Porcupine Gold Rush - The Fire

The Fire

The summer of 1911 was unusually hot, reaching a record temperature of 107 F on July 10. There had been no rain for several weeks, and by the evening several small bushfires had been spotted. The threat to the mining townsites was obvious, and starting on the morning of the 11th boats started ferrying women and children from South Porcupine to Golden City at the other end of the lake. Throughout the day the smaller fires combined, and by the afternoon had merged into a single wall of fire up to 20 miles (32 km) wide at points, sweeping eastward on gale force winds. It swept through South Porcupine around 3:30 p.m., burning it to the ground, and continued to burn its way as far as Cochrane, sending blankets of ash hundreds of miles downwind. Tom Geddes, co-claimer of the sites that started the gold rush, died attempting to save his dog.

The T&NO spur line, unharmed north of the lake, sped relief supplies to the area. Eaton's funded an entire train of supplies, including blankets, tents and supplies, while churches across Ontario responded with clothing and other supplies. As crews returned to South Porcupine they found and collected the dead, including people who had died of smoke inhalation or asphyxiation and were seemingly uninjured. Some 500,000 acres of land was burned. The dead, officially numbered at 73 but thought to be as high as 200, were buried in a new cemetery across the point of the lake from the town, known to this day as Dead Man's Point.

On Labour Day 1911 Noah Timmins held a public auction for building sites on a relatively flat area of land just west of the McIntyre and Hollinger mines, creating the village that would soon develop into the town of Timmins. By the time it incorporated on January 1, 1912, it had already surpassed both Golden City (now known as Porcupine) and South Porcupine in size. Timmins has remained the real center of the mining area to this day.