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Northern Ontario History

Success secrets of Francis H. Clergue [the visionary founder of Algoma Steel] – by David Helwig (Soo Today.com – November 13, 2014)

https://www.sootoday.com/

If you look carefully at the structural steel in the oldest of those magnificent Romanesque buildings at the Mill Square redevelopment, you’ll see Andrew Carnegie’s maker’s mark.

Francis Hector Clergue used the American robber baron’s Carnegie Steel in the initial buildings of his new pulp mill. Clergue, as every Saultite knows, was the lawyer from Bangor, Maine who came here in 1894 on behalf of a group of Philadelphia capitalists looking for investment opportunities.

He founded St. Marys Paper, what is now Essar Steel Algoma, and Algoma Central Railway, all in just eight years from 1895 to 1902. Other buildings at the St. Marys Paper/ Mill Square site were built with Clergue’s Algoma Steel after the first local ingot was cast in 1902.

Glen Martin sees a ton of significance and symbolism in Clergue’s switch to homegrown Algoma Steel. Martin is the hirsute Los Angeles-based Saultite who was the initial driving force behind the Sault Ste. Marie Solar Park before the project was acquired by Starwood Energy in 2010.

He’s also the founder and chief executive officer of Energizing Company, a California startup that’s planning to deploy its flagship utility-distributed microgrid project here in Sault Ste. Marie. In recent months, Martin has been thinking a lot about the history of his hometown.

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Ukrainian Redress: ‘A dark chapter’ [Sudbury/Canada History] – by Jim Moodie (Sudbury Star – July 5, 2014)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

A shameful part of our history will be acknowledged this month when a plaque recognizing the internment of Ukrainians is installed at Hnatyshyn Park.

During the First World War, thousands of Ukrainians were imprisoned in labour camps across Canada — including ones in Kapuskasing and Petawawa — even though no disloyalty had been shown on their part.

“It was a dark chapter that no-one wants to talk about,” said Stacey Zembrzycki, a Sudbury native and historian at Concordia University. “We’re 100 years later and a large segment of the population still doesn’t know it happened.”

Reticence extended to the Ukrainians themselves, as many of those who weren’t imprisoned were still deemed “enemy aliens” of Canada. It was a stamp they were eager to forget.

Zembrzycki interviewed 82 aging members of Sudbury’s Ukrainian community for a book she is releasing in September, and found very few would talk about this period. “For my great-grandfather’s generation, there was silence and shame associated with it,” she said. “And I think they felt it was better to not acknowledge their heritage or something like that could happen again.”

Eyed suspiciously by those in their adopted country and called “bohunks” behind their backs — or even to their faces — many Ukrainians kept a low profile and anglicized their last names.

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Suites offer comfort for weary business travellers [Cobalt mining tourism] – by Lindsay Kelly (Northern Ontario Business – July 29, 2014)

Established in 1980, Northern Ontario Business provides Canadians and international investors with relevant, current and insightful editorial content and business news information about Ontario’s vibrant and resource-rich North.

To say it was impulse for Nicole Guertin to purchase a century-old mansion while on a brief 2003 visit to Haileybury is a gross understatement.

But Guertin, who, along with her partner, Jocelyn Blais, is the proprietor of Presidents’ Suites and Prospector’s House guest homes, was so struck by the beauty and history of Temiskaming, she followed through on her instinct.

“A lot of people in the North — Timmins, Kapuskasing — we come down and we’re always in a hurry; we never come through Haileybury, so we don’t know what’s here,” said Guertin, who hails from Kapuskasing. “It was really the first time I came here, and I was surprised how beautiful it was.”

The house isn’t like any other. The rambling mansion overlooking Lake Temiskaming along Millionaires’ Row was built in 1906 by Arthur Ferland, a mining bigwig who struck it rich during the Cobalt silver-mining boom. His wealth was reinvested into the original Timmins gold discovery and helped build the industry there.

