Kirkland Lake Gold Camp

Photo by Alan L Brown - Posted July, 2006

Plaque Location

The District of Timiskaming
The Town of Kirkland Lake
On the right after entering the campus of Northern College
at the eastern end of town on the north side of
Government Road East (Highway 66)

Coordinates: N 48 09.449 W 80 01.046

Plaque Text

The Larder Lake gold rush of 1906 was accompanied by discoveries of gold at Swastika and, in 1911, the first strike at Kirkland Lake was made by William H. Wright. The Tough-Oakes became the camp's first gold producing gold mine in 1912. During the peak years of the late 1930's the Lake Shore, Wright-Hargreaves, Teck-Hughes, Sylvanite, Kirkland Lake Gold, and Macassa mines along the "Main Break", and other properties in the vicinity, employed about 5,000 men, with a yearly output valued at over 30 million dollars. This structure, the company's vault, is all that remains of the original Tough-Oakes mine buildings.

Related Ontario plaques
Swastika
Ontario's First Gold Mine
The Geraldton Gold Camp

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Mining

Here are the visitors' comments for this page.

Posted November 24, 2009
And for all the years I lived in K.L., went to the college for 4 years, I never once paid any notice to this plaque, or the remains of the vault. I promise myself to take the time and go visit the plaque and site on my next visit to my parents. Thanks for the education !
Denis Gionet, Hearst, Ontario.

Posted September 20, 2008
My Grand father Herbert Timmins worked the Kirkland mines in his teenage years. I have a log book and a few scraps of ore he cherished as a memento of those years. He had great memories to share with us of those days. Kirk Timmins

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