Then and Now: Lumber, politics, extortion and Fred Laberge

At one time, a vast and endless forest covered Northeastern Ontario. In the 1860s, loggers began to show an interest in the forests around the rivers of the French, Whitefish, Spanish, and Wanapitei. “When the area was opened up to lumbering in 1872, the larger red and white pines were cut and floated down rivers…