Northern Ontario History – Page 10

Keep Cobalt’s History Alive – by Nicole Guertin

November 26, 2015

Click here for crowdfunding campaign: https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/d143Pd

The Cobalt silver rush was more important than the Klondike gold rush but few people know of its existence. By buying a book, you are helping share the incredible history of Cobalt and raise money for the Historic Cobalt Legacy Fund.

My name is Nicole Guertin and I am the co-owner of the Presidents’ Suites with my partner Jocelyn Blais. The Presidents’ Suites consists of historical homes situated on the shores of beautiful Lake Temiskaming. We are passionate about the region’s unique history and would like everyone to share our passion.

Memories from the University of Inco – by Stan Sudol

November 23, 2015

I am an Inco brat. I was born and raised in the shadows of those tall industrial smokestacks that tower over the city of Sudbury, Canada. In the days when I turned 18 in the late 1970s, if you didn’t go to university, then it was almost a rite of passage to work for “Mother Inco,” as it was affectionately (or derisively) known.

For most students today, the prospects of a good-paying summer job to help finance post-secondary education has become an elusive dream. Skyrocketing tuition fees combined with minimum-wage work equals enormous debt at graduation.

I truly feel sorry for these students, as my own experiences in the decade of disco included a wonderful combination of affordable tuition fees and blue-collar union employment that made a major contribution to my post-secondary education costs.

The Early Years of Bushflying [Strong Northern Ontario Mining Link]

November 18, 2015

With the advent of war in 1914, there were few registered pilots in Canada, and even fewer aircraft. Flying was a novelty of the well-to-do, and certainly, the daring.

But over the next five years, young Canadian men would come to comprise almost one-third of the British air services. For many, it was an opportunity to escape the horrors of the trenches – the mud, cold, rats, lice and the ever-ominous threat of a horrible death. It was a chance to take to the pristine blue skies, with the wind in your face and a silk scarf round your neck trailing in the breeze.

But there is little glamour in warfare of any kind. And many paid an exacting price. While the airplanes kept them out of the trenches, it posed its own threats.

NEWS RELEASE: Agnico Eagle Pledges $1 Million Gift to Historic Cobalt Legacy Fund

June 5, 2015June 4, 2015

(L to R) James D. Nasso, Chairman of Agnico Eagle; Tina Sartoretto, Mayor of Cobalt; Sean Boyd, Vice-Chairman and CEO of Agnico Eagle — (L to R) James D. Nasso, Chairman of Agnico Eagle Mines; Tina Sartoretto, Mayor of Cobalt; Sean Boyd, Vice-Chairman and CEO of Agnico Eagle Mines

http://www.agnicoeagle.com/

Fund to Support the Preservation of Cobalt’s Historical Past and Cultural Heritage

Cobalt, Ontario; June 4, 2015 – Agnico Eagle Mines Limited (NYSE:AEM; TSX:AEM) (“Agnico Eagle” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that it has pledged a $1 Million Gift to the Historic Cobalt Legacy Fund. The announcement was made earlier today in the Town of Cobalt at a ceremony honouring former employees of Agnico Eagle’s Cobalt silver division.

Former Agnico Eagle silver division employees gathered in Cobalt, Ontario for a plaque dedication ceremony in honour of all of Agnico’s former silver division employees who helped to transform Agnico Eagle into a leading international gold company.

“We are very pleased to make this contribution in honour of Agnico Eagle’s founder Paul Penna, as well as on behalf of all the men and women whose commitment, perseverance and spirit helped to transform Agnico Eagle into a leading international gold mining company”, said Sean Boyd, Agnico Eagle’s Chief Executive Officer. “Cobalt is the foundation of our Company and as many of our former silver division employees remain in the region, they will continue to benefit from the preservation of these important cultural and community organizations.”

[War Plan Red-U.S. Invades Canada] Sudbury’s nickel important to Americans’ military might – by Stan Sudol (Northern Life – February 5, 2006)

June 1, 2015

http://www.northernlife.ca/

Please note that this article, was originally published in 2006.

If the Yanks went to war with the Brits in the 1920s, American troops would have tried to invade Sudbury from northern Michigan

Canada and the United States have been economic and military allies for most of the 20th century, notwithstanding the bad chemistry between our leaders from time to time. Hopefully Prime Minister Stephen Harper will be able to soon repair the damage in relations caused by the Paul Martin Liberals.

However, throughout much of American history, many influential politicians were firmly committed to the expansionist ideology of Manifest Destiny. This is the belief that the United States has an “inherent, natural and inevitable right” to annex all of North America.

