In June 1910, one of the most famous men on Earth visited a hillside subdivision overlooking Lake Superior and made what appears to have been his only Canadian real estate purchase. How Sir Ernest Shackleton came to own two lots in a Thunder Bay subdivision is a small, strange footnote to a legendary life. It also brings into focus the local salesman who sold them.
By the time he arrived in the cities of Port Arthur and Fort William, Ernest Shackleton was already a household name. He had served as third officer on Robert Falcon Scott's Discovery expedition (1901-04), then led his own British Antarctic Expedition aboard the Nimrod (1907-09). That expedition pushed to within approximately 160 kilometres of the South Pole. At the time, this was the furthest south any human being had ever travelled. The brutal conditions and dwindling supplies forced Shackleton to turn back rather than risk his party's lives. He returned to Britain a hero and was knighted for the achievement, becoming known in the press as the "Farthest South Man."
Fame, however, hadn't erased Shackleton's financial troubles. The Nimrod expedition had left him owing roughly £30,000, much of it tied to loans secured through the financial backing of friends. To pay it down, Shackleton undertook an extensive North American lecture tour. He visited cities across Canada, including Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, and Winnipeg, and stopped at the Twin Cities on June 4, 1910. He candidly told audiences along the way that the money from the lecture series was going toward paying off his expedition obligations.
News of the visit reached John James "J.J." Carrick, the Lakehead's most relentless real estate promoter. Carrick was in the midst of launching his most ambitious project yet: Mariday Park, a 516-lot subdivision purchased in stages between 1905 and 1909. The housing development was named for his wife, Mary Day. Carrick had already thrown every promotional trick he owned at the project: full-page ads in local newspapers, an electric sign visible to ships entering the harbour, and even brass bands.
Carrick had arrived in Port Arthur in 1903. Within a few short years he had built one of the Lakehead's great real estate fortunes. He owned the Daily News, and served as alderman, mayor, MPP, and later as federal MP for the Thunder Bay–Rainy River riding. By every contemporary account, he was a showman first and salesman second, the kind of operator who understood that a story sells lots better than a survey map ever could. He intended to make sure everyone knew about Mariday Park.
On the afternoon of June 4, Canadian Club officials toured Shackleton around Port Arthur and Fort William. Mariday Park was on the itinerary. Nearly 800 people attended the Canadian Club luncheon. Another large crowd gathered that evening at the Arena Rink to hear him lecture, complete with lantern slides of penguins and seals and the now-famous detail that just 50 more pounds of supplies might have carried his party to the Pole itself.
During his closing remarks, Shackleton announced that he had purchased two lots in Mariday Park that day. As it turned out, the lots weren't Carrick's to sell outright. Fort William's city solicitor, F.E. Morris, had snapped up the remaining lots just minutes before Shackleton arrived. When Carrick explained who wanted them, Morris relinquished two lots. A surviving letter on British Antarctic Expedition letterhead, addressed to Carrick and dated that same day, has Shackleton requesting the deeds and writing, "I have never seen any property more ideal for residences than Mariday." Carrick, naturally, ran it as an ad within days.
Shackleton never built on the land. According to later accounts, after his death in 1922 the lots reverted to the City of Port Arthur for unpaid taxes and were eventually resold. Mariday Park itself sold slowly at first and didn't truly fill in until the 1940s, but it endures today as one of Thunder Bay's most storied residential neighbourhoods. The hillside development can still claim a small, peculiar honour. Those two lots remain the only known Canadian property ever owned by the "Farthest South Man."
If you would like to know more about Mariday Park, or anything else about the history of our region, please reach out to the Research Department at Brodie Library by email at research@tbpl.ca.
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