ODDS’N’SODS — A Red Lake pioneer

Prospector George Campbell’s discovery, in late 1944, of rich, visible gold on the south shore of Balmer Lake, near the town of Red Lake, caused a gold rush to northeastern Ontario.

In addition to the district’s five producing gold mines (Madsen Red Lake, Hasaga, McKenzie Red Lake, Cochenour-Willans and McMarmac), 20,000 new claims were staked and 250 mining groups, companies and syndicates were formed.

More than 100 diamond drills worked 24 hours a day, and 36 drills were testing as many square miles in Balmer Twp. As a result of the rush, 15 new mine shafts were sunk, and seven new mines came into production.

Spinoff businesses also flourished, and seven new airline companies joined the five existing operations already servicing the area.

Business was brisk for that industry as well. For example, Canadian Pacific Airlines, the largest bush operators in Canada, secured the largest air-freight contract in the country and flew 2,000 tons of machinery and supplies from Red Lake to Favorable Lake’s Berens River mine, 140 miles north.

Of course, all this activity drew many colorful and hard-working people to the district, one of whom was my next-door neighbor at the townsite of the Madsen Red Lake gold mine. Richard Lundstrom, a quiet and modest man — and a remarkable miner to boot — lived beside me from 1945 to 1946. We even worked on the same level underground, he as a contract drift miner.

Lundstrom was an experienced miner and had spent much of his life around such operations. In the Northwest Territories, he worked at such mines as the Eldorado on Great Bear Lake, as well as others near Great Slave Lake and Yellowknife. In the Red Lake district, Lundstrom worked at the Uchi gold mine before moving to the Hasaga gold mine in 1940. In the following year, he moved to the Madsen Red Lake gold mine, where he worked from 1941 to 1947.

In March 1947, he moved his young family a mile south to the Starratt Olson gold mine, which was then expanding. The shaft was to be deepened to 2,000 ft. with eight levels, and a 500-ton-per-day mill was being built.

In 1949, Lundstrom began to make a name for himself as a contract tunnel miner. The triple-heading crew was the fastest and cheapest mining method in Canada, but he helped make it the best. Per heading, he used three miners and jackleg drills with 12-ft.-long, tungsten carbide-tipped drill rods. The men worked three shifts a day and soon broke the average footage record, nearly doubling it to 30 ft. a day.

In 1950, Lundstrom turned from tunneling to sinking shafts. He took a contract to sink a new inclined shaft, with 12 levels, to a depth of 2,000 ft. That, too, he completed in record time. Soon afterward, he added six levels to the shaft of the Campbell Red Lake mine and deepened it by 1,000 ft. He also sank the internal shaft at the Dickenson Red Lake mine, adding 12 levels and 3,500 ft. to its depth.

In 1957, he formed his own company, called R. Lundstrom Contracting, which added five levels and 1,100 ft. to AMCO’s internal shaft, and the same to the internal shaft at the Wilmar mine. He then connected both shafts to the Cochenour-Willans main shaft, where that mine’s ore was being milled.

He moved from those operations to the H.G. Young mine in Balmerton, where the company sank a shaft from surface to 1,000 ft. Lundstrom Contracting was also responsible for deepening the Madsen main shaft to 5,000 ft., with an additional 27 levels.

Lundstrom was one of the people who helped make Red Lake a great mining district. He spent 28 years there, though his work will last considerably longer.

— The author, a retired operating engineer and frequent contributor to this column, resides in Thunder Bay, Ont.