Despite the home’s grandeur, it required a lot of work to bring it up to a high standard, and when zoning complications thwarted Guertin’s original plan for a B&B, she opted for suites instead, completely gutting the home and rebuilding it one room at a time.

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Northern Ontario has many exciting mining stories – by Dieter Buse

Dr. Dieter K. Buse, Professor Emeritus, History, Laurentian University

Thanks to Stan Sudol for presenting “Klondike gets the glory” (Sudbury Star May 30-31) on the main mining stories and the rich history of northern Ontario. Who could disagree with his claim about the “collective obsession over the Klondike Gold Rush while Northern Ontario’s rich and vibrant mining history is completely ignored by the Toronto media establishment”? Perhaps not completely, because at least one such outlet, the Toronto Star (Aug 11, 2013; reprinted in Sudbury Living Fall 2013) published my lengthy piece “The Hole in Canadian History.”

In it I argued, very similar to Sudol, that the Yukon and Newfoundland have six taxpayer-funded national historical interpretive sites while northeastern Ontario has only two. I also pointed out that the special aspects of Ontario’s northeastern history have been recognized by only a few commemorative plaques.

Indeed, many of the stories and some of the information that Sudol presents can be found in the book I co-authored with Dr. Graeme S. Mount, Come on Over: Northeastern Ontario, A to Z (Scrivener Press). In the Afterword to that book one can read “Arguably, Cobalt’s history is as exciting as that of Dawson City, and its silver rush led to the Porcupine gold rush which was far more important. In all, the Porcupine Camp has produced over 70 million ounces of gold and continues to add to that total while the Klondike produced all of 12 million ounces.”

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The untold story of Sudbury’s Big Nickel – CBC News Sudbury (June 25, 2014)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury

http://www.thebignickelbook.com/

The man who came up with the idea of the Big Nickel is revealing the whole story in a book he’s written with his son. Ted Szilva was a firefighter 50 years ago when the city launched a contest to get proposals from the public to celebrate its centennial.

Szilva submitted his idea of a Big Nickel, underground mine and mining museum. At the time he was told his idea wouldn’t do anything good for Sudbury and they picked a police station instead.

“Of course … [the police station] had a lot of visitors too.” said Szilva with a chuckle. Wednesday on Morning North with Markus Schwabe, Szilva told the story of the hurdles he went through to make his dream happen all on his own.

You can tune in Thursday at 6:10 am on Morning North to hear more on this story as Ted is joined by his son Jim.

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The strike that saved lives [Elliot Lake] – by Alexandra Lopez-Pacheco (CIM Magazine – June-July 2014)

http://www.cim.org/en.aspx

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Elliot Lake wildcat walkout

Ontario government representatives 40 years ago presented research linking radiation to lung cancer at a conference in Paris, France. In the audience were several members of the United Steelworkers of America (USW), whose organization had been fighting the mining industry and the Ontario government for improved health and safety at the Denison and Rio Algom uranium mines in Elliot Lake, Ontario. In addition to a high incidence of injuries, hundreds of miners were ill or dying from silicosis and lung cancer, which the union believed was caused by silica dust.

The union representatives were shocked to discover the government had found there was another cause behind the high rates of lung cancer – radiation – and had not bothered to inform miners or to take any action to protect them. The USW members shared the news with their co-workers back in Elliot Lake, and this proved to be the last straw. On April 18, 1974, about 1,000 miners from Denison went on a three-week wildcat strike.

“I think the conference, combined with the general dissatisfaction with the occupational health and safety regulations and laws in the province at that time, caused the strike,” says Fergus Kerr, now vice-president of operations at Global Atomic Fuels Corp., who joined Denison in 1977 and became its general manager a decade later.

The strike drew the attention of the media, the public and Ontario’s politicians. Mining health and safety suddenly became a hot-button issue.

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HISTORY: Gold rush sparked big headlines – by Karen Bachmann (Timmins Daily Press – June 13, 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 – About 105 years ago this month, the Great Porcupine Gold Rush took off in force. People had been looking for gold in the area as early as 1905, and a mini-rush around the Night Hawk waterway got people all riled up in 1907-08. However, it wasn’t until a few spectacular finds in the spring of 1909 in and around the Porcupine region that ears perked up and men got serious.

