Temiskaming Treasure Trails
1904-1906 Volume 3
by Peter Fancy
In 1904, the spring-summer days of Haileybury and New Liskeard scarcely missed their slow settlement beat. Surveyors, though, were mapping the township of Coleman as lonely mineral prospectors picked its conglomerate-diabase rocks round about the T.& N.O. railway tracks a few miles south at Long Lake. Were the prospectors finding anything of value? Probably not, local residents scoffed, if the rocks were as stingy as those of Haycock's Matawapika Mine or Wright's silvered lead workings across Lake Temiskaming.
Yet people who should know better, Colonel Leonard, Charles Denison of Buffalo, the Drummond brothers of Montreal, Quebec's Provincial Assayer Milton Hersey, William Trethewey, the Timmins brothers of Mattawa were risking hundreds even thousands of dollars. And Ontario's Provincial Geologist Willet G. Miller was so certain of another Klondike mining camp here, he insisted the T& N.O. Commissioners name its unique station-stop Cobalt.
More money and miners began drifting north. From distant New York, Ellis Earle quietly bought several hundred acres of land around Long Lake. And the T & N.O. started freighting one, then two, three and more carloads of silver highgrade south to smelters in the United States. Would the bonanza deposits, however, continue underground? Yes, Professor Miller said and wrote a Bureau of Mines Report to prove it.
By 1906, deeper mine shafts kept finding silver not only in the veins but also in the host rock around them.
Make your fortune in Canada, promoters barked. The world listened and a mining boom was on. Though some wildcat schemes roared loud the real production of honest mines soon silenced them. But with Cobalt's rich ground completely claimed, prospectors had to spread into neighbouring regions. Where they discovered more: Temagami, Montreal River, Larder and Night Hawk lakes became familiar newspaper headlines. Was Temiskaming one huge Precambrian body of minerals?
The pioneers of New Liskeard and Haileybury hoped so, for local miners were spending money as fast as they made it. Store shelves emptied before new supplies arrived by rail; hotel hallways jammed with extra guests; boardwalks lengthened past building lots no longer vacant; music halls entertained; sawmills whined night and day. Even steamboats from the Head of the Lake, Piché's Point and Ville Marie barged fresh meat, poultry, vegetables and grain to the markets of Cobalt Square. Whistling boats, sawmills, mines and trains were tangling Temiskaming together.
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ILLUSTRATIONS
1. Haileybury subdivision - 1904 3
2. LaRose discovery vein - 1904 4
3. Farr, Cobbold, Atkinson houses, Haileybury - 1904 7
4. Devil's Rock, Lake Temiskaming 8
5. LaRose Mine, May - 1904 9
6. Prospectors at Long Lake - 1904 11
7. Professor Miller examines LaRose vein, June - 1904 13
8. Township of Coleman - 1904 14
9. Haileybury view - 1904 16
10. Cross section of diabase sill intrusion 4 17
11. Trethewey's discovery vein - 1904 18
12. Armstrong Street, New Liskeard - 1904 22
13. Little Vein - 1904 23
14. Looking west on Main Street, Haileybury - 1904 24
15. New Liskeard view - 1904 27
16. New Liskeard view - 1904 27
17. Cobalt ore shipments - 1904 28
18. Meteor, steamship 31
19. Haileybury Baptist church 32
20. Cobalt, June - 1905 34
21. Matabanick Hotel bums, Haileybury, May - 1905 35
22. Cobalt, June - 1905 38
23. Haileybury, August - 1905 39
24. Haileybury view from Public School - 1905 41
25. LaRose Mine - 1905 43
26. Sketch map, silver veins in Coleman township 45
27. Cobalt townsite map - 1905 46
28. Cobalt Hotel 47
29. Haileybury subdivision - 1905 47
30. Haileybury, October - 1905 49
31. Wabi River Harbour, New Liskeard - 1905 51
32. Dredge Queen at work on Lake Temiskaming 52
33. Cobalt, December - 1905 55
34. Cobalt ore shipments - 1905 56
35. McKinley -Darragh mining camp, March - 1906 58
36. Waiting for break-up, Cobalt - 1906 60
37. Haileybury subdivision - 1906 60
38. Cobalt townsite, April - 1906 62
39. Cobalt Square - 1906 63
40. New Matabanick Hotel, Haileybury, April - 1906 63
41. Prospect Avenue, Cobalt - 1906 65
42. Prospect Hotel, Cobalt - 1906 66
43. Canadian Bank of Commerce, Cobalt - 1906 66
44. Buffalo Mine, Cobalt - 1906 67
45. Start of Haileybury road from Cobalt Square - 1906 68
46. Grand Opera House, New Liskeard 69
47. Building Reading Camp Association building, Cobalt Square - 1906 70
48. New Liskeard view from Grand Union Hotel - 1906 71
49. Looking east on Main Street, Haileybury, May - 1906 76
50. Looking north on Ferguson Avenue, Haileybury, May - 1906 76
51. Provincial Constable George Caldbick 77
52. Grimason's & Coombe's Whitewood Ave. stores, New Liskeard - 1906 79
53. Murray Street, New Liskeard - 1906 80
54. Cobalt Square, summer - 1906 81
55. Foster Mine, Cobalt - 1906 83
56. Business in tents after August 21 fire, Haileybury - 1906 89
57. Bob Shillington views Haileybury's August 21 fire damage - 1906 91
58. Ferguson Avenue sidewalk, Haileybury - 1906 94
59. Pense township mining area map 96
60. A Sunday stroll in Haileybury, foot of Amwell Street, October - 1906 98
61. Cobalt Hospital - 1906 99
62. Whitney Avenue, Cobalt - 1906 101
63. Whitney Avenue, Cobalt, - 1906 103
64. Cobalt fire station - 1906 107
65. Prospectors on Montreal River 110
66. Cobalt ore shipments-1906 113