Silver Centre
the Story of an Ontario Mining Camp
by Peter Fancy
Silver Centre was one of Canada's celebrated mining camps. It discovered millions of dollars in silver ore (when silver's price averaged 50¢ an ounce) and probably has as much mineral wealth waiting today in its unexamined Keewatin ground for some future economic development. But most importantly, in terms of Ontario's social history, this Silver Centre story represents the way of life for many of the people living in northern Ontario during the early years of the 20th century.
The story follows in detail the mining prospectors of l907: their silver discoveries; the early mines; their successes and failures; the depressing World War I years; then rebirth with the mother lode discovery of 1920 and its climactic decade of phenomenal silver treasure; finally, the inevitable exhaustion of known deposits. Falling metal prices discourage continued searches. Mines close-suddenly abandoned. This particular drama of prospectors and developers struggling with the Precambrian rocks is a constant, unifying theme.
Silver Centre is the story of a mining community and its people, of fellowship and stubborn pleasure.
This reprint of the 1985 edition contains all the information, maps, diagrams and photos of the original. The errata has been incorporated into the text and minor errors corrected. It will serve those interested in the mining history of this area well. A loose separate map of Silver Centre is included, and a copy can be downloaded here.
Go Here for Table of Contents | Go here for a look at the Index | Go here for a list of the illustrations.
ISBN: 978-1-989615-40-9 | WMPub#1332 | 8½" x 11"
