Key Junction

History

In 1908 the Canadian Northern (Ontario) Railway (CNoR) pushed a line north of Toronto to meet an iron prospect situated at Moose Mountain, 50 miles north of Sudbury.

Mackenzie and Mann, owners of the CNoR, had become majority shareholders in the mine by 1906 and had planned that same year, for an extensive harbour to tranship the ores for smelting and refining. Following that, they completed the harbour, located at Key Harbour on the Georgian Bay by 1908. Equally important was to continue on with a 16.8-kilometres (12-mile) spur line 300 kilometres north of Toronto to access the site.

The railway established a section at Key Junction to service the stretch of mainline and the spur. After they added a station, the site quickly became a hub of activity. The facilities also included a water tank, coal chute, and storage beds to stockpile coal. In addition, the spur connection formed a wye to facilitate the turnaround of freight trains going to and from Key Harbour 12 miles away. Unfortunately the railway went bankrupt in 1916. The government, under the umbrella agency of Canadian Government Railways (CGR) continued operating the harbour, mine and railway. Although the harbour and mine both closed in 1920, the government reorganized the railway under Canadian National Railways (CN) and the site remained busy.

By this time, the section village had grown to contain six family homes along with a bunkhouse and a section foreman’s house. Apart from a public well, there were no services to the dwellings. A post office, opened in 1915, cemented the settlement’s links with the outside world.

After the CN opened a coal dock at Key Harbour in 1928, the spur line saw renewed activity. By 1929 the community contained enough children to justify construction of a school section. Within a few short years, they built a new schoolhouse and converted the old one to a hall. John Krystia later added a store in 1930, and his wife integrated the post office in that same year. In order to complete the fire watch grid, the Ministry of Natural Resources, established a fire tower on nearby Tower Lake. The government established a series of towers a few miles apart to form a triangular pattern.

In 1938 the coal dock at Key Harbour closed down and the facilities moved to Britt. As a result, the section village was in serious decline within the decade. In similar fashion, the school, store, and post office closed in 1948. The remaining children had to walk to school in Pickerel River, approximately 2.4 kilometres (1.5 miles) away. By the close of 1958, the coal chute and water tower were redundant. The railway abandoned the section village and in 1960 tore up the spur for scrap iron. Key Junction had slipped forever into history.