Pukaskwa Depot memories

By Sarah Langlois & Carly Robillard

Visitors to Pukaskwa National Park had the opportunity to make a real-life connection with some of the fascinating settlement history of Pukaskwa National Park when Ruth Fletcher, author of “The Puckasaw Diaries”, attended a book signing event at the Visitor Centre on August 1, 2015.

In “The Puckasaw Diaries”, Fletcher recounts her family’s history and her own personal connection to the Pukaskwa Depot, which operated at the southern end of Pukaskwa National Park in the early 1900s. A settlement for workers - primarily from Quebec - and their families, the Pukaskwa Depot acted as a base of operations for logging industries along the north shore of Lake Superior. From 1917 until the Great Depression, workers from the Pukaskwa Depot harvested approximately 30,000 cords of wood per year from the area. This timber was shipped by rail and boat along the Lake Superior coast to the pulp mill in Sault Ste. Marie. 

Although very little remains of the depot in Imogene Cove today, “The Puckasaw Diaries” offers a fascinating opportunity to experience this chapter of the human history of Pukaskwa National Park. With copies of “The Puckasaw Diaries” available at the park store, we hope these stories will continue to weave memories for visitors and their families over the years to come!

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