126 pages; 116 photos, maps and diagrams; trade paperback | $24.95
Table of Contents
5Original Acknowledgments 1985; Acknowledgements 2021
6Illustrations
10Foreword
13Chapter 1: 1907 South Lorrain Whispers
21Chapter 2: 1907-1908 Quietly to be Quick
25 Chapter 3: 1908 Fresh Fills the Air
31 Chapter 4: 1909 Green with Rain the Grasses Grow
42 Chapter 5: 1910-1913 A Dry Thunder
47Chapter 6: 1914-1915 Stretching out Your Hand to Feel the Wind
50 Chapter 7: 1916-1918 A Low Sky
54 Chapter 8: 1919-1921 Unravel this Curdled Cloud
60 Chapter 9: 1922-1923 Into the Radiant Sun
67 Chapter 10: 1924 The Roaring Machines Drown Your Shout
74 Chapter 11: 1924 Along the Level of the Roofs
94 Chapter 12: 1925 Heavy Days of Slow Delight
103 Chapter 13: 1926 To Warn the Way that Winter Comes
109 Chapter 14: 1927-1928 Rustles When the Leaves are Thin
114 Chapter 15: 1929-1931 The Branches Bare
117 Chapter 16: 1930s The Edge of the Hill
120 Bibliography
121 Index
Illustrations
15 Bob Jowsey's map with Purcell's directions
16 Formation - Rough concentric circles
17 Cobalt 1907
18 New Liskeard 1907
18 Staking a claim
19 Haileybury Wharf 1907
21 Mine Shaft Workings Cross Section
24 A prospectors' camp, Gowganda, 1908
24 Hand steeling the surface trench, Gowganda, 1908
26 Keeley number 1 discovery shaft, HR 19, 1908 (looking east)
26 Keeley number 1 discovery shaft, HR 19, 1908 (looking west)
28 Active Claims 1908
28 Sullivan's Landing ("66") - 1908
29 Landing 66 townsite, Silver Centre - 1908
29 Haileybury Silver Mining Co., HR 16, 1908 (looking west)
30 Two Compartment Shafts
32 Diabase Dome
32 Mining Supplies
37 Stock certificate in new Silver Eagle mining company, HR 97 - 1909
38 Active claims 1909-1910
43 Hand steeling underground
44 Steam diamond drill
45 Wettlaufer shaft house and mill, HR 85 - 1910
45 Wettlaufer silver high-grade; camp buildings in background - 1910
46 Riding the shaft bucket.
47 Bob Jowsey - a World War 1 recruit, Ontario Archives
48 Pittsburgh Lorrain and Wettlaufer underground connection.
49 Keeley number 1 shaft house - 1915 (looking east)
49 Dr. James Mackintosh Bell at Silver Centre
49 Keeley number 1 shaft house - 1915 (looking east)
53 Provencher's store, the original Montrose Mine, RL 459, bunkhouse.
54 Steamer Meteor unloading at Silver Centre wharf, May 2, 1921.
56 Keeley mill and number 3 shaft house.
56 HR 21, the recent discovery shaft at the bottom right of the new mill building - 1921.
58 Horace Strong with his wife Edna and baby Norville, 1921.
59 Keeley number 2 head frame, HR 19.
59 Mine-Mill Workings
60 Mel Robb holds Keeley silver sample - 1922
61 Keeley engineer, Leonard Smith, points to Wood's vein silver - 1922
62 Frontier Lorrain number 1 shaft house, at the left, and camp - 1922
63 New number 3 Frontier shaft house - 1923 (on site of old cookery)
64 Enlarged Keeley mill - 1922
64 Newly enlarged number 3 Keeley head frame - 1922
64 1923 - New Keeley Mine-Mill viewed from the south
65 Main Veins
66 Discovery of Wood's vein at Lorrain Trout Lake Mine, HR 103 - April 1923
67 Frontier Lorrain Mine, new cookery - 1924
67 Keeley shift boss Jack MacLeod, Underground Superintendent Bob Cameron
69 Frontier mine captain Gottfrid Hammerstrom at left,
69 Doctor Gordon Smith at centre, Lyman Fancy at right
69 Frontier mine manager, Harold Fancy
70 Keeley mine superintendent, Bob Cameron
70 Keeley mine manager, Mark Little
70 Frontier mine bookkeeper, Sterling Grant
70 Mining Corporation geologist, Warren Eamons, at left.
71 Vein Workings
72 Visiting dignitaries at the Keeley
72 The Keeley camp in the hollow, winter 1924. Note: the "Farmer's Bank" office and apartment building at the back, the double bunkhouse at the right, the cookery at left and storehouse in middle. The boiler plant and stable are in the foreground. The Doctor's house is at the upper right.
73 Frontier Lorrain Mines Ltd. from the Bellellen hill - 1924. Flanked by number 1 shaft house on left and number 3 on right. Keeley number 3 shaft house looms on horizon.
74 Silver Centre Railway Station
75 75 Bob Cameron's house at left, Keeley mill bunkhouse at center, Mark Little's house to the right.
76 Silver Centre post office stamp from Brennan's store
77 Russell Marshall, Silver Centre station agent with his son, Stanley
77 Joe Slater's (Jack Dexter's) house beside hydro substation at Beaver Lake
77 Harold Findlay's house
78 Gottfrid Hammerstrom's house
78 Dunc McDonald and wife Kate
79 Silver Centre Public School
80 First Public School class, October 1923.
81 Harold Fancy's house
84 Brennan's Store
85 Tennis at the Keeley, south side of the mill.
85 Recreational skating on the Keeley tennis court
85 The Keeley Frontier baseball team
85 Skiing at the Keeley slimes
85 A sleigh ride at the Keeley
86 The Frontier hockey team.
87 Silver Centre's Temiskaming baseball league champions - 1926
88 The Keeley camp in the hollow viewed from the Harris hill, looking south.
88 The hockey rink is in the foreground.
89 Gottfrid Hammerstrom, wife Anna, sons Harry and Bill outside their house
89 Clarence Scanlon, at left, with a Keeley friend.
89 Eugene Provencher and daughter Eugenie
90 A hockey game at the Keeley rink.
90 Brennan's store at the distant left and houses strung along Loon Lake road to the right.
91 Hill 60 viewed from the east side of the Wettlaufer Fault. The movie theatre is at centre left.
92-92 Map of Silver Centre 1924 (also available separately)
95 Silver Centre Railway Terminus
95 Frontier Mine buildings, 1925. Looking north.
96 Woods vein silver, back of 300 foot level stope,
96 Frontier-Crompton property. (Ontario Archives)
97 Frontier mine captain Gottfrid Hammerstrom with Watson vein silver nugget from just above the diabase sill.
98 Hand steeling the Forneri shaft, HS 42, 1925.
98 Carl Hammerstrom second from the left, Eric Greening at the right.
99 Silver Centre - Vein Occurences
100 Frontier Mine buildings, 1926. Looking south.
100 Watson vein - 3rd level south - Frontier Mine
98 Drilling a drift round at Frontier Mine 1925
98 Gunnar Greening at left,
98 Gunnar Manderstrom at right.
101 Watson vein - 8 x C, 5th level - Frontier Mine.
101 The surface crew posed in front of the Frontier compressor house - 1925.
102 Off shift miners at the Frontier bunkhouse - 1925.
104 Waiting for the Haileybury steamer to leave for the Matabitchuan, 1920.
104 The Matabitchuan power plant with Tenement apartment building at the right.
104 Landing 66, Maidens Bay, Lake Temiskaming. Gertie Spencer, teacher from the Matabitchuan, stands next to Pete Larocque (Junior) on the right.
106 Maidens Bay Mining Area.
107 Canadian Lorrain Mill under construction.
107 Pete Larocque's fish nets drying at Maidens Bay.
108 Matabitchuan community picnic, December 9, 1923.
112 HR 64 shaft, South Lorrain, 1928
112 HR 64 shaft, South Lorrain, 1928. Looking towards Lake Temiskaming.
113 1922 Claim Map Ontario Dept. of Mines, Vol. 31, pt 2,
115 Keeley Lower Contact Workings: 1930-31
115 Keeley silver ore, approximately 30,000 ounces, from below diabase sill.
116 Abandoned mines with shaft depths at Keewatin-diabase contact.
117 Down the Lorrain Valley road to Silver Centre.
119 Silver Centre Production Chart