Porcupine Mining Area Earthcache
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PORCUPINE MINING AREA EARTHCACHE
The posted co-ordinates will take you to a plaque in a small park in Porcupine on the north side of King Street (Highway 101 East), across the street from Bannerman Park, (which is on the north shore of Porcupine Lake). The bilingual plaque was erected in 1992 by the Ontario Heritage Foundation, and reads as follows:
"PORCUPINE MINING AREA - From the 1880's onwards, as railways opened up Northern Ontario, prospecting activities in this region intensified. The Porcupine gold rush began in 1909 following 3 significant discoveries. Thousands of Prospectors and miners poured into Tisdale and neighboring Townships to stake claims. By 1912 several mines were in operation, including the celebrated 'Big Three': Dome, Hollinger and McIntyre. That year the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway opened a branch line from South Porcupine to Timmins, which made it easier to bring in the heavy machinery needed to mine the hard rock of the Canadian Shield. For a number of years the Porcupine gold fields produced more gold than any other region in North America. The area continues to be an important source of valuable minerals."
Only a few mining claims were staked before 1909, including one for A. G. Hunter of Toronto in 1907. That property, which eventually became the Hunter Mine, was located at the east end of Porcupine Lake, and was once visible from this site, less than a kilometer away. George Bannerman and Tom Geddes prospected about a kilometer north of Porcupine Lake in Whitney Township in 1909 and found good surface showings and staked what became the Scottish-Ontario Mine on July 31, 1909. (It was later re-named the Canusa Mine). Bannerman was slow in recording the claims in Haileybury, because of the distance and difficulty involved but when he did, his rich samples caused much excitement and some historians have given him credit for starting the gold rush. Already in the area, the Jack Wilson, Harry Preston Party, which was grubstaked by W. S. Edwards and Dr. T.N. Jamieson of Chicago, discovered two rich quartz veins named the 'Ida Maude' and the 'Golden Staircase'. The gold stood out like 'huge sponges' & 'candle drippings' on the white quartz of what was to become the "Dome Mine", situated about a kilometer west of Porcupine Lake in Tisdale Township. Benny Hollinger and Alex Gilles had passed the Wilson party a few days after their find and moved farther west in Tisdale Township to stake several claims around a large showing of free gold. Noah Timmins, who had made a fortune in silver mines in Cobalt, negotiated options with the prospectors and eventually developed the rich Hollinger Mine and surveyed the adjacent Townsite which bears his name - "Timmins". In October of 1909, Sandy McIntyre and Hans Butner quickly staked claims near the Hollinger find. Their claims became the nucleus of the 'McIntyre Mine' - the third richest in the Porcupine Camp. The prospectors and miners who 'poured' into the Porcupine Mining Area first settled around Porcupine Lake, after a difficult journey from the end of the rail line at Kelso. By the end of January 1910, there were established settlements on the shores of Porcupine Lake. The hub of the camp was "Golden City" where this park is located. On the west side of Porcupine river was Pottsville and at the south west end of the Lake - the townsite of South Porcupine. Golden City soon had a post office and later in the year - the Mine Recorder's office - which meant that prospectors no longer had to travel south to Haileybury to register claims.
ARTIFACTS
There are several interesting items in this park - which are described as follows: (see photos for each).
1) MINE RECORDER'S VAULT
The small white structure with rounded roof, is the old concrete 'vault' from the first Mine Recorder's Office, built in 1910 on this site, at the height of the gold rush.
2) STEAM LOCOMOTIVE
The Hollinger steam Locomotive no. 70 is the most visible object in the park. It is of the 0-4-0 wheel format and is thought to have been fabricated in the Hollinger Mine Machine shops in Timmins.
3) ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE
The small electric locomotive, which ran underground on narrow gauge tracks, is also thought to be from the Hollinger Gold Mine - which closed in 1968. It was the richest mine in the area and had over six hundred miles of underground workings.
4) DRILL
This is an early pneumatic tripod Drill - with 'screw' advance - manufactured by the 'Canadian Rand Drill Co, Sherbrooke Quebec'. It was probably used to drill holes for blasting underground drifts.
