RETURN OF THE FOREST

It's been about forty years since the last house left Cameron Falls.

GHOST HOMES

 For a few years the town site was used as a Moto-Cross race track. I was at one of the races in the late seventies when a lady beside me said, "He just rode through my living room!" Of course there were no houses there but her house had been at that specific location.

Until a few years ago local people used to "camp" at "Skunk Hollow" a local name for some area of the old town-site. Then Ontario Hydro closed ALL their properties in Ontario, so that site is no longer available to campers.

Now the forest is closing in.

The gated road to the "townsite".

As they change out the "old" turbines they put them on display.
One is at the Nipigon Marina, and this is at the gate.

August 24, 2012

Highway 585 continues to Pine Portage.

The bridge to the generating station at Cameron Falls.

Can't see much of the plant anymore.

You can just see a bit of the open power line on the far hill.

Water under the bridge.

If you have read the article on Cameron Falls
 it talks about the green water and white foam of the Nipigon River.
Here it is.

Fast water, continued,  Nipigon River August 24, 2012

From an Interview with Marion Grove, 2006, Nipigon Historical Museum Archive:

"We moved up from Thessalon, Ontario. My first impression of Cameron Falls was we started driving down this back road and the trees were a lot closer to the edge of the road than they are now and I said to Cliff, "Where are you taking me?"

"And then we went over on a little bridge which was a Bailey Bridge and I don't like bridges and then the next one was a trestle bridge and it was over the river and it was really scary and the fence that was to protect you from going over the river was only about ten inches high. That bridge was so scary I lived in the Colony for a while before I was able to drive out that road because I couldn't DO the bridges.

Cliff used to have a canoe that he used to keep on top of our car and Dr. W. who used to live here in Nipigon, said to me one time, "Why do you have the boat on top of the car?"

And I said, "That's in case I fall over that bridge."



Some places the bush is close to the road. There is a bridge just up the road.



Where the power lines go so goes the cleared bush,
 like razor strips across the landscape
. I like to think of them as fire-breaks
 but any big fire just blows right through them.

Lots of traffic today , fishermen hauling their boats
to and from Lake Nipigon or any of the waterways in between.

Besides the brush slasher
 they are using big equipment to level the hydro right-of-ways.
Now we can see the deer before they hit the road.
Better than spraying.

Closer to Nipigon the seed tree white pines tower over the new growth.