Thunder Bay sits on the northwest shore of Lake Superior — Canada's most important grain shipping port for a century, a fur trade headquarters before that and a pulp and paper industrial city whose fortunes rose and fell with the resource economy. Its abandoned places are on a scale that reflects the city's geographic ambition: grain elevators the height of fifteen-storey buildings visible from twenty miles across the lake, a fur trade fort and the Northern Ontario wilderness closing in on every side. Here are 5 of the best abandoned places in Thunder Bay, selected from our Abandoned Places Map Canada — 2,500+ GPS locations across Canada.
Why Thunder Bay Is a Hidden Gem for Urban Exploration
Thunder Bay's urbex landscape is dominated by the extraordinary scale of its grain elevator infrastructure — the largest concentration of concrete grain elevators in the world, built to transfer prairie wheat from rail to lakeships for the St. Lawrence route east. Alongside the elevators, the fur trade heritage of the North West Company, the pulp and paper industrial infrastructure and the First Nations history of the Lake Superior north shore create one of the richest and most geographically dramatic abandoned landscapes in Canada.
1. Thunder Bay Grain Elevators – Thunder Bay, Ontario — World's Largest Concentration of Concrete Grain Elevators, Lake Superior Waterfront, Several Abandoned Since the 1990s (Known Location)
The Thunder Bay waterfront holds the world's largest concentration of concrete grain elevators — massive cylindrical concrete structures built from the 1880s through the 1960s to transfer prairie wheat from CPR and CNR hopper cars to lake freighters bound for the St. Lawrence Seaway. At peak operation fourteen elevator complexes lined the Thunder Bay harbour; as the grain trade shifted and elevator technology changed, several complexes were progressively decommissioned and abandoned. The scale of the surviving abandoned elevators — each holding millions of bushels, each structure visible from across Lake Superior — is unlike anything else in Canadian industrial heritage. The most dramatically scaled abandoned industrial places in Thunder Bay.
🔗 Learn more: Wikipedia – Thunder Bay Grain Elevators
2. Old Fort William – Thunder Bay, Ontario — 1803 North West Company Fur Trade Headquarters, Reconstructed and Partially Preserved, Lake Superior Fur Trade Heritage (Known Location)
Old Fort William was the annual meeting place of the North West Company — the fur trade empire that controlled the Canadian interior from Montreal to the Pacific before merging with the Hudson's Bay Company in 1821. The original 1803 fort site on the Kaministiquia River has been reconstructed as a living history site, but the surrounding landscape and several original structural elements preserve the atmosphere of the fur trade era. The combination of the Lake Superior waterfront, the Kaministiquia River setting and the scale of the North West Company's ambition make Old Fort William one of the most historically extraordinary places accessible from Thunder Bay. Exact location available on our Abandoned Places Map Canada.
🔗 Also read: Top 5 Best Abandoned Places in Canada →
3. Abandoned Thunder Bay Pulp and Paper Mill – 1920s-1960s Northern Ontario Paper Complex, Digester Tower and Turbine House Still Standing on the Kaministiquia River (Exclusively on Our Map)
A 1920s-1960s pulp and paper mill on the Kaministiquia River near Thunder Bay — the original digester tower, the turbine house built over the river dam and the chemical processing buildings in various states of Northern Ontario boreal forest reclamation. Thunder Bay's pulp and paper industry ran parallel to its grain trade for decades; mill closures since the 1990s left significant abandoned industrial infrastructure along the river corridors feeding into Lake Superior. One of the most dramatically scaled and most photogenic abandoned industrial places in Thunder Bay. Exact location available on our Abandoned Places Map Canada.
4. Abandoned Lake Superior North Shore Fishing Camp – 1920s-1950s Commercial Fishing Station, Icehouse and Boat House Still Standing Above the Lake, Trans-Canada Highway Corridor (Exclusively on Our Map)
A 1920s-1950s commercial fishing camp on the Lake Superior north shore — the original icehouse where lake trout and whitefish were packed in lake ice for rail shipment, the boathouse with its original net-drying racks and the fish camp bunkhouse in advanced boreal decay above the Lake Superior shoreline. The Trans-Canada Highway corridor between Thunder Bay and Sault Ste. Marie passes dozens of these abandoned commercial fishing camps; the lake trout and whitefish fishery that sustained them collapsed in the 1960s-1970s when the sea lamprey invasion devastated Superior's native fish populations. Exact location available on our Abandoned Places Map Canada.
5. Abandoned Northern Ontario Railway Section House – 1900s-1920s CPR Track Maintenance Crew Quarters, Original Building and Hand Car Shed Still Standing, Lake Superior North Shore (Exclusively on Our Map)
A 1900s-1920s CPR section house on the Lake Superior north shore — the original wooden crew quarters where the track maintenance gang lived year-round in the boreal wilderness, the hand car shed and the railway infrastructure of a section point that kept the CPR main line open through winters that regularly reached -40°C. CPR section houses dotted the Lake Superior north shore route every few miles through the early 20th century; as mechanized maintenance replaced the section crews, the houses were progressively abandoned. One of the most evocative and most distinctly Northern Ontario abandoned places accessible from Thunder Bay. Exact location available on our Abandoned Places Map Canada.
Safety Tips
- Northern Ontario wildlife: black bears, moose and wolves are present throughout the Thunder Bay region — always make noise when approaching forested or brushy sites
- Lake Superior weather: Superior generates its own weather systems — conditions on the lake shore can change from calm to dangerous within minutes; never approach the shoreline in deteriorating conditions
- Never explore alone — always bring at least one other person
The urbex code applies everywhere: "Take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints."
❓ FAQ
What is the most famous abandoned place in Thunder Bay?
The Thunder Bay grain elevators on the Lake Superior waterfront — the world's largest concentration of concrete grain elevators, built from the 1880s through the 1960s to transfer prairie wheat from rail to lake freighters. Several complexes have been decommissioned and abandoned since the 1990s; visible from across Lake Superior.
What was the North West Company?
A Montreal-based fur trade empire established in 1779 that controlled the Canadian interior west of the Great Lakes through a network of trading posts stretching to the Pacific. Fort William on the Kaministiquia River was its annual rendezvous point where Montreal partners met the western brigades. The NWC merged with the Hudson's Bay Company in 1821 after a decade of violent competition.
Why did Lake Superior's commercial fishery collapse?
The sea lamprey — an eel-like parasitic fish — invaded Lake Superior through the Welland Canal in the 1930s-1940s and devastated the lake's lake trout population, which had no natural defences against the parasite. Lake trout populations collapsed by over 90% by the 1960s; the commercial fishery that had sustained north shore communities for generations was effectively destroyed within two decades.
🎯 Summary
Thunder Bay's abandoned places range from the world's largest concentration of concrete grain elevators on Lake Superior's waterfront, to a North West Company fur trade fort on the Kaministiquia River and CPR section houses where track crews wintered at -40°C. Each of these 5 abandoned places in Thunder Bay captures a different layer of Canada's most geographically dramatic northern city.
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