Once a very important shipping port in the Great Lakes, and the westernmost point of the Ottawa, Arnprior and Parry Sound Railway, Depot Harbour is now little more than some concrete ruins hidden among the trees.
In 1895, J.R. Booth would use the law to take this land from the First Nations to open his port. At its peak, there may have been as many as 3000 inhabitants.
With the reconstruction of the Welland Canal, the importance of this port began to dwindle by 1933. Aside from cordite being produced by CIL in Nobel, little else was shipping through the town that was now beginning to fall into disrepair.
After a fire in the cordite storage silos in 1945, almost all of the port facilities were destroyed by fire. By the 1950's, Depot Harbour had become a ghost town.
In 1959, however, National Steel would begin using the wharf to load ore from the Sellwood mines north of Capreol. This would end in 1979 when the mine was finally closed.
By 1987, the land was returned to First Nations hands.
