Page 8 By Gregory Reynolds It took three major events years and many miles apart to give birth to the greatest gold camp in North America. The gold lay undisturbed under what was to become the City of T immins for mill ions of years and would have lain there many more decade s if not for: 1- the Great Klondike Gold Rush that occurred in 1897-99, after the discov - ery of gold in 1896; 2-two dif ferent geologists working for the Ontario government wrote reports in the 1990s and 3-the Ontario Legislature authorized a railway from North Bay to New Liskeard in 1902, which led to the discovery in 1903 of silver at Cobalt and a mining rush into the area. While not many of the thousands of gold-seekers who swarmed into the Y ukon got rich, most did acquire some knowledge of mining. Granted, the gold of the Klondike was in the form of loose nuggets and fakes found in rivers and streams. Some of the men who didn’ t fnd the mother lode in the W est came East and became prospectors, hunting for sur - face outcrops that contained enough gold to hint at rich veins in the womb of Mother Earth. An historical nod must be given to two events that predated the Y ukon fnd, the Califo rnia Gold Rush 1848- 64 and two British Columbia Gold Rushes, frst along the Fraser River in 1858 and in the Cariboo District in 1862. Governments pumped up the facts in order to encourage people to head for California and British Columbia, aided by news reports of ordinary people fnding great wealth in the wil - derness. Gold fever can strike anyone at any time so American and Canadian grandfathers and fathers told tall tales of their advent ures in the gold felds. There were always plenty of young men, and a few women, who loved being away from civilization, enjoyed the solitude of the wilderness and had the kind of stubborn dedication re - quired to chase a dream. Gold was frst discovered in Ontario on Aug. 18, 1866, near Madoc in the County of Hastings. Many other discoveries were made but all the mines were short lived and there was not a gold mining industry as such, even after gold was found in 1887 in the nickel belt around Sud - bury . In 1896, E.M. Burwash, acting for the Ontario Bureau of Mines, examined the country along the Algoma-Nipiss - ing boundary line, which had been run as far as the southeast corner of Whit - ney T ownship. He noted the occurrence of quartz veins carrying traces of gold, one of them being the east boundary of Shaw T ownship. It was only a few miles from the southeast corner of what was to become the main Porcupine Gold Camp. Burwash recorded that the area was a promising one for the prospector , gold being widely distributed, both in veins and mineralized rock. In 899, W .A. Parks reported on the geology of the portage route from the Mattagami River to Night Hawk Lake. Like Burwash, he noted gold in quartz veins, particularly in the southwest portion of Whitney T ownship. He described the region south of the trail to Porcupine Lake as giving promise of reward to the prospector . The construction of the T emiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway led to the discovery of silver at Cobalt and a mining rush that set records. The prospectors who did not fnd silver on their claims or arrived too late to stake good ground turned their atte ntion to other parts of Northeastern Ontario. They were grubstaked (given food and supplies for a period in the bush in return for a percentage of any dis - coveries) in most cases by people who had made money from the Co - balt silver discoveries. What gave birth to a new era in mining was the First producing gold mine in the Porcupine Camp was on Gold Island in Night Hawk Lake in 1907. One gold bar was produced before a fre destroyed the mine. Cont’d on pg. 8 Money fr om Cobalt silver mines fnanced Por cupine gold sear ch “The Porcupine Camp” 100 Y ears of Mining Page 6