5) ARRASTRA (also spelled Arrastre)
The large wheel shaped object of concrete and rocks is an Arrastra. Note the central hump and the small trough on the north side. "This Arrastra was used for grinding ore at one of the earliest operations in the Porcupine Area". An Arrastra is a grinder - a crude but effective way to extract gold from gold bearing ore. It was known to the Egyptians and introduced to the New World by the Spanish in the 1500's. The ore is first broken into gravel sized pieces with a sledge hammer and then placed into the circular milling area. There are three drag stones with iron rings with this arrastra. These were chained to a post (placed over the hump in the center), that was rotated by man or horse. The drag stones crushed the ore into a fine powder, which turned into thick slurry when water was added. Gold being heavy, collected in the trough. Also Mercury (quicksilver) may have been added to form a gold amalgam which would have also collected in the bottom of the trough. This Arrastra is one of the earliest artifacts of the Porcupine Mining Area and probably predates the arrival of the railway.
EDUCATIONAL INFORMATION
The Porcupine Mining Area has endured many difficulties, the earliest being the great fire of 1911, which struck ten days after the railway reached South Porcupine. Although most of the Porcupine Gold Camp was destroyed, it was not abandoned, but rebuilt in two months, as there was much faith in its future. Over the years there have been hundreds of mining properties - not all successful. A monument erected in 1984 at the Timmins Museum in South Porcupine, "On the occasion of Ontario's Bicentennial" recognizes the "significant commitment and unending contribution to our area by the Mines of the Porcupine". There follows a list of 32 mines - which includes several base metal mines - such as the rich Texas Gulf / Kidd Creek Mine (1963), operated today by Falconbridge. There is still much activity in mining in the area. The Dome gold mine, which closed its underground operation in 2004 after 95 years in existence, still operates a huge open pit, with a 'mountain' of rock waste growing higher every day. We are reminded of the early days of mining with the McIntyre headframe looming over Pearl Lake, the Hollinger buildings near the Hollinger Park, and numerous mining equipment displays, monuments and plaques throughout the "City With A Heart Of Gold".
TECHNICAL INFORMATION
The Porcupine Mining Area is located in the Canadian Shield, whose rocks range to about 3 billion years old. The Canadian Shield is subdivided into geological provinces. The Superior Province dominates the local terrain. Its rocks - of the Archean age - are the oldest, and largest and are greater than 2.5 billion years old. The Superior Province is subdivided into sub-provinces. Historically, mines in the Porcupine Camp have been located within several km of the 'Destor Porcupine Fault Zone' which extends 200 km from 'Destor' in Quebec to Timmins in Ontario. The early mining properties that were the most productive, dot a geological map showing the 'Destor Porcupine Fault Zone' - like "beads on a string".
OTHER MINING DISPLAYS
I hope that you enjoyed learning a bit about the early history of the Porcupine Gold Area now within the City of Timmins. The are several outdoor mining courts with equipment on display. The Timmins Museum - National Exhibition Centre in South Porcupine has an outdoor mining court as well as information and displays within the building. In Schumacher, just north of the McIntyre Community Centre is a unique display of old pumps from the McIntyre Mine as well as other mining artifacts. The 'Timmins Underground Gold Mine Tour' adjacent to the Shania Twain Centre in Timmins also has equipment on display as well as working equipment within a section of the old Hollinger mine.
GEOCACHE INFORMATION
TO LOG THIS EARTHCACHE, you must go to the listed co-ordintes and have you or your group's photo taken, with GPS receiver, at the plaque, or at one of the mining artifacts in this park, and post the picture with your log. ALSO
please answer the following questions. Do not post the answers.
1) What is the colour of the Hand Brake in the cabin of the Hollinger steam engine?
2) What is the name of the tripod drill? (You will find it n the top right of the drill - following "No. 42")
Please comply with all of the requirements to log the cache - this is in accordance with new Earthcache quidlines.
(revised Friday, Oct. 13th 2006).
Additional Hints
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