned, leaving its reinforced concrete and steel framework to slowly merge with the encroaching forest.