Heritage North Museum
History of the Thompson region
The Thompson region is rich in history. Indigenous Peoples inhabited the region for thousands of years before European contact ushered in the era of the fur trade. Later, mineral exploration in the area led to the development of Thompson—what was, at one time, the largest nickel deposit outside of Sudbury, the Western Hemisphere's only integrated nickel mine, and, later, the third-largest city in Manitoba. Thompson has since become an administrative, commercial, and cultural centre with a proud Indigenous identity. Called “The Hub of the North,” Thompson services many of the small communities in the vast region that are only accessible by air or by winter roads. The city remains one of the largest fully planned communities in Canada.

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    cabin Part 1 - First inhabitants
    Indigenous Peoples, the fur trade & early mineral exploration
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    APPROXIMATELY 32 FUR TRADE POSTS WERE ESTABLISHED IN NORTHERN MANITOBA

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    Northern Manitoba, in which the City of Thompson is found, is located on Treaty Five, the traditional Territory of Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation and the traditional homeland of the Metis people. For thousands of years, Indigenous Peoples lived off the land, and later played an important role in the development of the fur trade.

    The arrival of Europeans in the 1600s saw interaction with First Nations; rivalry between the Hudson’s Bay Company and the North West Company; the rise of the Métis nation; and the settlement of the Red River colony in Manitoba.

    Some 32 fur trade posts made Northern Manitoba fertile ground for the burgeoning fur trade. While the demand for furs declined with the passage of time, trapping was still prominent in the area into the mid-twentieth century.
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    Prospectors had been sniffing around the area since the turn of the 20th century, often erecting crude log cabins or tent camps.
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    Prior to INCO's presence, "Jack and Alice Moore recollect life at North Mystery Lake, a small trappers' settlement. Any supplies needed in this community were bought in Nelson House, winter travelling being by dog team and summer travelling by canoe or foot. Community life revolved around hunting and fishing in summer and trapping in winter, with trap lines running through the entire region, including the area where the Thompson townsite is now situated . . . Alice remembers that, as a child, she was picking wild cranberries where the Thompson Plaza now stands.

    “The North Mystery Lake settlement was obliterated in the late 1940's when a forest fire destroyed cabins, clothing, traps and other possessions. Most of the families moved to Nelson House where the majority of them still live.” (Text courtesy Thompson, A City and its People by Graham Buckingham.)

    Prospectors were active in the area since the turn of the 20th century, often erecting crude log cabins or tent camps in a rugged and often inhospitable land, searching for the elusive “mother lode” that INCO discovered only much later in 1956 after exhaustive exploration.

    Click on images below to enter photo gallery

    explore Part 2 - Exploration years
    INCO takes years of exhaustive exploration to locate a rich, elusive nickel deposit
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    During Thompson’s early exploration period. INCO base camps, such as this one at Mystery Lake, were also located at Bowden Lake (Wabowden), Grass River, and finally Moak Lake.

    Much has been written about exploration in the area that led to the establishment of Thompson.
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    Four books—an early publication written in 1960, two written in the 1980s, and the most recent authored in 2023—provide definitive examples of well-researched, authentic accounts of this northern community’s mining history, evolving from main camps in Wabowden, Grass River, Mystery Lake and Moak Lake to the present site of Thompson—once the Western Hemisphere's first integrated nickel mine, the world's second largest producer of nickel, and Manitoba's third largest city.

    Mineral exploration in Northern Manitoba had been ongoing since the late 40s, and International Nickel Company (INCO) was in the area since 1946. Noranda Mines was another large mining concern looking for mineral deposits to develop. Smaller entities like the JK Syndicate were also active in the area.

    The year was 1953. INCO had established a base camp on Wintering Lake close to the Bay Line community of Thicket Portage. Their assay lab was located there to analyze the drill core coming out of various sites of interest. One such site was located at Mystery Lake, a remote camp 35 miles distant from Thicket Portage and 190 miles from the nearest medical aid in The Pas. The camp was made up of five Arctic-type structures designed by INCO engineering staff and pre-framed by Beaver Lumber Company at The Pas. People and mail were moved by air, but supplies and equipment were freighted into the Mystery Lake camp over winter roads with two D4 tractor swings operated by Barney Baldwinson out of Thicket Portage.

    Another site of great interest was Moak Lake. In February, 1956, rich deposits were found at Cook's Lake near present-day Thompson. By mid-March, a camp location at Moak Lake was cleared, and six buildings are moved on skids by Barney Baldwinson’s Cats from Mystery Lake to Moak Lake, which was now the company's base camp. INCO seriously considered the development of a full mining operation there before deciding on the Thompson site.

    Besides Cat trains that transported goods and heavy equipment across ice roads, there were four air carriers in the area. Austin Airways flew a Husky and a Norseman most of the year and a Beaver during March and April. Lamb Airways flew a Norseman and a Cessna. Taylor and Central Northern Airways operated Cessna aircraft from Wabowden.

