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Happy Thursday, Thunder Bay! Warm again, with a heat warning on the books and a rumble of thunder possible after dark. In today's issue: the Marina Park pedestrian overpass starts locking up overnight, Chippewa Park's 111-year-old carousel is finally close to moving into its new home, 104 wildland firefighters arrive from Mexico, and 18 local painters turn the city's oldest buildings into a museum exhibit. Plus a bright little bookshop in Bay & Algoma and everything happening over the long weekend. ☀️
In this Harbour Beat Issue…
🌉 The Marina Park overpass locks up at night
🎠 Chippewa Park's carousel is almost home
🚒 104 firefighters arrive from Mexico
🎨 Eighteen artists paint the city's oldest buildings
📚 Local Business Spotlight: Entershine Bookshop
Trivia: How many hearts does an octopus have? (Answer at the bottom!)
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Your long-weekend guide to Thunder Bay. ✅ Warm and mostly bright right through Monday, with the city's biggest car-and-music street festival taking over Fort William. (Regional fires are still burning, so a wind shift can change air quality fast — outdoor events have been cancelled before, so check with the organizer before you head out.)
Thursday, July 30
JUL 30 · Border Cats vs. Duluth Huskies — Whiskey Jacks Night — 6:35 p.m. · 📍 Port Arthur Stadium, 425 Winnipeg Ave · First of two straight home games against Duluth to close out July · 📅 Add to Calendar
JUL 30 · Summer in the Parking Lot — from 6 p.m. · 📍 Superior Inn & Conference Centre, 555 Arthur St. W. · Free outdoor live music, three bands a night — tonight it's Adrien Harpelle, Idol Hands and Zeebras · 📅 Add to Calendar
JUL 30 · Macgillivray Pipe Band at Hillcrest Park — 7:30–8:15 p.m. · 📍 Hillcrest Park (outdoor) · Free · The last of the band's July Thursday concerts — pipes and drums with the whole harbour laid out below you · 📅 Add to Calendar
Friday, July 31
JUL 31 · South Core Roar — Friendship Ride — 10 a.m.–8 p.m. · 📍 Finishes at Monty's Joint, 513 Victoria Ave. E. · A cross-border cruise of classic cars and motorcycles that rolls up from Ryden's Border Store and lands in Fort William to kick off the festival weekend · 📅 Add to Calendar
JUL 31 · Evil Dead: The Musical — 8:30–11 p.m. · 📍 NV Music Hall, 228 Red River Rd · Chainsaws, demons and a splash zone — staged by five young local directors, with proceeds after scholarships going to Paws for Love (also runs Saturday) · 📅 Add to Calendar
Saturday, August 1
AUG 1 · South Core Roar 2026 — 10 a.m.–11 p.m., and again Sunday · 📍 Downtown Fort William (outdoor) · Free · Two days of classic cars and motorcycles, a multicultural stage, Indigenous programming, kids' crafts, vendors and live bands late into the night · 📅 Add to Calendar
Sunday, August 2
AUG 2 · Family Art Days — 1–4 p.m. · 📍 Thunder Bay Art Gallery, 1080 Keewatin St · Free · Drop-in, all-ages art activities plus a wander through the current exhibitions — no experience needed · 📅 Add to Calendar
Monday, August 3
AUG 3 · Dawson Diner Monday Night Cruise-In — 6:30–8 p.m. · 📍 Dawson Diner, 1889 Dawson Rd · Free to browse · Antiques, hot rods and unique builds in the lot, with a BBQ, ice cream and popcorn — weather permitting · 📅 Add to Calendar
🌡️ HEAT WARNING IN EFFECT
Environment Canada has a heat warning posted for Thunder Bay. Plan for a humidex near 32, a warm overnight low around 16°C that gives little relief, and a UV index of 8 (very high). Drink water before you're thirsty, find shade or air conditioning in the afternoon, and check on older neighbours, young kids and anyone working outside. There's also a risk of a thunderstorm overnight. Latest alerts at Environment Canada.
⛅ Thursday, July 30 — Thunder Bay
27°C
Humidex 32 · Overnight low 16°C
Sun and cloud · 40% chance of showers, risk of a thunderstorm · UV 8 (very high)
Another warm one. Early fog patches should burn off through the morning, leaving a mix of sun and cloud and a 40% chance of showers with a risk of a thunderstorm — most likely late in the day. Expect a high of 27°C, humidex 32, and a UV index of 8 (very high), so hat and sunscreen from mid-morning on. The evening is the part to watch: a 70% chance of showers or thunderstorms rolls in after dark before easing near midnight, with a muggy low of 16°C. Friday holds at 27°C with a few showers, then the long weekend turns lovely — 26°C Saturday, and sunny for both Sunday (25°C) and Monday (26°C). Full forecast and any new alerts at Environment Canada.
The Marina Park overpass locks up at night
Starting today, the city is locking the Marina Park pedestrian overpass overnight. Officials say the change is meant to improve safety and discourage vandalism inside the enclosed walkway. If you're used to crossing over to the waterfront late at night — after a concert, a ball game or a long walk along the shore — plan on using the street-level crossing instead once the gates are shut.
