Living on the Frontier

We begin our adventure just past the International Bridge, which connects Fort Frances with International Falls, Minnesota. In this historic photo, we see two mounties in their bright red uniforms standing beneath the ‘Welcome to Canada’ sign. The sign was put up with much celebration in 1948 and quickly became a popular photo spot for American tourists and for locals. It was demolished in 1976 after falling into disrepair.
Before we dive into the modern history of Fort Frances, which is the focus of this tour, let's step further back in time to the First Peoples and fur traders.

This lot was once the location of Christie's Meat Market. It was built in 1903, the same year that the 75 eligible voters that lived here (men over the age of 21) elected to officially incorporate Fort Frances as a town.¹ Louis Christie was a popular butcher and prominent entrepreneur in Fort Frances in the 1890s—people called him the Meat King of the Rainy River.
He built his new meat market here after his previous market had burned down. The spot was significant for another reason: it had previously been the site of the Knox Church, the oldest church in the parish, dating back to 1884. Unfortunately, in 1903 it also burned down (it happened a lot in those days). So Christie bought the lot in the expectation that this was going to be the heart of the new town's business district.

Here at the corner of Church and Central Street is where the Emperor Hotel once stood. At the time Central Street, was known as Front Street, and in those early days it was the heart of Fort Frances.
The hotel was built in 1907, one of several grand hotels around this area at a time when royal names were popular—the others were the Palace (located where the pulp mill parking is now), Prince Albert (which was located right across from Christie's Meat Market) and the Monarch (which we will see later in this tour).
It was the largest hotel in town and unsurprisingly advertised itself as the "best hotel" too. As Julie Byzewski writes, the hotel's owner Jim Harty "boasted of finest hot and cold collations (of food) that could be procured, unadulterated liquors, and the finest cigars that money could buy (at ten cents each)." It was "beautifully situated overlooking the big Mill, with everything modern and up to date, large airy rooms, comfortably heated, the home of the comercial traveller, with a bright cheery dining room in connection.

Here we see a crowd gathered in fine clothes on the steps and balconies of the first Fort Frances Hotel. It was another of the major landmarks that once lined Front Street. As one resident remarked on those early days, "it was a typical lumberjack town, there were no street lights, only a kerosene lantern at the corner of Scott Street and Portage Avenue and it was lit only part of the time."¹
This Fort Frances Hotel (the first one) burned down in 1905. The owner was not discouraged however, and built a second Fort Frances Hotel on Mowat Avenue. It was open by the end of the year.

This photo looks back across the street and shows the Alberton Hotel during Front Street’s heyday. To the right, you can just make out the third storey of the Fort Frances Hotel. The Alberton also housed the City Bakery, S. Haryett General Merchants, and Breckon’s soft drink emporium—the first of its kind in town
Of course you will have noticed that none of the buildings we've seen on Front Street so far have survived to the present. A big reason for that is that most of the town's business district burned down on June 16, 1905.

The Monarch Hotel once stood on this corner of Scott and Front Street (Central Avenue today). It wasn't actually built here, but in the town of Mine Centre over 60 kilometres away. In 1906 the Monarch's owner decided to move to Fort Frances and rather than build a new hotel he just took apart the building and floated it over the Rainy Lake to Fort Frances, where he reassembled it on this spot. Here the Monarch stood for over 80 years, changing its name in 1947 to the Irwin Hotel and getting a coat of pink paint.

The fire of 1905 reduced Front Street's business district to cinders, but the people of the town were undeterred. Reconstruction began immediately, and as we can see from this photo, much of it was occurring on Scott Street where the land was cheaper. The first more permanent brick buildings are going up, and the water tower in the distance indicates the establishment of a modern waterworks.

Looking down Scott Street in the 1920s, we see the town has grown and cars have become commonplace. At the far left is the newly-built Dominion Bank, which moved into that distinctive building in 1922. That building was torn down in 1984 to make way for the present TD bank building.
On New Year's Eve 1930, the Dominion Bank was the scene of a brazen mid-day robbery by a 16-year-old boy.

