Temiskaming Treasure Trails ~1907-1909

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.

author Peter Fancy

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.

Go Here for List of Illustrations | Go Here for preview of the extensive Index.

ISBN: 0-88954-374-7 | WMPub# 1184 | 8½" x 11"
218 pages, Hardcover with Dust Cover | $24.95


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