courtesy of Archives of Ontario
The early Cobalt mining camp with Conigas Mine in distance, 1910
cobalt staking claim
boom towns | silver by heather asquith
as a student in the late 1990 s i participated in a cause study in cobalt . these studies , run by the ontario association of architects , helped towns with ideas for urban renewal . although we were not expecting a bustling urban centre in this former mining town 500 kilometres north of toronto , when we reached cobalt we were surprised at just how little was there .
Reminders of a silver mining camp
Cobalt is a northern Ontario town of just over 1,000 people, located west of Lake Timiskaming near the Quebec border. When silver was found, largely by accident in 1903 during the construction of the Northern Ontario Railway, Cobalt became the site of one of the greatest mining rushes in Ontario history. Large veins of silver were found running along the surface of rock. Surface mining attracted experienced and inexperienced prospectors alike and quickly the town grew to a population of 10,000 with 100 mines in operation at its peak.
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we would soon be astounded to learn what it had been .
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