Here we see the famous Rainy Lake Hotel, once Scott Street's crown jewel.
The Rainy Lake Hotel came from the Fort Frances Hotel Company's desire to build a modern tourist hotel that would anchor the growing community. In 1928 they raised $150,000 ($2.3 million today) and hired the prominent architect Arthur Hanford to design a landmark that reflected the optimism of the Roaring 20s.
Hanford's design blended Spanish-inspired elegance with cutting-edge amenities that would be a symbol of prosperity in this frontier town.
The hotel's grand opening on June 15, 1929 was presided over by the Canadian Minister of Labour, and included a lavish banquet and dance in the gorgeous ballroom. The Fort Frances Times called the new hotel “a testament to the town’s progress.” Eager crowds marveled at the cream, tan, and salmon brick façade, which was accented by white stone trim and a red-tiled roof. The exterior also had a wrought-iron balcony, ornamental stonework, and a tower at the top. The iron balcony was preserved and can today be seen in Rainy Lake Square.

The Fort Frances Museum is housed in one of the oldest buildings in town, which dates back to 1898. It was first built as Scott Street School and served in that role until 1914, when a bigger school was completed to educate the growing number of children in Fort Frances.
During the First World War it was given over to the military and an encampment was set up behind the building by the 141st Bull Moose Battalion and 52nd Battalion between Scott and Church Streets.

In this photo we are looking back down Scott Street in the 1920s. The building on the corner at the right, the Baeker Block, was completed in 1925 to house G.G. Baeker's drug store. Druggists like Baeker and doctors like Dr. Hugh W. Johnston were important and well known members of the community.
Johnston in particular has a fascinating story. Starting as a pharmacist, he completed further medical training at the University of Toronto and became a doctor. Fort Frances desperately needed a doctor and in 1909 Johnston answered the call. In 1916 he paused his practice to serve as a medical officer in the Canadian Expeditionary Force. He survived the war and in 1919 returned to his role in Fort Frances.

Here we see the courthouse during its construction in 1913. Fort Frances had then been chosen as the seat of a judicial district, and this courthouse would try cases from across the region. It was an indicator of the town's growing prominence.
One of the most sensational trials in Canadian history was held in this courthouse: the grisly case that became known as the Hot Stove Murder. It was a trial that shocked the conscience of the nation and left its mark on Fort Frances.

This is the LaVerendrye Hospital, which opened in 1941 as a $120,000 symbol of modernity and faith on the banks of the Rainy River. Named for the 18th-century French explorer Pierre de LaVerendrye, whose expeditions had charted these waters, the hospital was proof that this remote part of Ontario could now care for its own.

Here we see the steamer Kenora on the Rainy River in 1899. The American Stars and Stripes on the prow and Canadian Red Ensign on the stern illustrate the close ties between the two nations that shared the Rainy River.

Here at Sorting Gap Marina we see the preserved logging tug Hallett, a ship with a long and storied history in Fort Frances.
The Hallett had been a workhorse for the Ontario & Minnesota Pulp and Paper Company for almost 40 years, pulling huge floating log booms to Fort Frances's sawmills. In 1974 the aging tugboats were finally replaced by trucks. As the Rainy River Chronicle noted, “The summer before last, the mighty Hallett towed 50,000 cords of pulp logs… and then… her era ended.” Dubbed the “queen of the Fort Frances logging fleet,” she once led a motley crew of smaller tugs, barges, and floating cookhouses that kept the mills fed.
As you might have guessed, this wasn't the end of the Hallett's story. In 1987 she was restored as a tourist attraction and remains an ongoing reminder of the town's industrial past.

This is a view taken from the water looking back towards the massive Shevlin-Clarke Mill—right where you are now standing. Opened in 1911, the mill operated for 30 years, employed thousands, and became the largest pine mill in Canada.
The industrial waterfront where log booms were floated as they awaited planing—the sorting gap—has today been transformed into a marina for pleasureboats, and represents the changing face of Fort Frances.

Our last stop on this walking tour shows the more recent erection of another attraction at Sorting Gap Marina: the Lookout Tower. It is a rather unlikely symbol of progress: a repurposed Cold War-era bomber lookout tower.