Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway

In 1901, an Ontario order-in-council established the Temagami Forest Reserve of 2,200 square miles to eliminate pressures of settlement. With its rich stands of red and white pine, the Forest was dedicated to "proper" forest management and the latest conservation practices and secondarily to recreation. In 1903 a further 1,500 square miles were added to the Temagami Forest and, within two years, steamboats were cruising the deep wilderness of the lake. That same year, the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway passed by the Northeast Arm of Lake Temagami on its way to Cobalt to fulfill Toronto's dream and vision of acquiring wealth from a boom in northern mining. Immediately a little village sprang up beside the train station, soon followed by a handful of hotels, youth camps and cottages which dotted the shoreline of Lake Temagami's islands. This was the great prewar boom, when Grey Owl, still known as the Englishman, Archie Belaney, first obtained a job at Temagami Lodge and learned to speak Ojibwa.