Tuesday, August, 25, 2015
It rained most of the night and this morning it’s 50 degrees, with fog and heavy clouds. We decided an indoor activity would be best, so we stopped at the Marathon History Museum to learn a little town history. Fur trappers were in the area as early as the mid-1600s, but the town of Marathon didn’t really take off until the 1800s.
The story is boom or bust, first a railroad boom 1880s, fishing boom 1930s (until the sea lamprey killed it), logging / paper pulp boom 1940s, and gold boom 1980s. Gold is still mined here. Unfortunately, there were busts between these booms. One year during the railroad construction the population soared to over 11,000. Within a year after the railroad was completed, population dropped to 23 (current population 3333). The paper mill shut down about 7 years ago and half the town became unemployed. So this is a town desperate for a new boom.
The town is named after the Marathon Paper Pulp Co., headquartered in Wisconsin. This area was chosen for its abundance of clean water and plentiful timber, along with access to a railroad and a deep water shipping port. Surprisingly, they have a state of the art hospital facility here thanks to the paper mill.
Their public beach is Pebble Beach.
Hmm… it should be called Rock Beach, those are not pebbles. Most are softball size or larger.
We took a short drive to Pic River and the Pawaskwa National Park. Our objective was to learn about the fur trading activity here during the 1600s to 1800s. Their visitor center was useless. Pic River was very active in fur trading with Hudson Bay and North West companies operating here. There was also a fort to protect the companies, we think from Indian attacks, although the Ojibwa were not aggressive. Today Pic River is an Indian reservation occupied by Ojibwa.
We took a couple hikes around the park. Pictures follow.
Hattie’s Cove
Hopefully, the weather will improve for our exploration to the west tomorrow.
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