From 1858 to 1926, Thunder Bay served as a major center of the Great Lakes lumber trade. Schooners and steamers shipped lumber around the Great Lakes and to eastern cities. Beginning in 1845, Thunder Bay Island also served as a "wooding," or fueling station for steamers traveling between lakes Huron and Michigan.
At first, locally-cut timber fed the mills. As lumberjacks cleared nearby forests, harvesting moved inland and they floated timber down to the mills along the Thunder Bay River. The Thunder Bay River Boom Company collected, sorted, and distributed the logs to the appropriate sawmills. These processes required a series of dock systems along the river and at the river mouth, the remains of which can still be seen today.
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