Chippewa Park's carousel is almost home
After a two-month delay, the $2.1-million climate-controlled pavilion built to house the 1915 C.W. Parker Carousel is essentially finished, parks and open spaces manager Cory Halvorsen told Newswatch on Wednesday. What's left is the tricky part: assembling the ride indoors for the first time — no more taking it apart every year — plus restoration work on its structural base, a motor upgrade, and sign-off from Ontario's Technical Standards and Safety Authority. Halvorsen expects that work over the next couple of weeks and says the carousel should be spinning before the end of the summer season. “A little bit more patience is required for everyone,” he said. The 111-year-old ride has been at Chippewa since 1934; the Friends of Chippewa Park have raised more than $1.2 million toward its restoration, including Superior CVI art students repainting the weather-worn round boards with local landmarks.
104 firefighters arrive from Mexico
100 wildland firefighters and four agency representatives from Mexico landed at the Thunder Bay Airport on Tuesday, here under a mutual-aid agreement brokered by the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. They'll train on Ontario-specific practices before being deployed across the Northwest Region. MNR fire information officer Alison Bezubiak says conditions have improved considerably from two weeks ago — cooler temperatures and rain have let crews make real progress and put out many smaller fires, and the fire danger rating is now mainly moderate. The catch: forest fuels are still very dry, and recent rain came with a lot of lightning, which can smoulder below the forest floor and surface as a new fire up to a week later. The Restricted Fire Zone stays in effect across most of the region. Ontario has also drawn help from Alberta, the Yukon, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and P.E.I.
Eighteen artists paint the city's oldest buildings
About 75 people packed the Thunder Bay Museum on Tuesday for the sold-out opening of The Heritage Art Project — paintings of the city's landmark buildings by Irene Warmenhoven, founder of the Thunder Bay Art Society, and 17 other local artists. One rule: every building had to be at least 100 years old. Warmenhoven painted the Lyceum Theatre, where she once volunteered in costume for Cambrian Players. “We became a family when we had our first meeting,” she said of the group. Curator Michael deJong's favourite is the Thunder Bay Main Lighthouse — “it's just so vivid” — though he's also drawn to the quieter houses most of us walk past. The paintings hang at the museum rather than a gallery because of their history: “each one reveals something about Thunder Bay's history.” On the second floor until March 2027.
📚 Local Business Spotlight
Featured Bookshop: Entershine Bookshop
Overview
Thunder Bay went without an independent bookstore for years. Then, in the middle of a pandemic, Jenn McKenzie and Lynne Warnick decided to fix that. The idea started over Christmas dinner in 2020; they found the Algoma Street space in January, signed the lease in February, and opened Entershine Bookshop on July 24, 2021 — which means it just quietly turned five. “We were looking for something that created community and embodied our beliefs about kindness and connection,” Warnick told Northern Ontario Business. The name itself means light filtering through leaves, which is more or less what the room looks like on a sunny afternoon.
Shelf Highlights
Two full racks of local authors — not a token shelf. Warnick says local writers make up 60 to 70 per cent of the shop's monthly bestseller list.
A Customer Pick section stocked with books readers walked in and raved about.
A Reader in Residence — a young reader with their own shelf of recommendations for the 9-to-12 crowd.
Book subscriptions — curated packages for yourself or as a gift, plus online ordering.
Special orders — they place thousands a year and will chase down almost anything, new or used.
An Artist in Residence who designs five commissioned bookmarks a year, one per season plus Christmas.
Ambiance & Experience
Forget dark wood and crammed shelves. Entershine is deliberately light and airy — books face outward on wall shelves “almost like the shelves in someone's living room,” as Warnick puts it, with gifts and photographs worked into the displays. The display tables are on wheels so the whole floor can be cleared for readings of up to about 50 people; it was designed as an event space from day one. That's made it a genuine hub for the city's writing community, including the Northwestern Ontario Writers Workshop and the Laughing Fox Writers, and home to Michael Sobota's semi-regular “In Conversation with…” author series. “We wouldn't exist without the writing community,” Warnick says. “They're the engine that drives this shop.”
Location & Contact
📍 196 Algoma Street South — in the historic Bay & Algoma district
📞 807-343-9109
Operating Hours
Monday to Saturday: 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Sunday: Closed
Holiday hours can shift — their social pages have the latest.
Final Chapter
If you've been meaning to start a book club, theirs meets Sunday, August 23 at 11:30 a.m. to talk about Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke, and new members are always welcome. Or just go browse — Warnick's own description is hard to beat: “We're like a neighbour. A good neighbour.”
Meme of the Day
Brought to you by Harbour Beat
What's faster than word of mouth? The Harbour Beat Spotlight! Keeps you updated on what's going on locally and connects businesses to our vibrant community.
Trivia answer: three. An octopus has two branchial hearts that pump blood through its gills, plus one systemic heart that sends the oxygenated blood on to the rest of the body — and that systemic heart actually stops beating while the octopus swims, which is part of why they'd rather crawl.