An Ontario Ghost Town
Lost Channel
Lost Channel’s unusual name came about when “Black Jack” Kennedy accidentally boomed timber in a little bay which he named Lost Channel. A small dock, a steamboat named Douglas, and warehouse, owned by Captain Edgar Walter, serviced the area for all travellers, jobbers, and log drivers.
Beginings
Things began to pick up in 1914, when the Lauder, Spears and Howland Company built a small sawmill near the water site. Transportation through the bush trail to the nearest railway siding was difficult and hazardous, to say the least. There was only one way to move the lumber. They hauled it along a rough tote road to the siding at Mowat, some 20 kilometres south. In order to remain competitive, the company decided to build a small rail line. They planned to connect it to the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) mainline at the Pakesley Siding, located 16 kilometres west. They drew up plans for the Key Valley Railway and began the construction in 1914,
Troubles
Unfortunately the Howland Company ran out of money before they were able to complete the rail line. Financial problems forced them to sell the mill and all the timber limits. The new owner was the Schroeder Mills and Timber Company, an American firm based in Wisconsin. The head of Canadian operations was James Ludgate. Ludgate went on to establish his own mill in a nearby community that went on to bear his name.
A Town Emerges
Schroeder Mills continued the expansion efforts and went on to complete the Key Valley Railway. They built an entirely new worker’s village that included new bunkhouses, a dozen cabins for workers with families, a school, a small hospital, cookery and a general store. They added another 35 homes later. However time was running out. Serious depletion of the timber limits by 1927 determined the mill was no longer economical to operate. Schroeder sold out to James Playfair who changed the company name to the Pakesley Lumber Company. Playfair switched operations to concentrate mainly on hemlock, spruce and jack pine.