    Click on images below to enter photo gallery of the exploration days

    star Part 3 - The "mother lode" is discovered
    Part 3 - The "mother lode" is discovered and a new mining town is born
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    Following over ten years of mining exploration in the region, INCO discovers a major ore body on February 4, 1956, and a year later Thompson is founded.

    He stopped, picked [the core sample] up, looked at it, and his first words were, ‘Well, I’ll be damned! We’ve hit it!’
    Vice President of Inco, Ralph D. Parker
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    In February, 1956, after more than ten years of exploration, an INCO crew was drilling the anomaly at Cook’s Lake when rich deposits were found that would lead to the development of the Thomson mine.

    Along with senior geologist Sac Crandall, Hugh S. Fraser was a geophysical party leader on that crew. In his book A Journey North: The Great Thompson Nickel Discovery, he writes about the moment the core sample was revealed to Ralph D. Parker, then Vice President of INCO.

    “We showed Mr. Parker to the seat of honour behind the card table. We had a piece of core, perhaps 14 inches long, well studded with pentlandite, and everything was oriented so that this piece of core was sitting directly in front of Mr. Parker. He would get the maximum reflection from the eyes. We pulled a piece of newspaper in such a way that this 14 inch piece of core rolled out across the card table right at Mr. Parker. And he stopped, picked it up, looked at it, and his first words were, ‘Well, I’ll be damned! We’ve hit it!’" The it referred to here is the discovery of the mother lode.

    At first, INCO focussed its resources on development of a full mining operation at Moak Lake, "During 1953 and 1954, assays from the drilling at the Mystery/Moak Lake zone looked promising. INCO seriously considered the development of an open pit and underground mine, mill, refinery, railroad, power plant and town for 1,900 employees. A road system was built through the Belt between the two areas and plans were made to go underground at Moak. Over seven hundred tonnes of supplies and equipment were hauled into the area between January and April 1953." (Text courtesy Thompson, A City and its People by Graham Buckingham)

    It was decided that only the much richer Thompson orebody would be developed, however, and the Moak plans were scrubbed in favour of the Thompson site. On 5 December, 1956, the agreement upon which the Thompson project was based was signed by then Premier Duff Roblin and Inco President H. J. Wingate.

    At that time, the single-resource community of Thompson was the western world’s only integrated nickel-mining, smelting, concentrating, and refining complex. Thompson was second only to Sudbury, Ontario as the largest nickel producer in the world.

    Thompson was officially incorporated as a town in 1967 on Canada's Centennial Anniversary. Having reached a population of 20,000 in 1970, Thompson was then incorporated as a city in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II who, along with Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and The Princess Anne, visited Thompson in July of that year in celebration of the 100th Anniversary of Manitoba's entry into Confederation. Thompson would eventually become the third largest city in Manitoba—a status which it has since lost. The city remains one of the largest fully planned communities in Canada.

    Thompson has become an administrative, commercial and cultural centre with a proud Indigenous identity. Called “The Hub of the North,” Thompson services many of the small communities in the vast region that are only accessible by air or by winter roads.

    Click on images below to enter photo gallery of Thompson's early days

    Manitoba History: Manitoba’s Resource Towns: The Twentieth Century Frontier
    (Focus on Thompson)

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    by Robert Robson
    Institute of Urban Studies, University of Winnipeg
    https://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/mb_history/16/resourcetowns.shtml

    In 1946 Inco initiated its program of exploration in northern Manitoba. By 1949 a rich nickel area had been located by the company in the vicinity of Moak Lake. Through the course of the following seven years and after an investment of over one million dollars, Inco had isolated twenty potential sites for further development. In 1956 however the Thompson ore body was discovered and Inco became firmly committed to the development of northern Manitoba’s nickel potential.

    On 5 December 1956 the agreement upon which the Thompson project was based was signed by then Premier Duff Roblin and Inco President H. J. Wingate. It delineated the particulars of the enterprise and clearly indicated that Thompson was not intended to be a “company-town.” Apparently at the urging of the company and largely on the basis of its previous experiences in community affairs, Inco sought to create an open town complete with the private ownership of town site lots. Although the company’s efforts in this regard remain somewhat suspect, particularly considering its treatment of union organizers during the years 1956-1958, the agreement did indeed establish the open nature of the community. The crucial factor in maintaining the open status of the town, however, was the participation of the provincial government.

    The first stage in the growth of the community was the creation of a Local Government District. Encompassing some 975 square miles of land, the Mystery Lake Government District as established in 1956 was an obvious attempt to preclude unwanted development. It was also an effort on the part of the provincial government to include the industrial plant within the administrative district for the purpose of local taxation.

    The 1956 agreement concisely outlined the duties and obligations of each of the three parties in the development of the town site. The provincial government assumed a supervisory position and functioned primarily as liaison between the local administrators and the mining company. The local administrators a representatives of the Local Government District were assigned the task of overseeing town site development. This included the administration of sewer and water services, the sale of land, the regulation of building form and even the appointment of school trustees. Inco assumed the brunt of responsibility for town site development. At its own expense it was required to:
    • construct town site roads, lanes and sidewalks
    • construct an assembly hall and town site offices and construct and equip necessary fire stations
    • construct and equip school buildings meeting the requirements of the Department of Education and provide school sites
    • install sewer and water mains
    • construct and equip a private hospital [72]
    • It was estimated in 1960 that Inco’s total expenditure on town site development was well in excess of $8.5 million dollars.
    Although authority within the town site was well defined by the agreement, the particulars of town site location were less clearly delineated. Indeed section two of the agreement in describing town site location simply indicated that it

    ... would be approximately three thousand (3,000) acres in area and lying some two (2) miles distant from the plant site ...

