Marathon

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Marathon
The original name of the community was Peninsula. In the late 1800's the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway used the harbour as a supply camp. The name Marathon never arrived until 1944. Marathon Corporation of Wisconsin decided to build a kraft pulp mill here using the water from Lake Superior, and the forest that surrounded. And the CPR to ship out raw materials.

The town is located 300 km east of Thunder Bay, ON and about 400 km west of Sault Ste Marie, ON on the Trans Canada Highway & Canadian Pacific Railway http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=170279 on the shores of Lake Superior. In the 1980's a large deposit of minerals were found 40km east of Marathon at Hemlo, ON. Three mines sprang up having a huge impact on the community. Poor planing was done and the layout of the town is really confusing to this day.

There are several stores for shoppers ; Canadian Tire, Extra Foods, Watsons Home Hardware, Pro Hardware, Saan Stores Ltd, Mikes Mart (Macs), Robins Donuts, Mr Sub to name a few of the chains.

The town offers lots of recreation: there is a indoor pool, arena, curling club, downhill skihill, golf course, theatre, etc. Marathon has several awsome places to hike, but the town lacks on pointing out these excellent trails. Lots of residents will pass on where these trails are.

Today the mine site of Hemlo is slowing down rapidly. One of the mines has since closed (Newmont), and another (David Bell) is slated for closure. Hemlo is to be kept open for the next few years as a open pit mine. New exploration of Marathon PGM has been excellent and there is a potential for a new mine opening. Urianium Deposits have also been found close to Marathon. The kraft mill still operates at 180,000 MT. annually. The mill now operated by Tembec & Krugar (Marathon Pulp Inc) http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=106999