Hwy 802 Quick Facts:
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 Modern Tertiary Highway 802 Sign |
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Tertiary Highway 802 serves as an access road from
Hwy 11 to the community of Kashabowie,
and the former copper mine town of Burchell Lake. The road was first designated as Hwy 802 on
May 24, 1962. The highway has a total length of 13.7 km, and this includes the 1.8 km
concurrent routing with Hwy 11. It should
be noted that the two routes are not actually signed concurrently between the two Hwy 802
junctions. The south part of Hwy 802 "ends" at Hwy 11,
but then "starts" again a short distance to the east and heads north to Kashabowie.
However, all of MTO's documents indicate that these two routes are in fact legally
co-designated, even though they are not actually signed that way. The highway is paved from
Kashabowie to Hwy 11, and again from the
former Burchell Lake townsite entrance northerly for about 4 km. The rest of the highway is
gravel. The highway is maintained year-round. Click here
to see a route map of Hwy 802, showing historical re-routings and realignments. As mentioned above, the community of Burchell Lake is now a ghost town. The copper mine closed down in 1967, and all of the town's residents have now moved away. It is a fascinating place to visit, as most of the buildings still stand on overgrown town streets. The entire site is now deserted. A friend of mine has a website on Ontario Ghost Towns. I have contributed nearly 30 photographs of the Burchell Lake ghost town to his website. Hwy 802 now ends at a chain-link fence which encloses the former townsite. |
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