The Town of Sellwood

In 1900, the village of Sellwood, located 14 miles north of Capreol, was a sawmill town of about 100 people that included prospectors and Indians. In 1907 it was better known as the northern terminal of the Canadian Northern Railroad and by 1910, the discovery of iron deposits led to the beginning of mining operations.

Around 1916, the town had eight stores, two bake shops, four poolrooms, a bowling alley, two hotels, three boarding houses, two restaurants and a Chinese laundry. A two-room school was built which also served as a place of worship.

There were also two trains a day pulling in and out of Sellwood hauling ore out and bringing men into the mines.

However, mining was not the only industry.

The Warren Lumber Company was also active in the town. Sellwood was a terminal on the railway and there was a roundhouse for the steam locomotives, a railway station and waiting room.

By 1915, the closure of the mine was imminent. A briquette plant had been built at great cost a time when the market for low-grade ore was in a slump. When work came that the mine had closed, all the single men left the next day. Families soon followed leaving behind their homes, friends and debts.

Two company men were hired to guard against vandalism where they remained until the late 1950s. Eventually the houses were bulldozed and all that remains now are several small gravesites.

In 1959, the mine was reopened as Lowphos Ore Ltd. and the mine was renamed Moose Mountain Mine. The iron was removed by open pit method rather than by tunneling and sunken shafts. The name later changed to National Steel, and in 1979 the mine closed due to the declining demand for iron ore. 170 workers who lived in Capreol were affected by the closure.

An interesting geological note is that Moose Mountain is outside the Sudbury Basin in a totally unrelated geological formation.

For more information and photos on Sellwood, go to ontarioabandonedplaces.com