A half century ago

Goudreau Ontario a 100 years ago

Just a short remembrance of about half a century ago.

I was with my father and some others and we caught a train, the Algoma Central Railroad from Hawk Junction up the line a bit to the ghost town of Goudreau.  It was rickety, wooden bench seats, part freight, part passenger and some cars that I couldn't fathom.

The rail line went north from Sault Ste. Maria to Hearst, the big mining town from about 1900 onward.  In 1998, Algoma Steel closed its iron ore mine in Wawa (near Hawk Junction) and the branch line betweenjo Michipicoten Harbour and Hawk Junction was abandoned. The train of my "memories" still runs but Goudreau is just a siding now...just past Alden and before Wanda..the surrounding siding stops.

We had a little wait in the abandoned town before picked up for a 15 mile overland trip to Lochalsh, our destination. In that hour or so I walked the town remains and went out to the old smelters to the east, now deep in the forest. Nothing much happening then and no more now.

The town talked though. Lots of stories. Still does, talk that is.