The Canadian Pacific Railway station at Port McNicoll - Date/Photographer unknown.

15 February 2012

Georgian Bay's Lost Port Gets a New Face

Port McNicoll Ontario - There were plenty of picture-perfect locations beckoning to Marie and Cam Bonner when they considered where to build their dream home on the water, but they chose one where they're also helping to resurrect a unique and historical maritime centre.
 
The huge deep-water harbour on which Port McNicoll sits at the southern tip of Georgian Bay, a few minutes' drive from the town of Midland, is a place that some once said was destined to become the "Chicago of the North". Tonnes of rail and ship freight passed through the port annually, thousands of new Canadians, and then wealthy cruise passengers, trod its boardwalk.
 

Plans for the S.S. Keewatin come together as dredging equipment ready the ship for her June tow to a new resort community at Port McNicoll on Canada's Georgian Bay - 18 Jan 2012 Eric Conroy.
 
 
The trains stopped running and the ships stopped sailing in the mid-1960s and Port McNicoll settled back as a sleepy little country village, waiting for rediscovery. The last remaining steamship, the 106-metre Keewatin, sailed away to become a museum in Douglas, Michigan, USA.
 
Now the "lost port" has been rediscovered. The Bonners represent the new face of Port McNicoll, the start of Skyline International Development Inc.'s efforts to reinvent it as a luxury waterfront resort community.
 
The Bonners love the fact that not only are the Georgian Bay sunrises stunning, but Skyline president and founder Gil Blutrich is intent on creating a heritage park at dockside that will interpret for visitors this little-known facet of Canada's maritime history.
 
A few hours before he spoke to The Globe and Mail, Cam Bonner had attended the sod-turning ceremony for a yacht club that will open next year and be a key component in Skyline's 10-year plan. There he met Eric Conroy, who as a teenager in the 1960s spent two summers working aboard the Canadian Pacific steamer, Keewatin.
 
A few years ago, Mr. Conroy began working with Mr. Blutrich to return the last remaining CP steamship from Michigan and install it in its former home port. If all goes well, that will finally happen in June.
 
Mr. Blutrich also intends to build a model of the old railway station and bring in an old CP locomotive and some rail cars. He'll rebuild the English gardens that once grew there and, through a not-for-profit organization headed by Mr. Conroy, recreate the full Port McNicoll experience, from rail to sail. He hopes to have everything in place by 2013.
 
The Keewatin can no longer be sailed as a passenger ship because while its hull is "as good as new," says Mr. Conroy, its wooden interior construction doesn't meet modern fire standards.
 
It will be permanently docked at Port McNicoll and set up just as it was for its final voyage. Visitors will poke around its luxurious staterooms, admire its rich oak and mahogany panelling and brass fittings, and eat in the dining room where passengers once enjoyed white-glove service while sailing between Port McNicoll and Port Arthur on Lake Superior.
 
Mr. Blutrich hopes to even use the same china and silverware that remained with the ship all these years.
 
Adding to the full maritime community experience for residents and visitors will be a walking trail, along which recovered nautical artifacts will be placed, including an anchor, a lifeboat, a propeller, and a ship's wheel, with plaques to interpret the story of its past.
 
Eventually, there are to be about 1,400 residential units at Skyline's Port McNicoll village, including detached bungalows, town homes, and holiday units, a town centre that incorporates the yacht club and marina, a hotel, commercial, civic, cultural, and recreation facilities, specialty shops, cafes, restaurants, and entertainment outlets.
 
In total, the Skyline project will consist of 700 acres purchased from CP. About half will be retained as wetland.
 
"My vision is to create a vibrant small port town that will be modern, but will respect the past," explains Mr. Blutrich.
 
Gary May.