    Initial responsibility for town site location rested with Inco. In June of 1957 however, Inco passed its planning authority to the province of Manitoba when it requested that the Planning Service of the Province assume responsibility for town site design and development. Working in close cooperation with the engineering firm of Underwood McLelland and Associates of Saskatoon, the provincial government instituted a preliminary design research program. In coordinating activity from approximately August 1957 to January 1958, the program sought to establish a plan that the “Province of Manitoba, the Company and its employees will be proud of.”

    As several preliminary plans “were drafted, discussed, thrown out or revised,” site investigations indicated that the most appropriate location of the town site proper was on the south side of the Burntwood River, nestled in a slow meander of the river.

    Although the engineers’ reports indicated that the whole district offered little in the way of optimum site location, the chosen area was dictated by several predisposing features, including the following:
    • The wooded but moss-covered site appeared to be free of rock, and was generally flat.
    • The site appeared generally to be well drained, changes in elevation providing a general slope to the Burntwood River.
    • No excessive demands would have to be made upon the one-lane wooden bridge across the Burntwood River.
    • A hospital in the town site would be readily accessible to the plant, some 1½ miles away and also on the south side of the Burntwood River.
    • Water intake and pumping structure located upstream on the Burntwood River, and designed to serve the plant could also service the town site. A sewage disposal plant could be located down-stream beyond the developed portion of the town site.
    • A single-lane gravel road provided the sole access to the site from the plant.
    • The proposed rail line would approach the plant from the south.
    Once the site was determined, as it was by December 1957, the provincial government set about the task of implementing “The General Development Plan.” As it came to be applied, the plan encouraged the use of buffer zones, the separation of vehicular and pedestrian traffic, the development of a commercial-civic focal point, the incorporation of super blocks with cul-de-sacs, crescents and bays as the major element of the street pattern, and balanced single and multiple family dwelling distribution. In a most detailed fashion the Metropolitan Planning Service defined land use requirements in terms of:
    • Single family dwellings: 284 acres
    • Multiple family dwellings: 54 acres
    • Park sites — 2 acres per 1,000: 16 acres
    • Elementary School site (2-12 rooms at 6 acres each, 1-20 rooms at 13 acres) : 25 acres
    • High School and recreation area (high school at 18 acres, recreation area at 24 acres) : 42 acres
    • Civic centre — public buildings (Central commercial area including neighbourhood stores — approx. 3½ acres per 1,000): 44 acres
    • Light industry and heavy commercial (no heavy industry in townsite): 55 acres
    • Hospital site approx. 2 acres per 1,000: 18 acres
    • Utilities, cemetery and storage area: 10 acres
    • Natural areas, selectively cleared buffers: 55 acres
    Total: 608 acres

    With all the preliminary work completed during the winter of 1958, the construction process began in the early spring. By November of 1958 occupancy of the town site was well underway. Most of the housing was built by private contractors and ranged in price from approximately $9,860 to $14,000 per unit.
    man Dr. John F. Thompson
    Thompson's namesake - John Fairfield Thompson

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    Chairman of the Board of INCO, Dr. John Fairfield Thompson, after whom the townsite was named.
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    Dr. Thompson poses in front of a trapper’s/prospector’s cabin near the Thompson site during his visit in 1957. Thompson’s namesake was as comfortable at his corporate desk as he was in the bush.

    Small trappers’ settlements with trap lines running through the entire region, included the area where the Thompson townsite is now situated.


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    In 1906 with a Ph. D in metallurgy from Columbia School of Mines, Dr. John Thompson began working for the International Nickel Company. His many positions within the company included working in the research laboratories, supervising the construction and initial operation of mill in Huntington West Virginia, to vice president, president and chairman and finally to chairman and chief officer from 1952 to 1960.

    “Dr. Thompson was a frequent visitor to the community that bore his name and, in 1961 he attended the ceremonies that marked the start of regular production at the new mine site. A photograph of Dr. Thompson, taken on one of his visits north, shows him standing, his pipe firmly clenched in his teeth, at the door of a trapper’s cabin. This photograph provides a link with the immediate past of the area, the cabin in question being situated on the trap line of Mike and Margaret Madonick. Dr. Thompson’s contribution to INCO was indeed massive. In his years with the company he had taken part in many important decisions and discussions. There was only one debate in which his opinion was not sought, only one decision of which he had no fore knowledge and therefore no input, the naming of the new town site in Northern Manitoba in his honour in 1956, his fiftieth year of service with INCO.“

    (Excerpt from the book : “Thompson, A City And Its People” written by Graham Buckingham)