So it should not be a huge surprise to learn that the United States military had prepared a Joint Army and Navy Basic War Plan to invade Canada in the late 1920s, and updated it in 1935. The document called War Plan Red was declassified in 1974. However, the story resurfaced a short time ago in a Washington Post (Dec.30, 2005) article by journalist Peter Carlson headlined Raiding the Icebox; Behind Its Warm Front, the United States Made Cold Calculations to Subdue Canada.

HISTORY: In 1923 Timmins already bustling – by Karen Bachmann (Timmins Daily Press – May 23, 2015)

May 26, 2015

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – A few stories from the year 1923… let me first, however, set the mood. According to a number of news sites, some of the big news events for that year included the discovery of King Tutankhamun’s tomb (in February), the eruption of Mt. Etna in Sicily, which left over 60,000-plus homeless (in June) and the Great Kanto earthquake that nearly flattened Tokyo (over 100,000 people were killed).

Calvin Coolidge was sworn in as president of the United States after the death of President Warring Harding in August of that year – Harding had suddenly died while he was staying in the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, Calif.

In Canada, William Lyon McKenzie King continued on as Prime Minister, and, overseas, a young Adolph Hitler led the Nazi Party in a failed coup d’état in Germany (known as the Beer Hall Putsch). On the popular culture scene, Time Magazine was launched (and is still in print today), women’s one-piece bathing suits were all the rage (woo-hoo!) and Agatha Christie cranked out another Hercule Poirot mystery (“The Murder on the Links”).

So while the Cotton Club opened in New York City, Pablo Picasso built the stage sets for Jean Cocteau’s production of “Antigone” and Albert the Duke of York married Elizabeth Rowes-Lyon (later known as King George VI and Queen Elizabeth), this is what was happening in the Porcupine in 1923…

Adventures In Rainbow Country TV Series (Some Mining Themed Episodes: 1970-1971)

May 22, 2015

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/

http://www.tvarchive.ca/

Adventures in Rainbow Country – From the Winnipeg Free Press, Sep 19, 1970.

The rugged beauty of Canada’s north country is truly captured for the first time on television in Adventures in Rainbow Country, a new 26-week color film series, centring on the life and escapades of a 14-year-old boy growing up amid the splendor and the challenge of the land around northern Lake Huron, Ont. It begins on CBC television, Sept. 20.

Filmed entirely on location — there is not a single studio sequence — Adventures in Rainbow Country features a large cast of exclusively Canadian actors. Through a unique co-production enterprise, the 30-minute films will be seen on the English television network of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation; in a dubbed version on the CBC’s French network; and will bring a vivid picture of the real Canadian outdoors to television audiences in Britain, Australia, Germany and a number of other countries.

Excerpt From Call of the Northland: Riding the Train That Nearly Toppled a Government – by Thomas Blampied

May 21, 2015

To order a copy of Call of the Northland: Riding the Train That Nearly Toppled a Government, click here: http://www.northland-book.net/buy.html

Historian, author and photographer Thomas Blampied has been interested in railways for as long as he can remember. Growing up east of Toronto, he spent summer evenings sitting trackside with his father watching streamlined VIA trains race past and long freight trains rumble by. From these early railway experiences grew a lifelong passion for railways and rail travel which has manifested itself through model railroading, photography, writing, railway preservation and the academic study of railway history. This is his fourth book about railways in Ontario. He has studied in both Canada and the United Kingdom and currently resides in Southern Ontario.

Chapter 14: Transformation

After a year of no Northlander service, very little else had changed in the divestment saga. While Michael Gravelle was on record as stating that divestment was not the only option, the continued indecision and lack of transparency did not lend credibility to the government’s new position. For his part, Vic Fedeli was especially frustrated that documents related to divestment remained restricted. Meanwhile, the future of the ‘Ring of Fire’ appeared even less rosy.

Having failed in its request for an easement, Cliffs Natural Resources decided to appeal the decision, a move which would mean years of court proceedings. As Cliffs prepared for the long-haul, passengers on the ONTC’s buses gave up travelling at Thanksgiving as it was standing room only for a second year running, with even the most determined passengers opting to try to travel another day in the hopes of getting a seat.

The divestment was only one of many concerns in the north. To local leaders, the plight of the ONTC was symptomatic of wider problems in the region. While resource extraction continued across the north, raw material was increasingly being moved out of the province to be processed in other jurisdictions with cheaper energy costs.

