Hidden Ontario (16 page)

Madoc Talc Mine circa 1909. This mine is still operating but gone are the mules, and the pits are now deep in the earth.

Archives of Ontario

During the last 20 years, Madoc has attracted hundreds of amateur geologists and prospectors, searching the countryside for gems (even diamonds), and, of course, gold. A renewed interest in precious and semi-precious stones has put the whole area back on the map. Anyone wishing to be a millionaire could take a trip from Madoc to Bancroft and stop many times along the way to test their luck.

 

It seems that Crowe Lake knew it had something to crow about — a huge marble rock. Marmora is a town and a township, named to commemorate that rock.
Marmora
is the latin plural for “marble.”

Thirty miles north of the city of Belleville is the site of Ontario's first mining operation. It was Charles Hayes, along with his wife, who set sail from Ireland in 1820 to follow a dream. The dream was to establish the first ironworks in Upper Canada and become the first industrialist in this new land.

Hayes and his wife docked in New York before travelling up the Hudson River and the Mohawk Valley to Sacketts Harbour. From there they voyaged to Montreal to meet with Peter McGill, a financier, and then went on to Kingston, Ontario. The Hayes left Kingston and proceeded northwest until they came to a narrows in the Crowe River, about 160 kilometres (100 miles) hence. It was here that this entrepreneur eventually built the first company town in Upper Canada. It was a formidable task when you consider that Hayes had been a linen merchant back home, albeit a successful one. He was to start the first wave of industrialism, but not the last. Hayes had obtained an order-in-council to give him the authority to establish the colony's first industrial location, and Marmora had all the right ingredients for the making of iron ore.

Marmora Township was surveyed in 1821 and attached to Hastings County. A 24-kilometre (15 mile) road was constructed from Sidney Township to Marmora, and by 1824 the population of the township had reached 400.

Marmora, not to mention the surrounding area, was laden with iron ore. This mineral is the fourth-most plentiful element in the earth. The quality of iron is dependent on the concentration of hematite and magnetite and on the ability of the iron-master to separate them from the waste rock in which they are found. The smelting of this ore has been done for more than 3,000 years. Early smelting involved charcoal fires and bellows in the production of a spongy mass called a bloom. Then it was discovered that greater heat resulted in the extraction of higher quality iron. Ironmasters created narrow, truncated, pyramid furnaces for the purpose of heating the rock.

Hayes knew that Marmora was the right place, because iron ore was present 4 kilometres (.25 miles) to the north, on the surface of the banks of the Crowe River. Another site, now Blairton, revealed a mountain of ore available for the process. Limestone, also to be found in the area, could be used as a flux. The endless forest there would fuel the blast furnaces, and the river itself would provide the power to drive the water wheels that pumped the bellows to intensify the blast.

In less than two years, Hayes had the first blast furnace in operation. A road had been built, and the firebricks, furnace equipment, and workers arrived to settle the village of Marmora and begin work at the new ironworks. Andre Philpot, author of
A Species of Adventure
, highlights this spectacular accomplishment. He writes:

 

Hayes completed the construction of a second furnace in 1825. The interior diameter of the structure was approximately three metres (8.5 to 9 feet), and its height was nine metres (30 feet). A pair of German bellows, each 8.5 metres (28 feet) long and 4.5 metres (15 feet) wide, were used in the operation. Philpot adds:

 

Three charcoal houses were situated on a ledge to the east of the works. These buildings had a total capacity of 200,000 bushels. One ton of iron required 300 bushels of charcoal for fire.

The ironworks was a major source of iron ballast. In those days ships still required ballast weight in order to keep things on an even keel.

By 1824, a gristmill, a sawmill, a brake mill, a carpenter's shop, a bake house, a counting house, three charcoal houses, two ore kilns, and a potashery were established in this ironworks community.

Charles Hayes was a man willing to spend his own money to attain success; the government of the time was not so committed. Hayes knew, by the end of 1822, that he was spending most of his fortune in operation costs and roadwork to get his product to market. Water transportation was the answer. He knew that although the Crowe River was impassable to the south of the village, a canal was feasible. Hayes could envision a canal from Crowe Lake to the Trent River. It was a 19-kilometre (12 mile) stretch through the bush, and he was willing to spend some of his own money on the canal project if the government would approve and assist in the idea. The Trent River canal system did not get started for two more decades, but Hayes could see where things were going. The government, unfortunately, had no intention of assisting Hayes to build a canal. His debts overcame his dream, and in September 1824 he ceded his property and industry to the trustees. In the end the creditors even possessed his household furniture. Hayes returned to Ireland a broken man, and in April 1830 he wrote, “Thus you see it is not always the person who had done the most service [who] is most likely to be rewarded, for I cannot help saying that I think I have done more good to Upper Canada than any other individual that was in it ...”

It was his associate and financier Peter McGill who took over the operations of the ironworks. He, too, was riddled with problems of transportation, and he attempted to sell the ironworks in 1826 and 1827, but found no buyers. In 1831 the ironworks closed its doors. The first wave was over.

