P6891

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Details

ID Number

P6891

Item Name

Image

Title

Union Lumber Dock / Quai d'embarquement de la compagnie Union Lumber

Title (Fre)

Quai d'embarquement de la compagnie Union Lumber

Date

ca 1941

Description

Black and white photograph of the old Union lumber dock, near Ruthven; in the foreground of the photograph there is a beach scattered with pebbles; trees are hanging over the beach and a man is standing at the right of the photo, looking out over the water; the lake stretches out through the centre of the photograph; the old dock is visible in the centre of the visible water; part of the actual pier remains close to shore at the left and posts extend out into the lake to the right

History

Abandoned docks such as this along Lake Erie and the Detroit River loaded much cordwood onto steamboats for fuel until the extensive use of coal began in the middle of the 1880s. Here as elsewhere in the country, square oak for the British market figured largely in the export trade of the early part of the lumbering period. Diversified exports of the latter part of the lumbering period passing over the Union dock included oak staves and bolts for the Detroit market, white ash and hickory for Canadian handle manufacturing and walnut for Canadian furniture factories. The favourable location of the Union dock at the end of the Ruthven road made it an outlet of consequence for the Olinda-Ruthven section in those days of small ports and hinterlands before the arrival of the railway. Here was located a large warehouse for storing wheat, which was an export to Britain, and there were also shipments of corn. Of local interest was the export through Union of moulding sand from near Ruthven for use in foundry operations at Detroit, London and Toronto. The arrival of the railway in South Essex along with the rise of the larger centres of Leamington and Kingsville decreed that Union should remain in the small settlement class.

Place made

Canada - Ontario - Ruthven

Collection Name

Museum Windsor

Subjects

Beaches / Plages

Lake Erie / Lac Érié

Lakes & ponds / Lacs et étangs

Lumber / Bois de charpente

Lumber industry / Industrie forestière

Men / Hommes

Piers & wharves / Appontements et quais

Ruthven (Ont.)

Union Lumber Dock / Quai d'embarquement de la compagnie Union Lumber

Waterfronts / Quais