Historic Town
On August 7, 1903, two railway contractors in search of lumber for railway ties discovered a substance that proved to be silver. Thousands of fortune seekers came up the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway (ONR) to Cobalt: English and French Canadians as well as countless then “new” Canadians from Europe. In 1905, 16 mines were active in the Cobalt area. By 1911, there were 34 mines producing 30 million ounces of silver. The population of Cobalt grew quickly from just 100 in 1903 to 10,000 in 1909.
The area, the town and portions of Coleman Township were designated a national historic site of Canada in 2002. The commemorative plaque says, “…The history of this industry is written in the surrounding landscape. Open-cuts carved from the rock by hand reflect the earliest surface mining operations. Mining shafts, sunk as operations expanded, are marked by the presence of headframes. Concrete foundations, massive rock piles and remnants of tailings indicate the location of milling facilities for processing ore on site…” It is what remains that provides for interesting bike rides of various distances in and around the most historic of small towns.
Silver Significance
There is a designated driving/walking tour , self-guided and based on the original book entitled: ‘The Heritage Silver Trail’ published by the Cobalt Historical Society in 1985, a real resource gem but not currently available. But in its place is a downloadable map, go to http://heritagesilvertrail.ca/10-map.html or Google “heritage silver trail Ministry Northern Development and Mines” the “MNDM” PDF will give you a comprehensive overview. There are 20 sites along the trail, each marked with interpretive signs that explain the history
and mining practices of this once booming mining camp.
Maggie Wilson is the President of the Cobalt Historical Society and has not been in the community for long. She is a rock hound as well. She said, “My first impressions were less than complimentary. Tired-looking, shabby, deserted, desolate, barren... ‘ugly on the eye’ - a British colloquialism for ‘eyesore.’ So much so, that any time my husband put forth the idea of moving north to retire, I resisted, big time.”
“But we get to appreciate our surroundings,” Maggie said, “Once you live here for a while, once you meet the folks, and learn something about the history, once you have a chance to take in the astounding range of natural beauty, suffice to say, I love it here.”
“What speaks to me most is the back roads story. You look at those ugly gashes on the hillside and you feel admiration, respect, even a kind of love for the people who endured unimaginable hardship to make a living for their families.”
As for the needed book, “We plan on consolidating the Keevil Walking Trail and the three Town of Cobalt Walking Trails with the Heritage Silver Trail and re-write the trail guide.” Her husband, Reiner Mielke is a volunteer trail manager and there have been some thoughts of modifying the existing tour into a cycling route complete with the popular QR -- or Quick Response codes - the black and white matrix barcodes are increasingly available to cell phone users on trails proving that natural heritage and technology do mix.
Heritage Stops
Consult the MNDM PDF referenced at the start of the story, there are many places to start from and cycle to, here are some favourites.
See Stop #3, I like to start here; it puts Cobalt’s rich history into perspective. It is the Townsite Mine and Glory Hole along Highway 11B at the south end of Cobalt. Headframes are the iconic mine buildings of Cobalt, the visible part of the largely subterranean mine workings. A sink hole by the headframe is a reminder of the miles of mine tunnels below the town of Cobalt. It is one of the most historic, industrial structures in Canada, but the head frame is too costly to save and will most likely slump into the exposed hole.
Stop #6 is the Nipissing 96 Mine, it showcases a well-preserved headframe with its hoist room as well as a striking view of the crevasse-like opening of the former underground mine workings. This deep gash in the hillside is all that remains of silver vein No. 96. The vein was discovered by trenches dug down through the soil to the bedrock surface.
Go to Stop #8, the Nipissing 81 Mine site sits on the flank of Nipissing Hill across Cobalt Lake from the town of Cobalt. Once covered with soil and trees, the hill was swept clean in 1914 by high-pressure hydraulic hoses in search of silver veins. It was how exploration was done, pressurized water was pumped from a plant on the shores of Cobalt Lake. The lack of vegetation on Nipissing Hill reflects this historic exploration practice which would not be allowed now. Then ride around to Stop #7, the Nipissing Hill lookout is built on the foundations of the Cobalt camp’s largest mill. Situated at the top of Nipissing Hill, the lookout provides a panoramic view of Cobalt and surrounding area.
