Page 34 By Gregory Reynolds The history of medical service s in The Porcupine is a story unto itself but it is also the story of how men and women from all over the world made their way into the wilderness of Northern Ontario, carved out communities, cre - ated a way of life and raised families. They faced, and overcame, numerous obstacles, many setbacks and count - less hardships. Many of the problems consider minor today were actually life threatening. No diffculty facing those pioneers was greater than obtaining medical services. There were always doctors in this area but the fee-for -service system of the day was an issue with individ uals and families that lived from pay check to pay check. T immins is offcially 100 years old this year and it faces a bright future that could easily last another 10 decades. Y et, there were many times when the future of T immins was in doubt. Through fres, foods, mine disasters and economic downturns, the resi - dents of The Porcupine persevered. That name covered the earl y settle - ments of Porcupine, South Porcupine, Schumacher , T immins and Mountjoy . All these communities, and another half dozen townsites at both operating and closed mines, were mer ged Jan. 1, 1973 to become the City of T im - mins. The city was created by the provincial government but the fve maj or com - munities retained their identities and the loyalty of their residents. The discovery in 1909 of the big three mines, the Dome, Hollinger and McIntyre, set of f a stampede of men and women in to the bush that still surrounds us. If you have never lived in a company town, you have no idea of the control a single major industry can exercise over the lives of its workers, their families and residents of the commu - nity dependent upon that industry . The Hollinger Gold Mine was in pro - duction in 1910 and it soon realized it needed a hospital as mining is a dan - gerous business. W orkers get hurt, workers get ill and time lost is money lost to a company . It hired a staf f doctor and opened its own hospital in 1912 at the northeast corner of Fifth A venue and Spruce Street. The Sisters of Providence , a Montre - al-based Catholic order , were asked, and accepted the of fer , to manage and staf f the hospital. The 10-bed Hollinger Hospital limited its services to its workers. The wives, the chil dren and any other relative of those workers could not recei ve treat - ment........ although in the frst couple of years there were few families. If a prospector , a storekeeper , or a miner from one of the small opera - tions, got sick or injured, he had to fnd a doctor who would treat him. And he had to fnd a way to pay for any medical help. Doctors made house calls in part be - cause they did not have the authority to send anyone to the Hollinger Hos - pital. Let us look at a farmer falling of f a hayloft. There was no telephone so a family member or a neighbour had to take him to the nearest doctor and if the farmer was too badly hurt to be moved, someone had to fnd a doctor Hollinger r estricted its hospital to employees only in early days Cont’d on pg. 34 Second Hollinger Hospital opened in 1923 at Fifth and Pine Street. “The Porcupine Camp” 100 Y ears of Mining Page 32