Hollinger Mines

With his friend, professional prospector Alex Gillies, Hollinger had travelled to the Porcupine region in the wake of the Wilson expedition, which had recently discovered the future Dome Mine site.

Hollinger and Gillies staked three claims each, and one for their former partner, Bernard "Barney" P. McEnaney, who had been unable to join them due to severe sciatica.

Rumors of gold in the Porcupine area had been circulating for some time, but every attempt to start production had resulted in poor returns.

In June 1909, a group of prospectors found a rich vein that would eventually become the Dome Mine, but at the time, it too remained undeveloped.

So they went west, past the already staked-out claims, until they came upon an abandoned test pit near Pearl Lake, where Reuben D'Aigle had given up three years earlier.

The two were exploring the site when Hollinger dug into a mound that demonstrated how unlucky D'Aigle was:[3] ... Benny was pulling moss off the rocks a few feet away, when suddenly he let a roar out of him and threw his hat to me.

He set out in the fall of 1909 from mile post 222 on the Temiskaming & Northern Ontario Railway (T&NO) with a crew of twenty-eight men, two teams of horses, and two tons of supplies.

Soon, Timmins had acquired 560 acres, which included the Hollinger, Miller, Gillies, Millerton, and Acme Gold claims.

[3]: 104, 127 By the end of the 1920s, the Hollinger was the largest gold mine in the British Empire and paid annual dividends of more than $5 million.

At that time mined-out stopes were not backfilled with waste rock, but one on the 550-foot (170 m) level had been filled over the years with mining debris such as powder boxes, sawdust and wooden crates.

There were accounts of individual heroism, and the Department of Mines, the T&NO, many others, and the community itself put forth a stellar effort to battle the disaster and alleviate the suffering.

Future plans for the site include a new public park featuring Hollinger Lake, a sandy beach, picnic areas, and wilderness trails.