Life in the frozen north: How underground riches created a remote Canadian town – then nearly destroyed it

Schefferville was built in the 1950s to harvest iron and almost disappeared when the mine closed down in 1982. But not all residents are happy about the return of the industry, says Rachel Savage

Chief Naskapi of Fort Mackenzie and his family in 1941 (Paul Provencher)

In the middle of spring, the toy train outside Schefferville’s town hall is almost completely submerged, its round body and chimneys just poking out of huge white drifts. As the weather warms above freezing in May, it begins to emerge from the melting snow, black paint peeling slightly to reveal rusted metal. It is a reminder of the heyday of a remote Canadian town that was once home to around 5,000 people.

As of 2016, only 155 people lived in Schefferville (although 646 lived in an adjoining First Nations reservation, and another 906 in a second reservation nine miles away). The story of the town’s birth and decay is, in large part, the story of the riches hidden beneath its soil. Soil that is rust-red and, like the toy train, can only be seen during the short summer months.

Schefferville was built in the 1950s to harvest iron ore and almost disappeared when the mine closed down in 1982. It is not surprising, then, that the inhabitants who clung on to this distant corner of northeast Quebec, only accessible by a twice-weekly all-day train, or a $1,300 (£988) return flight, are sceptical about the return of mining in the past decade.