Port Arthur National Historic Event

Thunder Bay, Ontario
Detailed view of the HSMBC plaque © Parks Canada / Parcs Canada, 1989
HSMBC plaque
© Parks Canada / Parcs Canada, 1989
Port Arthur © ExpiredDetailed view of the HSMBC plaque © Parks Canada / Parcs Canada, 1989
Address : Thunder Bay, Ontario

Recognition Statute: Historic Sites and Monuments Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. H-4)
Designation Date: 1920-01-30

Other Name(s):
  • Port Arthur  (Designation Name)
Research Report Number: 2011-CED-SDC-014

Importance: Wolseley's Red River expeditionary force camped in Port Arthur at the foot of Arthur Street in 1870

Plaque(s)


Existing plaque: Marina Park Unknown, Ontario

In 1869 Simon Dawson established the eastern terminus of the Canadian government's proposed land and water communication between Lake Superior and the Red River on Thunder Bay just north of Fort William. The next year, when Colonel Garnet Wolseley led the Canadian Expeditionary Force over the Dawson Road to quell the Red River resistance, he named his camp here Prince Arthur's Landing. Renamed Port Arthur in 1882, it was the site of C.P.R.'s first grain elevator in 1883, and became a terminus of the Canadian Northern Railway in 1902.