
Temiskaming Treasure Trails
1907-1909 Vol. 4
by Peter Fancy
By 1907, Cobalt was an established mining camp producing a large amount of the world's silver. Yet too little effort were the Ontario government and mineowners making to improve Cobalt's living conditions. Originally forced to lay out a townsite convenient to mineowners around Cobalt Lake, the T.&N.O. surveyed a trackside location close to LaRose Mine and at the southeast end of a trail William Trethewey had cleared from his New Ontario Mine. Then harried by newcomers eager to build, the surveyors hastily stamped a neat pattern of blueprint streets over the riot of broken hills. And hemmed in by the no-trespass stakes of private mining claims, the townsite of Cobalt became a prisoner cramped within a crooked cell.

With thousands of people suddenly at a site scarcely big enough or flat enough to accommodate hundreds, no wonder they suffered. Compounding the problem, Premier Whitney's Conservatives having inherited the municipal headache from a Liberal government decided the town could best look after its independent self. Suspecting Whitney had left them to pay the town's expenses, the 1907 mineowners declared they were in the business of finding silver not social welfare. So Cobalt had no money to spend on roads or waterworks. And Coleman township refused to help. Meanwhile clinging to worn ledges of Precambrian rock, Cobalt's people cried for someone to bring fresh water in and take raw sewage out.
Yet Haileybury, rebuilding after last year's disastrous fire, had already started laying water pipes under town streets-mainly because much of Cobalt's private money was finding its way into Haileybury hotels, stores and residential building lots. At least half of Cobalt's mineowners were planning homes here.
Not so conveniently located to Temiskaming's source of mining money, New Liskeard nevertheless still flexed muscle. Although founded as the base for Clay Belt agriculture, New Liskeard was as interested in mine shafts as plough shares. And with money earned in Cobalt, its people were also searching for gold at Larder Lake and silver in James township. And just as quickly as Cobalt and Haileybury, prospectors from New Liskeard were moving on to explore Gowganda.
Elk Lake and Gowganda gave 1908 life to Latchford, because the branch railway line into Chariton provided only winter-sleigh access to James township.
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Illustrations
1. Toboggan trek
2. Corner May and Murray streets, New Liskeard - 1907
3. Silver Queen Mine
4. Dr. Drummond's Kerr Lake house
5. Commerce Bank relaxation, Cobalt - 1907
6. Dr. Drummond's last letter
7. William Murray's house, New Liskeard
8. Vendome Hotel, Haileybury - 1907
9. Haileybury, south end view - 1907 - PA 130078
10. Haileybury businesses - 1907
11. Bradshaw and MeVittie's store, Haileybury - 1907
12. Robb family, Haileybury
13. Meteor picnic excursion
14. Whitney Avenue, Cobalt - 1907
15. Prospectors
16. Latchford steamboat dock
17. Cobalt Station - 1907 .
18. Views of New Liskeard - 1907
19. Gypsy at work on Lake Terniskaming
20. Broadway Street west, from Ferguson Avenue, Haileybury - 1907
21. Haileybury subdivision - 1907
22. Electrical plant, Haileybury - 1907
23. Elk City, June - 1907
24. Elk City visitors - 1907
25. Railway train at Temagami
26. Red Rock Mine
27. Bucke township mines - 1907
28. Cobalt mine stock certificate
29. Silver Street, Cobalt - 1907
30. Silver Street, Cobalt - 1907
31. Pork Rapids portage
32. Pork Rapids portage
33. Gillies Depot
34. Meteor approaching Murray City
35. Murray City, North Temiskaming
36. Haileybury view, from west end of Amwell Street - 1907
37. Haileybury view, from west end of Amwell Street - 1907
38. Haileybury view, from west end of Amwell Street - 1907
39. Haileybury view, from west end of Amwell Street - 1907
40. Wabis River, New Liskeard
41. Reading Camp interior, Cobalt Square - 1907
42. Principal Cobalt Mines - 1907
43. Cobalt view from south - 1907
44. Coniagas stamp mill
45. Cobalt Square - 1907
46. Cobalt Square - 1907
47. LaRose Mine, syndicate owners - 1907
48. Fall Fair building, New Liskeard
49. Temagami Station - 1907
50. McDougall Chutes - 1907
51. Elk City, October - 1907
52. Crown Reserve Mine vein
53. New Liskeard, west towards Armstrong Street - 1907
54. Cobalt ore shipments - 1907
55. Buffalo stamp mill
56. Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway route - 1907
57. Siegfried Atkinson
58. Diamond drill rig
59. Silver Cliff Mine, King Edward in background, Cross Lake
60. Agaunico Mines Development Company
61. Harris Mine, South Lorrain - 1907
62. Pork Rapids portage
63. Haileybury railway station
64. Haileybury police constable Martin
65. Whitewood Avenue-Paget Street comer, New Liskeard - 1908
66. Mrs. Dunbar and son Percy, Brewster Street, Haileybury - 1908
67. Armstrong Street, New Liskeard - 1908 - OAC- 12694
68. Northern Customs Concentrators
69. Cobalt T.& N.O. Station
70. Circus Parade, Main Street, Haileybury, June 22, 1908
71. Circus Parade, Main Street, Haileybury, June 22, 1908
72. At the circus, Haileybury, June - 1908
73. Latchford - 1908 - PA-C42799
74. James township map
75. Reddick stamp mill, Larder Lake
76. Larder Lake map
77. Hudson's Bay Company portage trail, Porcupine
78. Talbot Dunbar, Brewster Street friends, Haileybury - 1908
79. Haileybury dock and boats - PA-130077
80. Water cart delivery, Cobalt
81. Hunter Block, Cobalt - PA-121485
82. Milton Carr's store, Cobalt
83. Original Public School building, foot of Broadway St., Haileybury
84. Haileybury - 1908 - PA-C42795
85. New Liskeard advertisement
86. Temiskaming Mine
87. Phoebe Atkinson - Haileybury
88. Phoebe Atkinson - Haileybury
89. New Liskeard - 1908
90. New Liskeard - 1908
91. Cobalt mining stock prices, 1907-1908
92. Jory and Smith drugstore, Haileybury
93. Powell residence, Brewster Street, Haileybury - 1908
94. Dunbar residence, Brewster Street, Haileybury - 1908
95. Cobalt T.& N.O. station, Hunter Block in background
96. Cobalt ore shipments - 1908
97. Cobalt mills operating - 1908
98. First man-made bridge, Upper Notch rapids, Montreal River
99. Cobalt - 1908
100. Cobalt - 1908
101. Stable horses, Charlton
102. Elk Lake Supply Company, Smyth
103. Insley Stopping Place, Gowganda Trail - 1909
104. Insley Place
105. Insley Place
106. Main Street, Gowganda, February - 1909
107. Windsor Hotel, Gowganda, February - 1909
108. Vendome Hotel lobby, Haileybury
109. Con Corbeau and fans outside Vendome Hotel, Haileybury
110. Gus Mueller's temporary Main Street restaurant, Haileybury
111. Claim staking in Gowganda - 1909
112. Claim staking in Gowganda - 1909
113. Sample of Silver Centre ore on display at Vendome Hotel, Haileybury
114. Dunbar's delivery sleigh, Haileybury - 1909
115. Haileybury hockey team in Gowganda - 1909
116. A spring walk in New Liskeard
117. Haileybury hockey players with Gowganda camp crew - 1909
118. Gowganda Post Office, April - 1909
119. Preston's store, Haileybury - 1909
120. Working a Gowganda claim
121. Farr Avenue north from View Street, Haileybury - 1909
122. Mrs. Newton at rear of Vendome Hotel with "Cobalt", Haileybury
123. Mrs. Newton with Harry Holland's "Betsy" and "Paddy", Haileybury.
124. Matabanick Hotel, Haileybury
125. Corduroy trail into Silver Centre
126. Meteor at South Temiskaming
127. Dr. Hughes, Main Street, Haileybury
128. Elk Lake, west Smyth side
129. Elk Lake, east Elk City side
130. McKinley -Darragh Mine, Cobalt Lake
131. Lawson Silver Sidewalk Vein
132. Kerr Lake mines
133. Haileybury train wreck, June 24 - 1909
134. Temiskaming and Hudson Bay Mining Company, Cobalt
135. Methodist church and rectory, Haileybury
136. Haileyburian newspaper office - 1909
137. Cobalt town hall, Silver Street
138. Haileybury Road, Cobalt - 1909
139. Haileybury Road, Cobalt - 1909
140. Haileybury Road, Cobalt - 1909
141. Haileybury Road, Cobalt - 1909
142. Haileybury baseball team
143. Brewster Street, Haileybury
144. Brewster Street, Haileybury
145. Haileybury, north end - 1909 - PA-149230
146. Dam and spillway construction, Ragged Chutes, Montreal River
147. Cobalt Hydraulic main air pipeline
148. Rock drilling contest, Cobalt - 1909
149. Gem property discovery, Coleman township
150. Cobalt Hospital
151. Attorney Hotel, Haileybury
152. Typhoid epidemic nurses, Cobalt
153. Preston's store, Haileybury
154. Prospectors at Haileybury station
155. T.& N.O. Mileage 222 1/2
156. Benny Hollinger and Alec Gillies at first building on their Porcupine claim
157. Silver Centre townsite, Landing 66
158. Nipissing Central track laying, corner of Georgina Avenue and Blackwell Street, Haileybury - 1909
159. Cobalt Lake, north end
160. O'Brien mill with trackway
161. Cobalt mill productions
162. Cobalt ore shipments