Finnish community in Thunder Bay struggles to save landmark restaurant – by Allan Maki (Globe and Mail – Marc 19, 2015)

March 19, 2015

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

It has stood for 105 years as a measure of Thunder Bay’s history, a three-storey building with a restaurant that has fed generations of locals, many of them of Finnish descent. Others too, passing through or staying on the north shore of Lake Superior, have found comfort at the hallowed Hoito.

But now that building, once home to political activists, and its restaurant, the Hoito, are on the brink of financial ruin. With a debt load of more than $700,000, those working to keep the Hoito going are facing a hard fight. They understand what they’re up against and they know what could be lost.

“It’s filled with history,” said Kelly Saxberg, a member of the city’s Finlandia Association which oversees what was once the Finnish Labour Temple and is now a national historic site. “It’s a living museum.”

If you mention Thunder Bay to Canadians who live elsewhere, it won’t take long for them to mention the Hoito. The restaurant draws them all – workers, locals, tourists, even celebrities. Comedian Rick Mercer tried his hands at pancake making. Hockey legend Gordie Howe and his wife Colleen ate there. In 2009, Jordan Staal, then with the Pittsburgh Penguins, ate there and brought the Stanley Cup with him.

HISTORY: A look back at the Hollinger Mine – by Karen Bachmann (Timmins Daily Press – March 14, 2015)

March 16, 2015

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

Karen Bachmann is the director/curator of the Timmins Museum and a local author.

TIMMINS – If you live in Timmins (or you’ve just driven through), you’ve passed by this complex, for lack of a better word, many, many times. It is a local landmark, a symbol of the Porcupine then and now. It is a monument to the thousands of miners and their families who have called this community home; indirectly, it has helped countless others set up businesses and make a home in this community. Its contribution to the social fabric of Timmins cannot be diminished – the people involved saw fit to start a hospital, a school, a train station, hotels, homes, sports facilities and clubs. The history of Timmins, like it or not, is intimately attached to the Hollinger Consolidated Gold Mines – even today.

The Daily Press published a brilliant supplement to their paper in July 1960, that celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Hollinger Gold Mine. As part of that celebration, Jules Timmins, president and chairman of the company (at 72 years young), was called upon to pour the 18,490th gold bullion bar, marking the Hollinger’s total production (to that date – July 22, to be exact) at a half-billion dollars, the largest output record of its kind in Canada. At that time, the Hollinger was the largest gold mine in Timmins and the second largest in Canada (it had just been surpassed by Kerr-Addison, in annual production).

A.F. Brigham, a former mine manager, predicted, back in the early 1920s, that the Hollinger would achieve this milestone by the end of the century. He did not count on the addition of the Schumacher property, which raised the reserves at the mine from 4 million tons (give or take) to a very healthy 6.3 million tons – allowing for the aforementioned feat to be achieved in half the time.

Little Italy in Copper Cliff, Ontario: a nice place for reminiscing – by MK Keown (A Thousand Points of Light – June 10, 2013)

March 10, 2015

http://marykkeown.com/

As soon as I turn the car onto Craig Street, it greets my nostrils. It is undeniable. It is pacifying. It is the aroma of rich, delicious homemade fare – spaghetti, roasted chicken, sausages and meatballs the size of golf balls – wafting from Copper Cliff’s Italian Club. The kitchen doors are open on this fiery July day, the scents intoxicating the street’s residents. My knees go weak. I have come to photograph Little Italy and this is my first stop. I fear I may not make it any further.

Josie Apolloni, 75, watches over the beehive of a kitchen. The head chef is a diminutive lady who can barely see over the tops of some of the massive cooking pots, but she keeps vigil beside the meatballs and homemade sauce.

“(The recipe) comes from my roots, from Italy, from Fano,” Apolloni says, pointing to her knee when I ask about Fano’s location. The recipe, which dates back to 1935, is a heavily-guarded secret and Apolloni will only disclose that she uses canola oil rather than lard, which is more traditional.

The day I visit, there are three cooks and about a dozen volunteers scurrying about in preparation for the lunch rush – the Club serves a weekly Friday buffet that brings in admirers from all corners of the city. There is a lot of laughter in this kitchen, with jokes being tossed back and forth like a ping-pong ball.

REVIEW: MURDOCH MYSTERIES MINES SILVER AND GROUP OF SEVEN – by Greg David (TV-EH.com – January 20, 2015)

February 7, 2015

http://www.cbc.ca/murdochmysteries/

http://www.tv-eh.com/

Not sure if my spring/2014 essay [ http://bit.ly/1upri55 ]on Northern Ontario mining history had any influence on CBC to incorporate the Cobalt Silver Rush into a recent episode of the highly acclaimed “Murdoch Mysteries”, but you have to give the giant broadcaster credit for helping educate all Canadians about a little known part of our history! (Stan Sudol – Owner/Editor RepublicOfMining.com)

TV, eh? covers news, reviews and interviews about Canadian television shows, with the odd foray into the odd industry that produces them.