Today, I give you a few newspaper excerpts from the Cobalt Nugget, in celebration of those finds so many years ago. Those reporters and letter writers knew how to tell a great story. After all, I think we need to start celebrating the Porcupine Gold Rush. It is quite possibly the best kept secret in Canada. so let’s have a look at what they were saying back then that got their knickers all in a knot!

Headline: “Free Gold Over Big Area in Porcupine – Sam Wilson Describes What He Saw on Bannerman Claim – Quartz Vein a Mile Long and Four Feet Wide!!!” (Cobalt Nugget – Porcupine Lake, Nov. 1, 1909 – excerpt from the third letter of Sam Wilson, Cobalt Prospector to his partner Bob Andrews).

“Dear Bub – I’ve been looking at free gold so much I am just dazzled. They have it all through this country. They are finding it through Whitney and Tisdale, and there are great reports from the Reserve.

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Francis Hector Clergue and the Sault’s Essar/Algoma Steel is a Glaring Omission from “Northern Ontario’s Top Ten Mining Events” – by Stan Sudol

I take my history seriously and thus owe my readers an apology for a “glaring omission” from my “Northern Ontario’s Top Ten Mining Events” column which was recently published in the Sudbury Star.

http://www.thesudburystar.com/2014/05/30/accent-celebrating-northern-ontarios-mining-history

http://www.thesudburystar.com/2014/05/31/cobalt-boom-top-event-in-northern-mining

American-born entrepreneur Francis Hector Clergue, who founded Algoma Steel – now owned by Essar Steel – and created an industrial empire at Sault Ste. Marie that also included iron ore mines, a power plant, pulp and paper mill, a steam ship line and a rail road, should have been on that list.

Northern Ontario Business editor Ian Ross – who is originally from the Sault – pointed out my mistake and I am very grateful for being corrected as Clergue’s visionary legacy continues to this day.

Actually, I have just started reading the definitive book about Algoma – Steel at the Sault by Duncan McDowall – and feel horribly guilty for the omission! A more detailed column will be forthcoming.

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Accent: Cobalt boom top event in Northern mining [Part 2 of 2] – by Stan Sudol (Sudbury Star – May 31, 2014)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

Note: This is the second of a two-part feature on Ontario’s mining history. The first half of a top-10 list of significant events was printed in Friday edition of the Star; the countdown continues below.

For Part-one, click here: http://republicofmining.com/2014/05/30/accent-celebrating-northern-ontarios-mining-history-by-stan-sudol-sudbury-star-may-30-2014/

5) Peter Munk: Canada’s King of Gold

Amazingly, Peter Munk knew little about mining as he previously developed resorts in the South Pacific and owned a high-fidelity stereo system company that went bankrupt. In 1983, with a small oil exploration company that was losing money, he decided to buy a half interest in the Renabie gold mine near Wawa and a piece of an Alaskan placer miner which together produced 3,000 ounces that year.

In 1984, he bought Camflo Mines with operations in northwestern Quebec, but more importantly, acquired an experienced mine management team that would help Barrick takeover mines in Ontario, the United States and around the world. A significant success was the Nevada Goldstrike mine in 1988 when company President Robert Smith saw its huge potential.

Munk’s greatest success was the acquisition of Placer Dome in 2006 during the foreign takeovers of some of Canada’s legendary miners that included Inco, Falconbridge and Alcan.

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Accent: Celebrating Northern Ontario’s mining history [Part 1 of 2] – by Stan Sudol (Sudbury Star – May 30, 2014)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

Note: this is the first of two parts.

For part-two, click here: http://republicofmining.com/2014/05/31/accent-cobalt-boom-top-event-in-northern-mining-by-stan-sudol-sudbury-star-may-31-2014/

For crying out loud, I continue to be astonished with our collective Canadian obsession over the Klondike Gold Rush while Northern Ontario’s rich and vibrant mining history is completely ignored by the Toronto media establishment, especially the CBC.

