Page 74 By Gregory Reynolds The names of famous gold mining communities are familiar to everyone in the industry but too often the mine fnder is for gotten. T immins is forever linked to six men, Jack W ilson and Harry Preston for the Dome, Benny Hollinger and Alex Gillies for the Hollinger and Sandy McIntyre and Hans Buttner for the McIntyre. Their discoveries became the Big Three of Canadian Mining. In Kirkland Lake, the names of Harry Oakes and his Lake Shore Gold Mine, discovered in1912, never will be for - gotten. Can anyone name any other prospec - tor/mine fnder when thinking about the other Ontario gold dependent communities Red Lake, Litt le Long Lac, Lake of the W oods, Stur geon Lake, Matach - ewan, Pickle Lake, Larder Lake and other communities were born because of prospectors. Some of the townsites have gone into decline because the gold ran out. Still, those chasing the gold dream are go - ing back to areas where there were early fnds and some successes have been recorded. A party headed by R.J. Gilbert is cred - ited with the frst fnd in Red Lake but the Howey Mine discovered in 1924 by two brothers from Kirkland Lake, Lorne and Ray Howey , was the frst major producer . Larder Lake came about because H.L. Kerr and Dr . W illiam Addison fol - lowed up on work done by the Geo - logical Survey and found the Kerr - Addison Mine in 1905. T oday’ s prospectors often follow in the footsteps of those in the 1880s and 1900s and they are cut from the same cloth. They believe in themselves, are stubborn, have the support of their loved ones and are willing to make sacrifces. Unlike the early prospector with his pickaxe, the modern prospector uses computers, radar based information generated from satellites and equip - ment that probes far beneath the Earth’ s surface. Intuition, the feeling that something of value is in a certain spot when his - tory and logic says otherwise is still important. Shawn R yan spent 17 years looking for gold in the Y ukon using scientifc data and a hunch. He was laughed at by others in the feld, just as Oakes was derided in his day but both were right. R yan’ s reward was to become wealthy and the PDAC award of Prospector of the Y ear for 2010. The reward for the Y ukon was a re - vival of its mining industry , millions of dollars poured into the territory’ s economy and hundreds of jobs cre - ated in the supply and service sector . T immins has made certain its founders will not be for gotten, erecting statutes of W ilson, McIntyre and Hollinger on the grounds of its museum. Perhaps that gesture should be repeat - ed in all the gold communi ties that sprang up around the fnds made by prospectors. What should be remembered by the municipal councils of gold commu - nity is that there will never be any more. More than 40 years ago, Ontario de - creed that there would be no more communities in the bush dependent on a mine. Miners would have to re - side in the nearest existing or ganized community . Mining companies can have bunk houses at the mine site but when the ore is exhausted, everything has to be torn down and the land restored. That is why the De Beers diamond mine in the James Bay Lowlands is Pr ospectors need to be seen as the her oes they r eally ar e “The Porcupine Camp” 100 Y ears of Mining Page 74 Cont’d on pg. 75