We would like to thank author Michael Barnes. The following
anecdotes were taken from his book “Kirkland Lake: the town
that Stands on the Mile of Gold”.
If you have any interesting anecdotes about Kirkland Lake,
send an email to Wilfred Hass
or drop us a line at:
Corporate Services
Postal Bag 1757
Kirkland Lake, Ontario
P2N 3P4
Did you know…?
Leon Trotsky, a leader of the Bolshevik Revolution and one
of the Twentieth Century’s most influential communists,
visited Kirkland Lake in 1916. For three weeks, he observed
life in the gold mine, trying to determine if working people
could become rich overnight. He wasn’t taken too seriously
in a camp where everybody was trying to get rich fast.
Obviously Trotsky didn’t take the lessons he learned back
to Russia. Kirkland Lake is still here….the Soviet Union
is not.
Did you know…?
The winter of 1917 was one of the worst on record. In three
days, 37 inches of snow fell. It took thirty-six hours for
thirteen teams of horse and eighteen men to plow a five
mile section of road.
Did you know…?
Prohibition never really caught on in Kirkland Lake. During
the time when alcohol was illegal in Ontario, an enterprising
investigator for the Attorney General’s office tried to
practice a little entrapment while on the train. Pretending
to be a soldier, he faked a heart attack and begged a little
“stimulation”. One nice soul gave him a drink from his hip
flask. The “soldier” immediately recovered and promptly
arrested his saviour.
Everything turned out all right in the end however. The
Justice of the Peace fined the investigator $200 or six
months in jail for impersonating an officer. The Good Samaritan
was fined $10 and told to be more careful in choosing whom
to help.
Did you know…?
Early mines worked in slightly different ways from their
modern counterparts. Take the Miller Independence mine near
Boston Creek, for example. The directors of the mine regularly
consulted a spiritualist when in doubt as to where to drift
or sink a shaft. Doing business in that manner quickly put
the mine under.
Did you know…?
Life in early Kirkland Lake wasn’t easy. Hard work, hard
conditions combined to put people over the edge occasionally.
It helped to have a kind and understanding police force
and magistrate. For instance, a call came into the police
one day that a man was running amok with a rifle on Poplar
Street. The police quickly responded and subdued the wild
man. Everything worked out okay in the end however. The
fellow was let off with a fine. The Magistrate accepted
his excuse that his temporary insanity was due to excessive
pain after the removal of teeth and consumption of liquor
to ease the pain.
Did you know…?
Working in the bush has never been easy. In the winter you
freeze, in the summer you broil and serve as a walking smorgasbord
for every kind of biting insect. No wonder that some left
without looking back. Consider this notice found on a deserted
prospector’s cabin:
“’Fore miles from a nabur;
twenty-five miles from a post office;
twenty miles from a R.R.; one mile from water;
God bless our home,
but I’m glad I’m leavin'.”
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Underground at the
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