Page 12 By Gregory Reynolds It had been known for several years that there was gold in the general area of The Porcupine but the discover - ies made before the summer of 1909 failed to excite other parts of Northern Ontario, much less the province. Even though a gold bar was poured in 1907 on Gold Island in Night Hawk Lake and a number of discoveries were in the development stage in 1909 in what was to become The Por - cupine Camp, the lar gest and richest gold area in North America, there was a lar ge section of the fnancial com - munity , and the newspaper -reading public, that believed gold mining was never going to be an industry in On - tario. That all changed when Geor ge Ban - nerman fled his claims at the Ontario mining recorder ’ s offce in Haileybury after staking them on July 31, 1909 Samples from his Whitney T ownship claims were believed to be “spec - tacular” even before he reached the recorder ’ s offce. Rumours are more important than facts and word of his fnd spread around the world in a mat - ter of days. Dreamers seeking instant wealth and prospectors from many nations head - ed for the bush of Northern Ontario. It becam e the mining rush of all min - ing rushes. It was 152 miles from Haileybury to the gold camp in winter by railway and road (which was stretching the defni - tion by called a path between trees and over frozen muskeg a road) In summer , gold seekers could take the railway to the station at Kelso and then travel by boat or canoe 52 miles over often treacherous water bodies. Only the poor or foolhardy back packed through the mud and muskeg in summer . Among the hundreds, soon to become thousands, of prospectors who headed to The Porcupine were several groups who were to write their names in the history books. Jack W ilson headed a group funded with $1,000 by two Chicago men, W il - liam (Pop) Edwards and Dr . Thomas N. Jamieson. Among the seven-man party with W il - son was Harry Preston. One of these two men discovered the “Golden Stairway” that led to the Dome Gold Mine. The company accepted it was W ilson as he led the party but the Ontario gov - ernment in 1954 credited Preston. The Dome, which got its offcial name and also its nickname of the Big Dome from the lar ge outcropping that con - tained the “Golden Stairway” went into production in 1910 and continues to operate today , settling a new Cana - dian record for a gold mine every day it is open. The discovery was made on June 6, 1909 in T isdale T ownship but be - cause the party had used up all its mine tags. The fve prospectors in the party were enti tled to each stake three claims but they staked and recorded 15 claims on a fnd south of the Ban - nerman site and also on a visible gold fnd called the Ida Maud after W il - son’ s wife. Therefore, they couldn’ t legally stake the Dome fnd until new tags were obtained. This entailed W ilson go - ing back to Haileybury and returning with tags for the prospectors in the party . Harry Preston was guarding the fnd with rife in hand in early October when Benny Hollinger and Alex Gil - lies dropped in for a chat. Being told there was no good ground open in the area, Hollinger and Gillies pushed on to the west where Hollinge r found the famous mine named after him on Oct. 9. Right behind them were Sandy McIn - tyre and Hans Buttner who the same day staked claims immediately north of the Hollinger -Gillies land and found the McIntyre Mine. Thus while the discovery of the Big Three of Canadian mining were Cont’d on pg. 12 Who found Dome never settled but fabulous mine lives on today “The Porcupine Camp” 100 Y ears of Mining Page 10