THUNDER BAY – Few people realize that Thunder Bay was once the home of a factory producing farm tractors.
The now vacant International Harvester building on Syndicate Avenue along the Kam River was built just before the First World War to assemble farm equipment for the then-booming Western Canadian market. Here 100 McCormick-Deering 15-30 tractors are headed west by rail car.
Note their iron wheels.
While most people remember International Harvester farm tractors as being red, this model was grey with red painted wheels. Later models had rubber tires, but the ones in this picture had iron tires.
Image and text courtesy of the Thunder Bay Museum