Lochalsh

History

Activity around this area of the Canadian Pacific Railway area chiefly centred on the gold rush that began in the 1920’s. In 1921 only four residents were living at the CPR section house, however an ongoing search for gold rejuvenated the whole of the northern Algoma area.

As in nearby Goudreau, many potential prospectors and developers came through Lochalsh Station, and headed for the bush. A post office opened in 1925 and a store opened by the end of the decade. There were also a few homes and shanties.

As the gold rush picked up, there was so much traffic between Lochalsh and Goudreau that the government built a 22-kilometre road to link them. They completed the work during the period of 1935 -36 using relief gangs for labour. Many of the relief workers were originally from Southern Ontario. It didn’t take them long to discover that mining work paid much better. The high rate of desertion forced the government to re-evaluate its standard relief pay for the unemployed, which at the time was $5 a month. They then raised wages to 25 cents an hour, quite a respectable wage during the depression years.

By 1937, the village included a school, three stores and two hotels, the Prospect and the Royal George, both of which housed beer parlours. A tenement building, for single employees working on claims or developing properties, also stood nearby. Hang Fong owned and operated a restaurant that sold alcohol illegally. The community also had a large railway station and houses for nearly 200 residents. A doctor would stop by once a month. A local resident and store owner, Alma Lavoie, started a taxi service that served the Goudreau, and Lochalsh areas.

The Second World War silenced most of the mines such as the Algoma Summit, the Algold, the Emily and the Edward. The Cline Mine, which was the largest of the producing properties, was the last to close in 1948. The residents who remained subsisted on trapping, lumbering or tourism. A large sawmill opened around 1962 by the Dubreuil Brothers, gave birth to nearby Dubreuilville, which revitalized the area’s economy.

After the schoolhouse closed, around 1962, they used Alma Lavoie’s house for church and school services. Catholic and Anglican preachers as well as the teacher boarded at her home. This house became the focal point of the community after the town’s gradual but steady demise after 1963. The post office closed in 1967, only to reopen as a seasonal office in 1968-69. Shortly after that the last store closed.

Today the old tenement house still stands, along with a few original structures, including Alma Lavoie’s well-known green house. There are a number of crumbled homes and charred foundations but a few homes remain occupied. The site of the Wabatong Lodge was once the site of one of the stores and the post office. The lodge was closed for a number of years but now operates year-round offering as assortment of outdoor and sporting activities.