Not on the Tour
When you to start to explore, you find out more. The following are back roads’ additions not on the tour but could be.
At the northeast end of town there are a number of features and immediate stops on the Kerr Lake Rd. such as the Right of Way Mine Site, the former Agnico Eagle Refinery Site and the LaRose Blacksmith Shop; take this road, travel east to the Cross Lake Rd. and then veer southeast at the bottom of the hill to Crosswise Lake. It is here that you can see the largest of all the tailings areas deposited by five former mills; this area has not been remediated. Tailings are the waste by-products of the milling process and consist of finely ground ore mixed with water and may also contain chemicals, such as cyanide. It is an ageing waste land.
At the same time, you could do an entire bike tour of tailings sites that have been remedied through various means. Go to www.cobaltmininglegacy.ca, this most interesting inventory was developed by Charles Dumaresq, a geologist and senior manager with the Mining Association of Canada. He says, “Over the years there have been numerous activities that have helped in the reclamation of the Cobalt area. Extensive waste rock piles have been removed, some of the tailings in the area have been covered and revegetated, and some of the sites have been cleaned up, including the removal of debris.”
Better still because wetlands matter, it is one of the “must see” stops because of its environmental implications. Lesley Hymers is a surficial geologist and Manager, Education and Outreach Programs for Mining Matters a national NGO. She said, “Cobalt was chosen for the Canada Land Reclamation Symposium, the conference encourages the pursuit of excellence in mine reclamation.”
She described one of reasons for the choice. “The Town of Cobalt uses a ‘constructed wetland’ to treat municipal wastewater and seepage from former tailings. It is a proven technology,” she said. “Ontario pioneered the development of this technology beginning in the early 1980’s. Since then the science has advanced considerably and is now used throughout the world. The treated effluent is deemed as clear as what would be produced via conventional waste water treatment.” There is a wonderful view of the anatomy of this wetland; pedal your way to the end of 3rd St., west side of Lang St./11-B past the William Henry Drummond cairn. (A writer of dialect verse, he was an Irish-born Canadian poet whose humorous dialect poems made him one of the most popular authors in the English-speaking world.)
Cemeteries tell a great deal about the heritage of a community. Silverland Cemetery is located on Cemetery Rd. on the west side of Highway 11-B/King St., ride out heading north, 2 km. Walk down the hill to read the compelling markers and note the unmarked metal and wooden crosses of many who lost their lives in the typhoid outbreak of 1909 and the Great Fire of 1922. It has a great view looking southwest towards town.
And for a longer ride you will want to bike out to the remains of the Ragged Chutes compressed air pipeline including exposed pipe sections, concrete anchors, valve shack, visible right-of-way, and surviving booster station. This plant had no moving parts and used falling water to produce enough compressed air to operate the many drills in the mines of Cobalt. You can access this story,
Google “Ragged Chutes compressed air station.” Take the Coleman Rd. at the southwest end of town and turn south on the Silverfields Rd., you will pass a number of mining relics and at about 5 km on the east side of the road you will see the black iron pipes of the main conduit, truly an industrial archaeological treasure, not yet posted as a destination.
Heritage Destination
We’re only scratching the surface here, bike around, there is much to learn and experience; it is not yet a designated cycling tour but it could be. The roads have little traffic with a good mixture of pavement and hard pack with diversity of stops and distance, you choose the loops. The Heritage Silver Trail is one of the best examples of a well signed, maintained and self-guided trail system in northern Ontario. Cobalt’s hinterland yields a heritage treasure trove of buildings and scenes unlike anything else you're likely to see and ride to and from in Ontario or Canada. Contact Back Roads Bill at [email protected]; LIKE on Facebook – Back Roads Bill Steer and visit www.steerto.com. Bill is the founder of the Canadian Ecology Centre and teaches part-time at Nipissing University and Canadore College.
Cycling Destination
Cycling – Heritage – Silver
Historic Town
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