[4] Apart from Indigenous people, voyageurs and surveyors, there was little activity in the Lake Nipissing area until the arrival of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) in 1882.

[citation needed] In 1882, John Ferguson decided that the north bay of Lake Nipissing was a promising spot for settlement.

More importantly, Bourke developed the western portion of North Bay after purchasing the interest of the Murray Brothers from Pembroke, who were large landholders in the new community.

[citation needed] North Bay was selected as the southern terminus of the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway (T&NO) in 1902, when the Ross government took the bold move to establish a development road to serve the Haileybury settlement.

During construction of the T&NO, silver was discovered at Cobalt and started a mining frenzy in the northern part of the province that continued for many years.

[5] The Georgian Bay Canal was a mammoth transportation system that proposed to connect the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean.

Financing was a large obstacle and, as time passed, transportation patterns changed and interfered with the earlier practicality of the giant venture.

[citation needed] North Bay grew through a strong lumbering sector, mining and the three railways in the early days.

The town benefited from strong community leadership and people like Richardson, Milne, McNamara, Englands, Browning, McDougal, Carruthers, McGaughey, George W. Lee, Senator Gordon, T. J. Patton, Charlie Harrison and many others are responsible for its development.

Many visitors to the area discovered lakes and summer retreats that were easily accessible, and the businesses thrived on the tourist dollars.

In October 1963, the North American Air Defence Command (NORAD) opened its Canadian operations centre at the base.

Staffed by American as well as Canadian military personnel, the centre, situated 60 storeys underground to withstand a nuclear strike, monitored Canada's northern, east-central and Atlantic airspace, identifying and tracking all air traffic in this airspace, and responding to airborne emergencies, crime, and suspicious, unknown and potentially hostile aircraft.

In 1983 this responsibility was expanded to all of Canada, and in October 2006 the base's NORAD operations (as of 1981, called North American Aerospace Defence Command) moved into a new, state-of-the-art facility above ground, where it continues to provide surveillance, identification and tracking of aircraft, and warning and response to emergencies, attacks and other crises, for the air sovereignty of Canada and North America.

In summer of 2013, the base commenced surveillance of space via SAPPHIRE, Canada's first military satellite, that was launched into orbit from India in February.

Subsequently, a large portion of its infrastructure, including all of its airfield assets, such as hangars, fuel depot and control tower, were sold or demolished.

[9] One by-product of the air base's creation in 1951 was the extension of the existing airport's runways to handle the largest military aircraft.

North Bay received $50,000 to upgrade their local arena, Memorial Gardens, and also hosted an NHL pre-season game between the New York Islanders and the Atlanta Thrashers.

North Bay is geographically unique in that it straddles both the Ottawa River watershed to the east and the Great Lakes Basin to the west.

The cuts to the base by the federal government mentioned above, plus dramatic reductions in the number of its personnel — at one time, there were 2,200 military members and civilian employees; in 2013, about 750 remained — has resulted in a loss of tens of millions of dollars to the community, an impact felt by all North Bay's business sectors.

[9] North Bay is also home to The Algonquin Regiment (Northern Pioneers), A Coy, a Canadian Force Army Reserve unit.

[16] In recent years, the city's cultural scene has expanded due to its community of artists, musicians, actors and writers.

In 2004, the TVOntario program Studio 2 named North Bay as one of the top three most artistically talented communities in the province.

In August 2009, the comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall began filming their mini-series Death Comes to Town on location in North Bay.

In August 2009, a new pedestrian underpass opened connecting the downtown core to the waterfront for the first time since the CPR laid down tracks.

[26] In radio, North Bay effectively acts as a single market with the nearby town of Sturgeon Falls, with virtually all stations in both communities serving the whole region.

The Lakers play in historic Memorial Gardens (circa 1955) and share the building with the North Bay Trappers.

Like their Northern Ontario counterparts in Thunder Bay (the Lakehead Thunderwolves), the Lakers attract an impressive number of local hockey supporters for their games in the OUA.

In April 2014 the Trappers were sold to become the Mattawa Blackhawks[27] The North Bay Bulldogs compete in the nine-team, Ontario-based NFC (Northern Football Conference).

The North Bay Bulldogs were welcomed into the Ontario Varsity Football League while losing all eight games (0–8) in their 2013 inaugural season.

The two highways share a single route through the city core, between Algonquin Avenue and an interchange at Twin Lakes, along an urban limited-access road with reduced but not fully controlled access.