Arctic Peat Moss Corporation ran a peat mining operation at the west end of Whitmore Road in the 1940’s. The moss was dug out from trenches and piled alongside it to drain the water. It was re-stacked or placed on wooden racks to dry, then taken to ashed for milling, grading and packing. The business employed up to 90 people in the summer and around 20 people year round, processing moss for export to the U.S. for flooring for poultry flocks.
Gilbert Gillies worked as the mill foreman there from 1942-45. In an article about the site in the Fort Frances Times (April 12, 1989) he ad his wife Ruby reminisced about their house, the bog being 12 feet deep, getting equipment stuck in the bog, and a fire in Januaru 1944 which broke out and burned a week’s worth of peat in one of the sheds.
The article ended on this quote from Gilber, “Anyone who drives down there would never imagine that al this was once a real hub of activity.”