Automobiles
While the earliest link directly into North Bay was the railway, there were other ways to get into the area. The earliest roads weren't part of a highway network as we now know them but rather were rough roads carved from an unforgiving landscape and suitably labelled as colonization roads. These reached the south shore of Lake Nipissing prior to the arrival of the railway in 1882 but only bloomed with the popularization of the automobile.
Highway 11, today still the most important highway connection to the south, emerged from the connection of several different colonization roads in an effort to create a route extending as far north as North Bay though it was not until 1916 that it was possible to drive from Toronto to North Bay without travelling through Pembroke (Myers, Jay (1977). The Great Canadian Road. Toronto: Red Rock Publishing Company. ISBN 0-920178-02-2. p. 111) which was connected to North Bay by a rough trail.
As development continued farther north, in 1925 the highway began to stretch further north as well as the Ferguson Highway reaching Cochrane 2 years later in 1927. "Although the Ferguson Highway linked Cochrane and Timmins to North Bay, in reality the road couldn’t be used for much of the year. Every spring the freeze and thaw regime swallowed up whole sections and the rains washed away portions of the gravel roadbed and wooden bridges. Stonemasons were required for permanent bridges and these permanent structures were costly to the Crown. It wasn’t until the 1950s that all of Highway 11 was paved with some uniformity." (http://www.northernontario.travel/northeastern-ontario/take-a-trip-back-in-time-the-history-of-highway-11)
Despite the conditions, it would seem that in some ways little has changed in the way that people drive. In fact, as stated on the back of the postcard pictured aobve, "Dear Mother. Arrived here at 3:30 am very tired ... We saw a forest fire & drove thro smoke. Drove very fast all the way up." ... perhaps not the best plan if there are deer on the highway!
Often referred to as the "Gateway City", North Bay a physical representation was built on the southern approaches to the city in 1928 by the Association of Canadian Travellers (http://www.cityofnorthbay.ca/cityhall/department/planning-services/committees/municipal-heritage-committee/illustrative-guide/sites/gateway-arch/) and is now preserved in Lee Park. Unknown to many there was also a gateway at the northern entrance to the city ... but for an entirely different reason. A 1929 Government of Ontario publication, informed readers that “Proceeding a distance of five miles further (from North Bay), the tourist arrives at the entrance gates to the new portion of the highway known as Cooks Mills, Mileage 236, where the Forestry Department registers the name and address of every tourist entering the territory leading to the magnificent Temagami Forest Reserve.” (http://www.republicofmining.com/2011/11/02/northern-ontario-history-building-highway-11-by-gregory-reynolds-highgrader-magazine-late-fall-2011-issue/) If a tourist ventured north and never returned through the gates (there were no east -west roads) the government could easily notify family.