By 1837 a commission was appointed by the government to investigate the possibility of moving the penitentiary from Kingston to Marmora. Although consideration was given to running the ironworks with convict labour, the idea was abandoned once again due to transportation difficulties.

In 1847 Van Norman purchased the ironworks. An experienced ironmaster himself, he, too, was defeated by the expense of shipping his product and abandoned the operation in 1854 with his resources depleted. Another wave in Marmora's history.

The subsequent closing of the ironworks stunted the growth of the village for many years, and farming and lumbering took over as the mainstay of the economy. When gold was discovered in the vicinity in the 1860s, it was an entirely new enterprise and a big relief to the populace. From 1873 to 1880, gold mining was carried out by the Gatling Gold and Silver Mining Company, but was later sold when the operations proved once again to be too expensive.

By 1878 the population of Marmora stood at 400. A sawmill, a carding and woollen factory, and a gristmill provided some employment for the villagers. B.C. Hubbell operated a dry goods, a grocery, a footwear and a furniture store, as well as the undertaking service for the area in 1888.

A terrible fire in Marmora in 1900 destroyed the main business district and forced the relocation of many businesses. The following year Marmora was incorporated as a village.

It was the 20th century that saw the mining of iron ore regain its importance, when the Marmoraton Mines (part of the American Bethlehem Steel Corporation) went into operation nearby. Millions of tons of limestone were stripped from the top of large magnetic beds to permit open-pit mining. A sintering plant was set up at the company's mills in New York State. The company produced up to 1,500 tons of concentrate daily at the peak of the plant's activity. The mining operations were closed in the late 1970s.

One wonders what new wave will bring a swell to the economy of the community with the big, marble stone.

 

Muskoka's pristine lakes, islands of gnarled pines, and rugged, remote beaches pull people to their shores like a great magnet. In the early 1800s, few people knew Muskoka existed. Only small, wandering bands of Ojibwa traversed this region for hunting. What a magnificent hunting ground!

The wealth of the forests called the first settlers. Hardworking lumberjacks harvested white pine, and pioneer farmers cleared the land. There was no time, then, for recreation!

The first holidayers to head here arrived sometime in the 1860s. Getting there was part of the adventure. First by railway, then by steamboat, rowboat, and finally by foot, they arrived at what was to become Gravenhurst.

It was an arduous journey and there was no one to greet them, but they revelled in the rugged, wild scenery, the fresh air and the clear waters. Local hospitality was simple but genuine. Visitors were truly impressed — enough to want to come back, and even more joined them to explore this rugged land.

Getting there remained a problem for many years. No reliable means of transportation to Ontario's central lake district existed in the 1800s. A.P. Cockburn, the area representative in government, recognized this shortcoming. He envisioned the possibility of water transportation opening up the district and persuaded the government to install a lock at Port Carling to connect Lakes Muskoka and Rosseau, and to dig a channel at Port Standfield to connect Lakes Rosseau and Joseph.

Gravenhurst circa 1900. Later known as the Garner Lodge, this was home to many weddings like the one here of Bertha Mickle and Howard Cane.

Archives of Ontario

An ambitious entrepreneur, Cockburn proceeded to build a fleet of steamers for the lakes — large, powerful boats with native names like
Sagamo
and
Segwun
. He worked to get a railway to the lakehead at Gravenhurst by 1875.

In 1886 the railway went on to Huntsville. Captain Marsh, a transportation magnate, took the lead and put steamers on the upper lakes: Vernon, Fairy, Peninsula, Mary, and Lake of Bays. This helped to open Muskoka to the major commercial centres of the south.

Resorts sprang up around the district. Pratt's Rosseau House was followed by such well-known places as Summit House, Clevelands House, Windermere House, and the Royal Muskoka Hotel on the southern lakes. On the northern lakes there was Deerhurst Resort, Britannia Hotel, Wawa Hotel, Bigwin Inn and others.

The buildings were typically three-storeyed with gables, turrets, and wide, wrap-around verandas where guests lounged in wicker chairs and sipped refreshments.

The town of Gravenhurst, situated at the south end of Lake Muskoka, was named by a Canadian postmaster general in 1861. The first settler to arrive here was James McCabe, who built a tavern at the site in 1859.

The settlement of Gravenhurst grew at a rapid pace thanks to Peter Cockburn, who began a lumbering business in 1865–66. Cockburn was responsible for making Gravenhurst a lake port when he launched the
Wenonah
, the first steamer on Lake Muskoka, in 1866. The community expanded after the Free Grants Act of 1868, when settlers flocked to the area to take advantage of free land. By the 1870s, Gravenhurst could boast it was the mill capital of Northern Ontario, or “Sawdust City” as it was otherwise known. At one time a total of 17 mills operated in the area. A thousand saw blades helped to carve out an economy. According to the
Toronto World
of July 13, 1887, Gravenhurst had four churches, a library, a school, a town hall, a telephone exchange, a bank, a foundry, a ginger-ale bottling works, many fine stores, and four hotels.