Page 10 on July 10, 1907 and Mattson staked two claims on Aug. 5. A company was formed to work the property and a small shaft was sunk. One small gold bar was produced but the vein proved short. A fre in 1908 destroyed the workings and the proj - ect was abandoned. T wo other discoveries were made in 1907. In the summer , Charlie Auer made one on the peninsula that stretches into Nigh Hawk Lake from the north. The Night Hawk Peninsular Mine was developed on his ground. Alex Kelso found an outcropping of sulphides near Night Hawk Lake. It eventually became a nickel mine. While Night Hawk Lake was close to the Porcupine, it was not considered part of the Porcupine Gold Camp. fact that big companies did not make all the money in Cobalt, many indi - viduals and syndicate members, be - came wealthy . They were prepared to gamble their own money on prospec - tors making more discoveries. Many mineral seekers decided to head north to the general area around Night Hawk Lake The frst mining claims staked in the area was by Edward Orr T aylor on the southeast shore of Night Hawk Lake. He apparently did nothing with the claims. Early records indicate among the frst prospectors in the area was Reuben D’Aigle. At age 19, he had gone into the Klondike and made a fortune but still loved being in the bush. In 1906, he headed a party that did some work on the ground later to be staked by Benny Hollinger , Alex Gil - lies, Jack Miller , Cary Dixon and Bob Middleton that con - tained the base discovery of the Mighty Hollinger Gold Mine. D’Aigle’ s party cut some trails, dug some trenches and even opened a small pit. Having found nothing, D’Aigle abandoned the area, leaving Hollinger to deepen the pit and making his great fnd. The earliest gold discovery in the area was made in 1907 by two Finnish prospectors, V ictor Mansen and Harry Benella.(that is the spelling in many books but the signatures on their min - ing licence applications were Bannala and Mattson) It was on what they called Gold Island in Night Hawk Lake. Bannala staked his discovery claim What the discoveries did was draw a lot more prospectors into the area. The Ontario Government declared the frst gold discovery in The Porcupine, meaning the adjoining geographic T ownships of Whitney and T isdale, was made on Nov . 8, 1907 by pros - pectors working for A.G. Hunter , a T oronto lawyer . They found a gold vein on the east side of Porcupine Lake, which extended into the water . On this claim a mine was developed in 1910 and operated until 1914. Generally known as the Hunter Mine throughout several lives the property was offcially called the Por - cupine Lake Mine. In the summer of 1908, Geor ge Bannerman and his partners T om Geddes and Harry Lemon went into the area. Geddes and Lemon were trappers but for a quar - ter interest in anything Ban - nerman found, they took him to where they had been told by an Indian there was some coal about a mile north of the northwest shore of Porcupine Lake. What they found was an iron formation but Bannerman and Geddes returned to the area in 1909 and found gold. He staked his claims July 31. Bannerman only received a quarter interest in the proper - ty , which becam e the Scottish Ontario Gold Mine, because two members of his church in Haileybury had grubstaked him for half of any discoveries. Geddes got the other quarter but no mention was ever made of Lemon. The mine was rich but didn’ t last long. When Bannerman fled his claims on his return to Haileybury , the rumour spread he had made a “spectacular” discovery . That was the spark that set of f the Great Porcupine Gold Rush. First pr oducing gold mine in Por cupine Camp found in 1906 Cont’d from pg. 6 “The Porcupine Camp” 100 Y ears of Mining Page 8