History of the Towns of Larder Lake, Virginiatown and Kearns.

HISTORY OF LARDER LAKE AND AREA

Following the discovery of rich finds of silver at Cobalt in 1903, prospectors roamed even further afield in search of silver. In the late summer of 1906, Dr. Reddick and his party found their way north of Wendigo Lake to a large body of water called Lake Present, (todays Larder Lake) and on July 31 1906 found gold on the Northeast Arm. Reddick in an interview with the New Liskeard Speaker said "Gold was visible in quartz, and we could knock it off with our picks. I admit we were somewhat excited and four or five assays were made. They ran from $122 to $1868 in gold.

This statement was to set forth one of the largest gold rushes in Ontario and pre-dated Kirkland Lake and the Porcupine by many years. The winter of 1906-07 would see, it was reported 2000 men in the area, who staked 4000 claims that winter. There was countless news reports in the Toronto papers. Mining Promoters reported outrageous gold finds and values and encouraged the unsuspecting public to invest money with them in quick get rich schemes. The Canadian Mining Journal observed " the gold mined by these promoters did not come from the pockets of the earth"Not all scams were based on the gold finds. A headline in the Toronto Mail and Empire in July 1907 reads "Oil found North of the Height-of-Land. Surrounded by mountains, not unlike that of the Rockies, oil oozes out of the ground and has polluted all lakes in the area"

James and Robert Tighe, had a townsite surveyed in 1907 called Larder City. It was modeled after Johannesburg, South Africa, which they admired. By the late fall of 1907 over 50 log buildings were constructed including a 100 room hotel, a large general store, restaurant, blacksmith shop, drug store, photo gallery, and a bakery.

Although millions of dollars were spent trying to find and develop a profitable producing mine, Dr. George A. MacKay spent $30,000,000 in a company called Canadian Associated Goldfields, it was the Kerr-Addison Mines Limited, who in January of 1939 reported ore reserves of $20,000,000 thus launching the area onto the world stage.

Research conducted by Clark Thompson.

Hello there, my name is Clark Thompson from Larder Lake. I am the "Larder Lake Historian" and I am endeavoring to put together a history of the towns of Larder Lake, Virginiatown and Kearns.

I have researched many microfilm sources and I am especially looking for photographs or mementoes from 1906 to around 1940 . If anyone reading this has any information, photos, or artifacts of this area would you please contact me at the e-mail address below. I can reproduce and then return to you all contributions. All contributions will be very much appreciated. Thank-you.

Please contact me, Clark Thompson by e-mailing me at crtja@ntl.sympatico.ca

The following link is still "under construction". When their site is finished please visit them

Kirkland and District Community Business Center.

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