ODDS’N’SODS — Minefinding in Ontario

William Trethewey, prospector, entrepreneur and real estate speculator, arrived in Cobalt, Ont., attired in a white suit and silk shirt, complete with diamond pin.

He was a mining man, having left his native England many years before to search for minerals in British Columbia. He combined a good knowledge of geology with a flare for business and self-promotion.

News of a silver discovery at Long Lake, Ont., began to leak out during the winter of 1903-04. Willet Miller, the provincial geologist, examined the first finds and was astounded by the evident wealth. Cut into the hills were rich veins of silver discolored with the pinkish bloom of cobalt. In his official report, Miller noted that silver lay on the ground like “stovelids and cannon balls.” He knew the area was richer than any previously discovered in the province.

Trethewey heard of the area while on a business trip to Montreal, and had the chance to view samples taken from the McKinley-Darragh discovery. Impressed with what he saw, Trethewey decided to stay and wait for the spring thaw. He was determined to be among the first to claim the riches this land held.

On May 6, 1904, Trethewey boarded the train in Toronto. The platform was quiet. Rumors of a great silver find would have emptied towns in British Columbia but the only other man headed to the silver fields that day was Alex Longwell.

At that time, Ontario was poor soil for the seeds of adventurers and prospectors. Many of the province’s inhabitants were descendants of the settler families who cherished the stability of Upper Canada. They lived in quiet settlements huddled along the southern borders, while the vast expanse of Ontario remained uninhabited bush. The Temiskaming and Northern Ontario railway ventured through this area only because a determined enclave of land-hungry farmers was trying to tame the belt of flatland running through the shield north of Long Lake. Known as Little Clay Belt, the area was the home to two struggling settlements — Haileybury and New Liskeard.

The financial world of Canada had little interest in stories of gold or silver. Even though Sudbury was slowly transforming into a mining centre, most of the province’s businessmen remained skeptical. Chasing after minerals in the muskeg of Ontario was, as far as they were concerned, fit only for fools.

But Trethewey was no fool. He and Longwell took the Grand Trunk railway to North Bay, caught the Canadian Pacific Railway east to Mattawa, boarded the new Temiskaming line and made the final journey to Haileybury on one of the Lumsden steamships. From there, they walked 5 miles to a scattering of lumber and railway tents huddled along the shores of Long Lake.

The locals, no doubt, wondered what to make of Trethewey, whose appearance suggested more a snake oil salesman than a prospector. Trethewey hadn’t come to get his hands dirty, however. He knew other ways that mining could make a man rich. He wasn’t planning to dig ore; he was hoping to promote a claim.

Trethewey quickly realized that what Miller had said was true. “No one at that time appeared to be impressed, even the fellows who made the discoveries, although silver was looking them in the face,” he later wrote.

“I visited the Little Silver vein from which half a million dollars in ore had been taken, and there was at least $200,000 sitting up there on the surface of the vein. But they were sitting back and doing nothing. My idea was to buy something in the camp, but I discovered that no one was prepared to sell.”

Thwarted in his initial plan, Trethewey decided he would simply have to make his own discovery. Within two days he discovered not one but two major silver mines — the Trethewey and Coniagas.

Trethewey got Longwell to help him stake these claims before the latter headed out on his own. He later discovered the veins that would form the rich Buffalo mine.

— The preceding is the second instalment from a recently published book, “We Lived a Life and Then Some: The Life and Death of a Mining Town,” which chronicles the history of Cobalt, Ont.