Prostitution- In 1883 - 1884 the lonely

Hudson Bay post of Michipicotenhad burgeonedinto a prosperousshipping depot. From the woodendocks of Michipicoten Harbourvast quantities of supplies weretrans-shipped to the boomingconstruction camps of the newCanadianPacific Railway. Muletrains, day and night, carriedthe supplies over a corduoryroad from the Mission, Tremblay’flats and a shaky log bridgecrossing the Magpie River to alively camp on Wawa Lake. Here,the supplies were transferred toa small steamship- and shippednorth-east four miles, to-becarried on by mule train toGrassetor Missanabie.

With the demand for workers,labourers swarmednorthward toMichipicoten to locate jobs.Sixty to eighty men were usuallycranm%ed into low moss-chinkedlog bunkhousessixty feet longand thirty feet wide. Inside the

- unventilated, dark, opressiveatmospherewas fetid with theodour of unwashedsteamingclothes and stinging smoke.Labouring, morning to dusk, insubzero weather for a meager$1.50 a day, these men turned toalcohol for relief.

Liquor was illegal at.,,çonstruction camps, but daringwhiskey peddlars had innumerablemethods of circumventing justice.At Michipicoten Harbour a band cfwhiskey peddling desperados,headedby the former policechief, Charles Wallace, andassisted by an escapedconvictfrom Michigan, seized control ofthe town, terrorized the citizens,kept out competition, and ran theliquor trade freely for their ownprofit. In October 1884, theythreatened to shoot the localmagistrate, firing bulletsthrough the walls of theconstruction office in which hecrouched.

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& Wh IsKeyb Pugh-A force of Torontopolice who

arrived in town in late October,1884, found a sullen, rowdycrowd of workers who were toofrightened to identify theculprits. The police, nevertheless arrested seven men andretired to the Michipicotenboarding huse for the night.The boarding house theretpon became a target for a number ofhidden riflemen who pumped afusillade of bullets into it,grazing the arm of the cook, andnarrowly missing one of theboarders.

The following day the presencof the police causeda band ofthirty prostitutes to leaveMichipicoten for anotherdestination. Fefore departing, theToronto4police destroyed one hundredtentyallonsf rye whiskey andattemptd to arre the ringleadersof the terrorist gang who were hiding at. the narby Ojibway Indiarr

‘encampmezit. Wallace and his gang,assisted by the Indians, easilyescaped.When ‘the police departed,he and his henchmenreappearedatMiáhipicoten in "true bandit style",

- heavily armedwith four revolvers, abowie knife, and repeating Winchesterrifle. A, net reign of térror wasinstituted.

Finally, Wallace and his friends.boarded the steamer Steinhoff, andbefore departing for Sa4t Ste. Mriproceeded to pump bullets .ntothe,crowd at the dock. Their target wasactually the C.P.R. ticket office, &the railway agent, Alex MacDonald.Ij spite of riddling the buildingwith more than a hundred bullets,MacDonald escapedwithout injury.

Michipicoten was, shortly thereafter cleaned up by a new magistrate,and W].lace, after wounding- anarresting constable was sentenced toeighteen months in prison. By thetime of, his release, the days ofwhiskey ‘running at Michipicoten weregone forever.* *** * ** ** *** * * *** * * **** **** **