P2595

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Details

ID Number

P2595

Item Type

slide

Item Name

Image

Title

Canadian Steel Corporation Steam Shovel / Pelle à vapeur de la société canadienne d'acier Canadian Steel

Title (Fre)

Pelle à vapeur de la société canadienne d'acier Canadian Steel

Date

1917/11/06

Measurements

2x2

Description

2x2bw+ slide; Black and white photograph of grading for the Main street trolley line in the Canadian Steel Corporation's proposed town of Ojibway; a street runs diagonally from the bottom right corner of the photograph; a four-wheeled cart is stopped on the side of the road about halfway up the photo; parallel to the street, on the left, is a set of railroad tracks which are partially obscured by grass; a large steam shovel sits between the tracks and the land being graded for the trolley line; the shovel is full of dirt and is emptying into a cart, harnessed to two horses; a second cart and horse team stands behind the first; the steam shovel has "Type B Shovel Built by Ball Engine Co. Erie PA" painted on its side; each of the carts has four wheels and a man sitting at the front; additional men are standing in and around the steam shovel; hand printed in the bottom left corner is: "Erie Steam Shovel Grading for Main St. Car Line. 11-6-17".

History

The Canadian Steel Corporation, a subsidiary of the United States Steel Company, purchased an 1800 acre site around 1917 and an elaborate town was planned to house workers at the plant. Roads were built and fire hydrants installed before the town itself was started and a four-lane divided highway separated the plant site from the town and connected it to Windsor, four kilometres away. The recession of the 1920s led the company to reassess the Canadian plant. Some mills were erected but the residential areas were never started. The depression of the 1930s finally killed the project, although the buildings which had been erected were used for war work in the 1940s. The town, which had been incorporated in 1913, remained a municipality although its population never exceded 100. It was annexed by Windsor in 1966, by which time natural regeneration had created a forest on the town site. Part of the site is now Windsor's nature park and the land planned for the Carnegie steel plant was developed for industry and is now known as the Morton Industrial Park. The residential area is now used by a harness racing complex, a new subdivision and the nature park.

Place made

Canada - Ontario - Ojibway

Collection Name

Museum Windsor

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P7237