 Around this time, the Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) began building another rail line south from Hudson Bay Junction.Since much of the wood for their Red Deer Lake Sawmill had been cut upstream along the Etomami River, the company decided to build a new sawmill and a dam on the Etomami River at the base of the Porcupine Hills within the Porcupine Forest Reserve near to the new rail line.CNoR eventually built another rail line to this area from Crooked River, Saskatchewan.