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Once a bustling mining town, Worthington was lost
when its mine collapsed, taking homes and buildings with
it. Now the Crean Hill headframe looms over a pond that
has filled in where the town once stood.
Photo: The
Sudbury
Star |
Gone but not forgotten
Sudbury's ghost towns
By Lara Bradley/The Sudbury Star
Life -
Monday, August 02, 2004 @ 11:00
“Ghost Towns seldom
live up to their image. Most North Americans envisage ghost
towns as being the main street of weather, false-fronted
building with saloon doors swinging in the breeze and
tumbleweed blowing across the dusty streets. Such places are
usually the creation of movie makers and seldom appear at
ghost-town sites.”
“They may be derelict and boarded
building mixed in with occupied dwelling, or they may be
company or institutional towns, modern in appearance yet
remote, abandoned and silent.”
— Ron Brown, Author of
Ghost Town of Ontario: A Field Guide.
The term
“ghost towns” is not used to describe a town haunted by
ghosts.
“Ghost towns deal with towns which are ghosts
of their former selves, no longer in existence or simply
deserted,” says Mike L. of Sudbury. “... It’s not
tumbleweed blowing before an empty saloon.”
Some of
these ghost towns, like Worthington, may still have people
living there. But the town’s industry, its lifeblood, is gone.
In the case of ghost towns in the Sudbury area, some relied on
mining while others were railway towns or logging communities.
L. is the creator of one of the most
comprehensive websites of ghost towns in the province —
ontarioghosttowns.com. It has detailed information on 98 ghost
towns and contains more than 900 pictures. So far it has
logged 69,130 visitors.
Many have e-mailed L.
thanks, explaining that his site has helped them track down
ancestors. One even found his grandfather’s tombstone on the
site.
L. started his unique hobby of visiting and
collecting information about ghost towns in 1999, after
walking through what’s left of Burwash — wide open fields and
not much else. Once a prison and townsite south of Sudbury,
it’s now a military training area.
It was a big
disappointment, but it inspired L. to hunt down others.
His favourite ghost town in the Sudbury vicinity is
Milnet, an old railway and logging town outside Capreol. All
that’s left is an old mill by a lake. L. will sometimes
take his dog and just walk around, enjoying the quiet of the
place.
“There are three crosses of children who died
of diphtheria. A little piece of history all by itself.”
Finding the ghost towns is sometimes the biggest part
of the puzzle. L. has driven four or five hours to a
rumoured town, only to wander around in the bush. It can be a
frustrating exercise.
“Streets and road names change.
Even where you arrive there, you don’t know you’re there. ”
When L. finally does find remnants
of a ghost town, he tries to “mentally picture what it was
life back then.”
He’ll take pictures and then ask
anyone living nearby if they know the history of the place.
Then L. will record the information on his
website, indexing it so that Internet searches will lead
seekers to the site.
“It sounds kind of cheesy, but I
just want to make people aware that these places existed in
Ontario. People were alive there,” L. said.
“When
we die, our children may remember us, and our grandchildren
may remember us, but from then on, we become lost in time,” he
continued. “This is partially why I do this. To bring back
memories to those who have gone on before us.”
Amateur
ghost-town hunters from the Sudbury area have plenty of
forgotten villages to seek out and explore. Some, like the old
French River village, are remote and barren, with little
visible to indicate human habitation. Others are just off the
highway, with buildings still standing.
Thanks to the
efforts of L. and author Ron Brown, the exact locations
and histories of many of these communities are easily
accessible.
Brown has written two Ghost Towns of
Ontario field guides, as well as many other books on Ontario
history. These are currently available in bookstores.
Here is a closer look at a few of the ghost towns
within a short drive of Sudbury. The comments are L.’s,
from www.ontarioghosttowns.com.
Worthington
(Latitude: 46 23 00,
Longitude: 81 27 00)
Distance: 36.2 km. from Sudbury
Driving time:
24 minutes.
Used: 1893-
Status: Worthington
has no current mines in operation except Crean. Some sites
remain abandoned and explorable if you dare to venture behind
locked gates and up mountains. Other than abandoned mines, not
much else remains to be seen.
Location: Head to
Whitefish, 15 km west of Sudbury. Turn north onto Regional
Road 3, go for 4.5 km and turn north again onto Regional Road
4 until you come to Worthington.
Info: “Worthington is
a small town which began mining in 1893. The town had a post
office and village homes. Today the store bears the same name
as the original (The Mining Store). The Worthington mine
collapsed on October 4, 1927 taking homes and buildings with
it. Luckily the site had been evacuated the night before.
Today all that remains is a pond where the crater used to be.”
