Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-12-16
CANADIAN WHEAT LAND
Great Clay Belt Has Recently
Been Discovered
IN NORTH ONT AFRO
VAST RESOURCES OF HITHERTO
LITTLE-KNoWN SECTION.
Deposits of Nickel, Copper and Iron in
Region Formerly Valued Only
for Its Timber
Copyright. 1905, by Frank G. Carpenter.)
Special Correspondence Of The Star.

Special Correspondence of The Star.
SUDBURY, New Ontario.
I have been travelling for the past week
through the New Ontario. This Is the wild
northwest of the Ontario we know on the
opposite side of Lakes Ontario, Erie and
Huron. The country near those lakes is
about as thicllly settled as Ohio. 1t has a
population of $500 600. 1t has some of the
best farms of North America, and enough
of them to be worth $500 600 900 and to
produce grain, vegetables and fruits to the
amount of 5000. 600 coo Year Old Ontario
has good cities every few miles, with street
cars, electric lights, and all the surround
ings of our best settled districts It is cut
up by railways and the country roads are
such that one can go in an automobile
through any part Of it. Great factories are
springing up In some of the towns, and
the whole region is one of industry and
thrift.
The new Ontario is the vast frontier
which belongs to Ontario province. 1t lies
above and beyond the latter II is the
great northland between the Georgian bny
and Hudsons bay and between Lake Su-
perior and the Albany river extending on
into the Rainy river country farther west
clear to Manitoba.
This vast region is more than twice the
size of the state of New York and it con-
tains one hundred million acres The
Thunder bay and Rainy river district
in the west, which are now being
opened to settlement are alone quite
as long as from philadelphia to Bos-
ton, and as wide as from Washington to
New York. The Algoma district farther
eastward is almost as wide, and 1t extends
from Lake Superior to the Albany river
and Hudson bay. while the Nipissing dis
trict, where l am now writing, runs from
Lake Nipissing, not far from the Georgian
bay north to James bay. 1t borders the
province of Quebec on the east lust as the
he -tar
New Ontario borders Manitoba.
The Great Clay Belt.
Until within a few years this vast terri
tory was looked upon as valuable only for
It's timber. 1t was thought to be all rock
and swamp covered with ice the greater
part of the year. It's only inhabitants were
the Indian hunters, Hudson bay fur traders
and lum!5ermen, who have been cuttine
down the trees along the streams and float
Ing them down to the great lakes Then the
Canadian Pacific railroad was put through
the great nickel mines about here were dis
covered, other mineral regions were opened
up. and the Canadian and provincial gov
ernments began to look upon the country
as an available asset.
Within the past few years towns have
sprung up all along the lines of the rail,
ways, settlements have been started here
and there upon the Ottawa river. which
goes UP into Nipissing, and there are min
ing towns and lumber mills with farms
about them on the streams above the Ceor-
gian bay and along the shores of Lake
Superior
About five years ago exploration parties
were sent out by the Ontario government
to Investigate the country from Quebec to
Manitoba. They have reported that there
is a wide strip of fertile soil running from
one end of this wilderness to the other
about a hundred miles north of the Can,
adam Pacific railroad. This region is of n
different formation than that farther south
The land is clay loan which will raise
wheat. and 1t is now known as the great
clay belt. The belt is several hundred miles
wide. and altogether is estimated to con-
tain in the nelghborhood of sixteen million
acres or about as much as our state of West
Virginia. 1t is covered with timber, which
will have to be cut off; but this may be
done by the lumbermen when the country
is opened. Otherwise the settlers will have
to undergo the same hardships and Difficult
ties which were common to the clearing OF
our eastern states.
Railroads Through New Ontario.
Both the Ontario and the Dominion gov
ernments are anxious to make this country
accessible. The government of Canada has
undertaken to build its transcontinentai
railroad through It, and by this time next
year an army of track builders will be grad
ing the route and laying the rails. The
eastern end of the Grand Trunk Pacific,
which is to be built entirely by the govern
ment, will begin at Winnipeg and traverse
the clay belt passing through Nipissing at
about the latitude of Lake Abitibi. and go
ing thence on to the Atlantic. giving a short
haul for the wheat to the seaboard and
England.
building railroad northward from Lake
Nip1ssfr1R. few miles east of Sudbury,