Discovery Channel’s recent six-hour mini-series on the Klondike – vaguely based on Charlotte Gray’s book, Gold Diggers: Striking It Rich in the Klondike – once again highlighted this glaring snub.

While, the Klondike did have the benefit of terrific public relations due to famous writers like Jack London, Robert W. Service and Pierre Berton, I still don’t understand how this brief mining boom continues to dominate the “historical oxygen” in our national psyche.

At its peak, the Klondike only lasted a few years – 1896-1899 – and produced about 12.5 million ounces of gold. And unlike the California gold rush that created one of the largest and richest states in the union, the entire Yukon Territory’s population today is about 36,000. Contrast that with booming Timmins with 45,000 hardy souls who have dug out of the ground about 68 million ounces and counting of the precious metal, since the Porcupine Gold rush of 1909.

It’s enough to make to make Benny Hollinger, Jack Wilson and Sandy MacIntyre – the founders of this extraordinary deposit – spin in their collective graves.

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Excerpt From: The Raids: The Nickel Range Trilogy, Volume 1 (Jake, Ascending) – by Mick Lowe

To order The Raids, click here: http://www.barakabooks.com/catalogue/raids/

Excerpt From: The Raids: The Nickel Range Trilogy, Volume 1 (Jake, Ascending)

Dayshift, Garson Mine – Sudbury, Ontario, Canada – Monday, May 6, 1963 – 6 AM

What they neglected to tell him before that first shift was that you weren’t lowered into the mine; you were dropped.
The only inkling of the bullet-like descent of the cage, packed with its human cargo, plummeting down the greased shaft guides, was the build-up of pressure on Jake’s eardrums. The miners were packed so tightly, in fact, that there was no room for Jake and his forty-five or so compatriots to carry their lunch boxes. Instead, each man simply placed his lunch box between his boots on the splintered wooden floor of the cage.

The air was redolent of excessive aftershave and explosive Cold War tension. When the cage was between levels it was deceptively quiet, with little indication of the colossal forces at play around their peaceful, gently rocking world: the cage rocketing downward toward the molten centre of the earth at a hundred feet per second, suspended from a tightly wound, heavily greased wire rope thousands of feet long unspooling with unimaginable rapidity. Only when the cage passed a level—its bright lights and promise of life appearing and disappearing in the blink of an eye—was there a sense of the speed of their descent.

“He’s a fuckin’ Commie,” Jake heard from someone standing in front of him. “Câlice!” The French invective was hurled from the back of the cage. “Oh, and Thibault’s Red, too.” “Tabernac!” again from the rear.

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THE RAIDS [Sudbury mining history] Launch in Sudbury Draws a Great Crowd, Media Too – by Baraka Books (May 27, 2014)

To order The Raids, click here: http://www.barakabooks.com/catalogue/raids/

The Raids by Mick Lowe was launched before a crowd of some sixty friends and supporters at the Steelworkers’ Hall in Sudbury on Sunday, May 25.

Mick Lowe told guests about the importance and the challenges of making this story known, first to the people of the Nickel Range, but also to Canada and the world. “It’s still a taboo and there are still scars,” he insisted. He also pointed out the advantages of using fiction to make it known to the younger generation.

The crowd included miners and former miners who were all impressed by how well Mick Lowe grasped the work, the conditions, and the lives of miners. Peter Miner, a retired hardrock miner, helped Mick Lowe with technical points.

Also in attendance was Dave Patterson, a former hard-rock miner, former president of Local 6500 in Sudbury and director of District 6 of The Steelworkers. Patterson describes The Raids as “a compelling story of political power, love and hatred all rolled into a gritty, hard-hitting novel of the Nickel Range.” He predicts that the book will be a national bestseller in the Sudbury area alone.

Oryst Sawchuk, whose illustration Hardrock graces the book cover, spoke about how proud he was to be part of the project. Oryst contributed six other original illustrations of places and events that are key to the plot of The Raids, including one of the siege of the Mine Mill Local 598 Hall on Regent Street.