Creighton
(Latitude: 46 28 00,
Longitude: 81 11 00)
Distance: 14.2 km. from
Sudbury
Driving time: nine minutes.
Used:
1918-1986 (approx.)
Status: A few sidewalks, rubbish,
and possible mine buildings and mine headframe.
Location: There is no longer any sign to indicate
where Creighton was. Take Regional Road 55 from Sudbury and
drive to Lively. Turn north into Lively (Reg. Road No. 24) and
go through the town. You will see the large black/yellow sign
which says CREIGHTON MINE as you go around a bend, leaving
Lively. Turn into the mine road and park. The remains of the
old townsite will be off to the right, down the blocked-off
dirt road. If you travel a few metres by foot you will soon
find old sidewalks and the bare earth where some of the homes
once stood.
Info: Creighton Mine’s population peaked
at 2,200-2,300 residents, and boasted a fully functioning
municipal infrastructure while remaining wholly owned by Inco
Ltd. In 1986, Inco determined the cost of required upgrades to
the townsite exceeded its worth, so it made the decision to
shut it down and demolish the home. Shocked residents were
gone by 1988, and their homes disappeared under bulldozers
soon after. The mine, which has remained in production since
1899, now houses the high-tech Sudbury Neutrino Observatory.
Happy Valley
(Latitude: 46 35 00,
(Longitude: 80 48 00)
Distance: 18.9 km. from
Sudbury
Driving time: 12 minutes.
Used: Until
the 1970s (approx.)
Status: Happy Valley sits behind a
large steel fence with a warning sign to frighten off your
average explorer. It is off limits to the public.
Location: From Sudbury, take Falconbridge Road into
Garson and continue on through Garson into Falconbridge on the
road named after it. Take McDonnell Street to the fence and
there it stands.
Info: “Happy Valley consisted of
residents who wanted to be separate and independent from the
residents of Falconbridge. The people of Happy Valley built
simple homes on narrow streets, compared to the larger homes
on paved streets in Falconbridge. The pollution from the
nearby smelter would fall into the valley and cloud the town
in a fog of poison. Eventually the mining company and the
government bought the town and relocated the residents to
higher ground, free from pollution. The last resident,
“Gizzy,” left the town in the late ’80s.”
Milnet
(Latitude: 46 50 00,
Longitude: 80 57 00)
Distance: 39.1 km. from
Sudbury
Driving time: 26 minutes
Used:
1900s-1940s
Status: The old sawmill still stands as do
some of the original homes and other ruins.
Location:
Take Regional Road 84 through Capreol. Follow it for 12 km
until you come to the Bailey bridge. Cross the bridge and
continue on for two km until you get to a sharp left bend.
There are many bends but only one with a right fork in the
road. The right fork is marked by a stop sign which faces the
other direction. Turn right and cross the tracks to get to
Milnet (you can see the homes from the tracks).
Info:
“Milnet (originally named Sellwood Junction) began as a stop
along the Canadian Northern Railway. In 1917, after the
railway was laid down, the Marshay Lumber Company built a mill
and began a 22-year process of cutting trees from the area.
The saw mill mysteriously burned down in 1933, forcing workers
to go on relief or seek work elsewhere. In 1934, the planar
mill also burned down. By 1940, most of the residents had
left.”
Burwash
(Latitude: 46 14 00,
Longitude: 80 51 00)
Distance: 30.1 km. from
Sudbury
Driving time: 20 minutes.
Used:
1914-1974
Status: Nothing left to see but wide open
fields, telephone poles and fences.
Location: Off
Highway 69 right after the “Watch for Military Vehicles
warning signs,” about 20 minutes from Sudbury. The highway
turns into a turning lane. Look for this site coming up when
you pass the truck inspection paved area. This site is
restricted and not accessible.
Info: This site once
housed up to 670 prisoners and contained a 20 bed hospital,
church, a school and a staff town site. Today it is supposedly
a restricted area, and is barely used. It’s now a training
ground for the Department of National Defense.
Info:
“Not much to see. If you turn right just before the lake, onto
the rust-coloured pathway it will take you to where the troops
camp out otherwise if you continue on down the road you come
to a fork in the road. Go right to end up at a large dirt
pile, where the structures once stood. If you continue
straight from the fork in the road you eventually end up at
the railway tracks and a small railway building. Interestingly
enough, across from the tracks is an old gate and a path which
leads off into the distance.”
Other ghost towns near
Sudbury include Sellwood, French River and Victoria Mines. As
well, the abandoned CFB Falconbridge radar base near the
Sudbury Airport can be considered a ghost town, although it
can’t be visited.
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