If the original survey of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), by Sir Sandford Fleming in the year 1871, had been followed, the site which became Sudbury would have been bypassed entirely.
The line was to run from Callander directly to Lake Nipigon and to Winnipeg via the north shore of Lake Superior.
However, nothing was accomplished until the summer of 1879, when the CPR was given the go ahead to build a railway from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
This move meant a revision in the original survey plan.
William Allen Ramsey became chief of the survey party and his revised route in the vicinity of Sudbury was south of a body of water dubbed "Lost Lake" because the survey party became lost in fog.
When the new route was surveyed, it was on the north side of the lake.
James Worthington brough the right-of-way cutting crews through, and had only praise for Ramsey for using "good judgement", and renamed the body of water, Lake Ramsey, to honour him.
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