Industrialization transforms the territory into a strategic and scientific axis of the North.
The GARAGE with a floor space of 75,000 square feet (6,967.5 square meters) had 11 bay doors from one of the sides, with more around.
The business district included the STAFF OFFICE, the LAB, the SHOP/GARAGE, the CAFETERIA, the BUNK HOUSES (dorms), the LADY STAFF HOUSE, and other buildings, all were single link in a grand chain of production.
As early as July 1957, the mining sector employed 1,896 workers. There was a multitude of career opportunities in all areas, and many where offered to women. The IOC was including families on this work site which became a town, doing so ensured stability in its staff.
Leaving Schefferville’s mines, long train with up to 260 iron ore filled wagons travelling at an average speed of 23 m/h (37 km/h), going all the way to the docks of Sept-Iles for transhipment on mineral freighters destined for smelters around the world. The first in 1954, with 20,000 tons of ore in the vessel Hawaiian, and in 1979, the biggest so far with 235,840 tons in the vessel World Gala.
A lot of data was collected from the beginning in this territory, where as the ice thickness had to be verified in order for a DC-3 plane to land safely on Knob lake, few days from summer, like on June 9, 1948; or on February 18, 1957 at noon, registering a temperature of 27 °F (-3o°C) instead of the usual -30°F (-34.4°C). That year, McGill University founded the Subarctic Research Laboratory, an advanced weather observation station hosting students, and compiling statistics like the thickness of the snow. The Northern Lights phenomenon was then the object of intense research.
This geologically complex land was hiding some secrets. Discovered in 1957, fossils from the Cretaceous period were found in Redmond mine while clearing spots: large leaf prints; then a fly in 1960; estimated at around 100 million years old. Ruth Lake mine had trees deep underground, Cypress or Cupressinoxylon Goeppert. Specimens were collected by Erling Dorf, a paleobotanist, which were sent and still kept at the Peabody Museum in New Haven, United States.
A herbarium of wild flowers and plants was created with 137 specimens, with 2 carnivorous one, eating the abundant supply of small black flies around. In 1962, the Upper Mantle Project began with the installation of seismograph that was recording tremors (seismographs station). The study of permafrost brought on a close collaboration between the Mc Gill station and the IOC laboratory. Using special wires in the boreholes, researchers determined the temperature at different depths. These studies revealed that permafrost could go all the way down to 200 ft (61 m) in some areas. Scientists were also testing an artificial snow cannon prototype.
