Page 24 drawing unemployed men, fortune hunters, trappe rs, lumberjack s, trav - elling salesmen, gamblers, perspec - tive merchants, wives and children and prostitutes and waitresses. Some pioneers said 200 was a good guess. There were always many people in the bush trying to reach The Porcu - pine from Sudbury via the water high - way , from Kelso on the T emiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway then by foot and canoe and from just about anywhere by foot. There were also the seasoned pros - pectors and rank amateurs who were seeking gold amid the trees. There was no hope of stopping or even fghting the fres. The pioneers either outran the fames to a place of safety…..or they died. Those who found a body of water lar ge enough to retain an envelope of oxygen over it survived the day of devastation. Rain during the night ended the night - mare. The following day the bodies were gathered. Some were buried where they were found because there was no offcial cemetery . Others were placed in boats for the slow , sad journey to the east bank of Porcupine Lake. A new name was born, Dead Man’ s Point, and one can still walk amid the headboards and stones marking the f - nal resting place of some of the 71. Curses about the railway being bad luck changed to shouts of praise and prayers of thanksgiving on July 12 when a train arrived with food, cloth - ing, bedding, medical supplies donat - ed by the T . Eaton Company . Hundreds of army tents were supplied by the Canadian government. W ith most of the Camp’ s housing gone, tents became the only shelter for weeks but almost no one left. The surviving rebuilt the mines imme - Cont’d from pg. 20 diately . Homes, stores and businesses also sprang up. The railway was the lifeline that not only brought in the needed supplies and equipment but a food of newcom - ers. By December , the Camp’ s popu - lation reached 10,000. Also on July 12, the T oronto Board of Survivors had to outrace fames T rade, in conjunction with the City of T oronto, started a disaster fund for The Porcupine and raised $37,000 in the frst week In 1913, the board reported the fund’ s total was $60,483.64, all given to the victims of the fre. Even though the railway had suf fered damage in the fre, it replace d tracks and even extended them four miles to T immins. The frst train arrived on Jan. 1, 1912, the same day T immins offcially became a town. The residents of South Porcupine, Porcupine and Porquis Junction re - built not just their communities but their lives. Most had lost everything but the clothes on their backs but they never lost thei r spirit, the determina - tion to create a new life in the wilder - ness in face of dangers, disappoint - ment and disasters. “The Porcupine Camp” 100 Y ears of Mining Page 22