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Sudbury’s history part of new book, The Raids – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – May 10, 2014)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

To order The Raids, click here: http://www.barakabooks.com/catalogue/the-raids/

Sudbury author Mick Lowe has undertaken a herculean task, one far more challenging than writing a trilogy of novels after suffering a debilitating stroke six years ago.

The well-known journalist and non-fiction author is out to elevate the people of Sudbury and our history to the “mythos” of Canadian legend. “I want to create legend as well as history and fact because we’re worth it,” Lowe says quite simply.

Lowe, 67, will launch the first book in the series, “The Raids,” on Sunday, May 25 at the Steelworkers Union Hall and Conference Centre.

The setting for the launch party is ironic given the book is a fictionalized account of the bitter, decade-long battle by United Steelworkers to pull members from the then powerful Mine Mill and Smelter Workers Union Local 598.

The book is set in the spring of 1963, when 19-year-old Jake McCool works his first shift at Stobie Mine. The young miner becomes a participant in what Lowe describes as a war between the two unions. Lowe, who has lived at Pioneer Manor since his left side was paralysed from the stroke, says employees in their 20s there have shown great interest in what he’s been working on.

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Hotelier looks to drum up interest in mining history – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – March 5, 2014)

Established in 1980, Northern Ontario Business provides Canadians and international investors with relevant, current and insightful editorial content and business news information about Ontario’s vibrant and resource-rich North. Ian Ross is the editor of Northern Ontario Business ianross@nob.on.ca.

A Haileybury hotelier and tourism promoter wants to revive the area’s rich mining history and introduce it to a wider audience.

Nicole Guertin, co-owner of Presidential Suites, is hosting a media familiarization tour in early May designed to spark interest in the famed Cobalt mining camp and its impact in today’s Canadian mining industry.

While the Yukon has its lore of the Klondike, Guertin said the story of Cobalt and its place in Canadian history needs to be told.  “Being in the middle of this Abitibi-Timmins-Sudbury triangle, we haven’t really sold the area that much for mining.”

Since permanently settling in the Temiskaming area three years ago, Guertin and her partner, Jocelyn Blais, have purchased, renovated and rent out five historical homes in Haileybury.

Their most recent acquisition is a home they’ve dubbed Prospectors’ House, refurbished to highlight the history of the 1903 Silver Rush in Cobalt. Interior decorator Renelle Laliberte of Toronto decorated the four-storey home with a rustic theme in keeping with local mining history, and it features several original works by local artists.

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Top Ten Mining Events in Northern Ontario History – by Stan Sudol (March 22, 2014)

This column was also published on the Huffington Post – the “New York Times” of the web: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/stan-sudol/ontario-mining_b_4885841.html

Klondike Versus Northern Ontario

For crying out loud, I continue to be astonished with our collective Canadian obsession over the Klondike Gold Rush while northern Ontario’s rich and vibrant mining history is completely ignored by the Toronto media establishment, especially the CBC.

Discovery Channel’s recent six-hour mini-series on the Klondike – vaguely based on Charlotte Gray’s book, “Gold Diggers: Striking It Rich in the Klondike – once again highlighted this glaring snub.

Unfairly, the Klondike did have the benefit of terrific public relations due to famous writers like Jack London, Robert W. Service and Pierre Berton, but I still don’t understand how this brief mining boom continues to dominate the “historical oxygen” in our national psyche.

At its peak, the Klondike only lasted a few years – 1896-1899 – and produced about 12.5 million ounces of gold. And unlike the California gold rush that created one of the largest and richest states in the union, the entire Yukon Territory’s population today is about 36,000. Contrast that with booming Timmins with 45,000 hardy souls who have dug out of the ground about 68 million ounces and counting of the precious metal, since the Porcupine Gold rush of 1909.

It’s enough to make to make Benny Hollinger, Jack Wilson and Sandy MacIntyre – the founders of this extraordinary deposit – spin in their collective graves!

Read more