After its completion, the Canadian Pacific Railway wanted to take advantage of the beautiful lake and give it the recognition it deserved. It became clear by working together, Kenora and the C.P.R. could create a tourist destination.
Beginning in the 1870s the Geological Survey of Canada began working in this area, first to support the building of the railway and then mapping and searching for minerals. It was the geologists who contributed to this map that make it significant— these were Kenora’s first rock stars.
Braden Murray takes a look at the history of abandoned wedding traditions, and is reminded that the past is indeed a “foreign country.”
To the south and west of the still-visible slag pile of the former Sultana Mine is a small man-made island – The Burley Mine.
The Douglas Family Art Centre was created by constructing a new addition onto the building once known as the Kenora Land Registry Office.
In April of 1972, Kenora summer student, Gerry McMillan, was tasked with burning down the abandoned boathouses on the Kenora Harbourfront.
Seventy five years ago it was the summer of the flying saucer and the UFO. Aliens were among us! Or so it seemed.
This article tells the story of two historical boats on Lake of the Woods – one that ended with a bang, and one that started with a bang!
J.S. Woodsworth was a politician, labour leader, and founder of the CCF. It was during his time in Keewatin when he began to wrestle with the ideas that would inform his work for the rest of his life.
There is a local legend that Kenora changed its name from Rat Portage because a flour company didn’t want the word “rat” on their flour bag. I’m not convinced that’s the case.
The Argyle was a ferry boat that provided ferry service between Keewatin, Norman, Coney Island and Rat Portage/Kenora from 1900 to 1936.
After the Kenora Thistles hockey team won the Stanley Cup, there was celebration in Kenora and the team was presented with Loving Cups.
Learn the history of the building of the Kenora Community Centre, now called the Kenora Recreation Centre.
One of the major touchstone events that helped bring Kenora into a new era after all the death and destruction of the 1910s was the construction of the new Thistle Rink.
In 1883, local hotelier Louis Hilliard opened the Hilliard House on the northeast corner of Main and Second Streets in Rat Portage (now Kenora). The following is the story of Hilliard’s fine establishment as recounted in newspapers of the day at three significant times in the building’s history.
The Hudson’s Bay Company established a location in Rat Portage (now Kenora) in 1837 and maintained a presence for nearly two hundred years.
On October 10, 1920, a crowd of hundreds gathered at the Kenora docks to witness a plane attempting the first Trans-Canada flight.
One hundred years ago this month, in March 1919, there was a vote in Kenora that fundamentally changed the look and feel of life in town. In the third week of March, the taxpayers of Kenora voted overwhelmingly in favour of taking on a massive public debt to build roads and sidewalks in town.
Look back at some memories of one of Kenora’s most memorable schools, Central School, through this collection of stories.
This is a true story of life and death in Rat Portage taken from contemporary accounts of a tragic event at the beginning of 1883.
On a cold winter day in 1979, an excavation crew began working on a project close to what is now the Kenora airport. Unbeknownst to them, they were about to unearth an archaeological discovery unlike anything this region had ever seen.
The Drive-In Theatre — few places evoke such strong memories of summer evenings spent with family and friends. The Rabbit Lake Drive-In opened 65 years ago, at the height of Hollywood’s Golden Age.
A bachelors’ ball was a dance for single people to meet up and have a good time. In the spring and summer of 1909, 110 year ago this month, Kenora hosted not one but two bachelors’ balls.