For over 15 years, Greg David has been a television critic for TV Guide Canada, the country’s most trusted source for TV news. He is a member of the Television Critics Association. greg@tv-eh.com

70th anniversary of Paymaster mining disaster – by Len Gillis (Timmins Daily Press – January 28, 2015)

January 28, 2015

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – Who knew what Hector Poitras was thinking that cold February morning in 1945, when he stepped onto the cage at the Paymaster No. 5 shaft getting ready to ride down into the mine with his co-workers?

It was a Friday. Maybe he was going to a dance that night, or maybe to see a hockey game at The Mac or the South Porcupine Arena. For whatever reason, Poitras didn’t have his mind completely on the job.

Poitras was a young rookie miner. That’s probably why another miner, an older fellow, gave him a friendly nudge and asked him why he didn’t have his cap lamp with him. Poitras had to get off the cage and head for the lamp room, thus missing his ride underground and possibly facing a bucket load of you-know-what from the shift boss.

That mistake would save his life. The cage had begun its descent into the depths of the mine. Eight men were on the upper deck. Eight were on the lower deck.

The incident itself took only seconds, at about 7:55 that morning. The cage was moving at a normal speed of about 1,200 feet per minute when the rope broke, said the Ministry of Mines report. There was no evidence to the rope being jerked or kinked, said the report.

HISTORY: Timmins Pioneers preferred boozy beverages – by Karen Bachmann (Timmins Daily Press – November 29, 2014)

December 1, 2014

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

Karen Bachmann is the director/curator of the Timmins Museum and a local author.

TIMMINS – Now, for something just a little different. I was going to put together another collection of little items and stories from 1940, but, being the short-attention-span kinda gal I am these days, I was sidetracked by an article entitled “Some of the Beverages Used Through the Years” by that goddess of the 1940s kitchen, Edith M. Barber.

She began her informative piece with a definition of beverages (“anything in liquid form which we drink with or between meals” – how helpful), and then proceeded with a description of a variety of rather unsavory drinks from the early Canadian colonial period.

That got me thinking about some of those early drinks, seeing as how we are approaching the holiday season, and festive beverages are once again on the itinerary. I figured, how bad could these early cocktails actually be?

Turns out the answer is, actually, quite horrid. How anyone could stomach some of these concoctions is beyond me (by the way, museum staff who are coming to my place for a glass of Christmas cheer need no longer fear that it will be an 1812 themed event).

The thinking at the time (I mean in the early days of Canada, between 1763 and the mid-19th century) dictated that fermented beverages were so much safer than water.

‘It’s history, like it or not’: the Significance of Sudbury’s Superstack – by Mike Commito and Kaleigh Bradley (Active History.ca – November 17, 2014)

November 17, 2014

http://activehistory.ca/

Standing at a height of 1,250 feet, the Sudbury Superstack is the second tallest chimney in the world and runner-up to the CN Tower for the tallest structure in Canada. Until 1987, Sudbury Ontario had the dubious honour of having the world’s tallest smokestack. Today, the Stack is seen by some as a marker for Sudbury’s rich mining heritage but for others, it is also part of a much larger history of health and environmental problems.

Since the nineteenth century, Sudbury’s landscape was ravaged by the effects of the mining industry; over the years the vegetation disappeared with acid rain, and farmers found themselves unable to grow crops in the highly acidic soil. The International Nickel Company (INCO) built the Superstack in 1972 to disperse sulphur dioxide (SO2) and other pollutants away from the area, thereby addressing health and environmental concerns.

The Stack’s construction coincided with a community regreening movement, which has reversed some of the environmental damage. The Superstack redcuced local emission rates in recent years, but one could argue that INCO simply passed the buck, and the dispersion of SO2 became somebody else’s problem. Moreover, the Sudbury area continues to have higher rates of asthma and lung cancer than other parts of Ontario. But, for better or for worse, the Superstack has been a landmark along the Sudbury skyline for over forty years. And when Vale (formerly INCO) recently proposed demolishing the Superstack in the local media, we watched as an interesting public debate about the significance, history, and future of the stack ensued.

On November 3rd 2014, Kelly Strong of Vale announced that the company considered demolishing the Superstack. This news is not surprising and is in keeping with Vale’s ongoing $1 billion Clean AER Project, designed to reduce SO2 emissions.