Appendix C - Part 1

For brevity names of persons are given in full only where first introduced. Also, company names may be in their present form after the first introduction regardless of whether the name was in use in this form at that time; e.g., Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada Ltd. is given as Cominco.

1670: - May 2. A charter is granted to "The Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay", the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC). The area of present-day Saskatchewan is part of Rupert's Land, except for the unnamed extreme northwest corner, where the drainage is not into Hudson Bay, but into the Arctic Ocean.

1691: - August 7. Henry Kelsey (1667? -1724), in the employ of the HBC and under the instruction of Governor Geyer to "look for mines, minerals and drugs and to bring samples", records on this day that he saw "slate mines". In his time the word "mine" referred to any dig or excavation and the "slate" was probably nothing more than a dark band of clay in the Quaternary deposits that occur on the banks of the South Saskatchewan River. The observation by Kelsey, the first to be made on the geology of the Canadian Prairie West, records what he saw on the west bank of the river while travelling on foot along the eastern side near the present Hague ferry. Kelsey's narrative ushers in the historical period of Saskatchewan; all before is pre-history.

1753: - In London, the British Museum is granted a royal foundation charter.

The French establish the first permanent fur trade post in Saskatchewan, at Fort-a-la-Come.

1755: - Lisbon Earthquake.

1759: - The British under General James Wolfe defeated the French under General Montcalm on the Plains of Abraham, near Quebec City.

In Paris, the novel Candide by Voltaire is published in which the author presents his philosophical views on Acts of God as exemplified by the Lisbon Earthquake.

1771: - First edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica published.

July. - Samuel Hearne (1745-1792), in the employ of the HBC, reaches the mouth of the Coppermine River and the shore of the Arctic Ocean.

1774: - Hearne establishes Cumberland House, the first inland post of the HBC, now the oldest permanent settlement in Saskatchewan.

1775: - November 1. Alexander Henry the Elder (1739-1824), and the brothers Joseph and Thomas Frobisher reach Beaver (now Amisk) Lake (Lac aux Castors) and establish winter quarters there after having ascended Sturgeon-weir River (La Riviere Maligne, so called by early voyageurs on account of its numerous rapids).

1776: - In Philadelphia, the Declaration of Independence of the U.S.A.

Summer. - Henry observes and describes the broken-up rock cliff on the shore of Amisk Lake.

1778: - Peter Pond is the first fur trader to cross Methy Portage and descend into the Athabasca Basin. The record of his doing so was left on three manuscript maps, of which only copies have survived, and in statements by others.

1779: - The first trading post on Lac la Ronge is established by Etienne Waden, at or near Waden Bay.

1781: - Waden quarrels and fights with Peter Pond who set up beside him. This results in the death of Waden and the accusation of murder against Pond. At a trial held later in Montreal, Pond is acquitted on lack of evidence.

1784: - Various independent Montreal fur traders organize themselves into the North West Company.

1787: - Alexander Mackenzie (b. Scotland, 1784; d. Scotland, 1820) travels across the Methy Portage to Lake Athabasca to take charge of Pond's post for the North West Company. His description of the portage and the Clearwater River valley was to be included in his book published in 1801.

1789: - July 12. Mackenzie canoeing down the river, which he called Disappointment but which now bears his name, reaches the Arctic Ocean.

July 14. - In Paris, the storming of the Bastille opens the way for the lower classes in the French Revolution.

September 24. - At a session of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin, Martin Klaproth reads a paper on his discovery and naming of the new element uranium.

1790: - Philip Turnor surveys the north shore of Lake Athabasca as far east as the mouth of the Fond du Lac River for the HBC.

1791: - August 18. Turnor describes in his journal the sand dunes on the south shore of Lake Athabasca and marks their location on his map.

1792: - In Philadelphia, the world's first chemical society is founded.

In England, illuminating gas is used for the first time.

George Vancouver visits his island.

June 21. - Peter Fidler describes and interprets the potholes of Kettle Portage near Trade Lake on the Churchill (Missinipe or English) River.

1793: - In France, Louis XVI was executed. The French government adopts a provisional standard for the metre but it would not be until January 1, 1840, that France officially would go metric.

July 22. - Mackenzie reaches the Pacific Ocean, the first man to cross the continent of North America.

1796: - In Britain, Edward Jenner introduces vaccination against smallpox.

David Thompson (1770-1857), surveyor for the HBC, leaves Churchill River, ascends Reindeer River to Reindeer Lake, follows and surveys the west side of that lake to Canoe River, and from there travels by Wollaston Lake to Fond du Lac River and ends his survey where Tumor had left off.

1797: - Thompson transfers to the service of the North West Company.

1800?: - Most likely the year in which Thompson wrote the 12-page manuscript, now known as his 'Geology', not published until 1967. In it he recognized four main regions in the west: 1) the Rocky Mountains; 2) the Plains; 3) the "limestone ridge" (the Paleozoic fringe of the Shield); and 4) the "hard, coarse and fine-grained, grey and black rocks" (the Precambrian Shield). He also mentions the occurrence of sandstone on the south shore of Lake Athabasca and presents a general outline of the Shield boundary.

1800: - Alessandro Volta produces electricity from a cell: the first battery of zinc and copper plates.

Letter post introduced in Berlin.

1803: - Robert Fulton propels a boat by steam power.

Thompson surveys the major canoe route through northern Saskatchewan from Cumberland House on Cumberland (Pine Island or Sturgeon) Lake, up the Sturgeon-weir River to Amisk Lake, ascending the upper part of the Sturgeon-weir (Ridge) River, across Frog Portage to the Churchill River. He continues upriver to La Loche and across the portage of that name (or Methy Portage) to the Clearwater River and down that stream to the Athabasca River.

1805: - October 21. Battle of Trafalgar.

1808: - First performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 5.

In Italy, extensive excavations begin at Pompeii.

Simon Fraser descends his river to the Pacific.

Two Canadian fur trading companies, the XY Company and the North West Company, unite and continue as the North West Company.

1814: - Thompson hangs his 15-mile-to-the-inch map of the Canadian West in the dining hall of the North West Company at Fort William (The Lakehead).

1815: - June 18. At Waterloo, Wellington and Blucher defeat Napoleon.

1819: - October 23. Captain John Franklin, George Back, Robert Hood, and Dr. John Richardson (1787-1865), surgeon and naturalist, reach Cumberland House, where Richardson is to winter and acquire data for his report on the natural history of the region, including "very perfect shells" in the limestone rocks near the post.

1820: - In the Urals, Russia, rich deposits of platinum are discovered.

March 13. - Franklin, accompanied by Back, reaches Methy Portage having reported, most likely erroneously, limestone outcrops in the Beaver River valley along which he had travelled by sled and snowshoe. Franklin and Hood describe and Back sketches Methy Portage.

May 1-30. - On his excursion from Cumberland House to Carlton House and back, Richardson recognizes river terraces, undercut banks, point bars, and the delta of the Saskatchewan River. He speculates on the relationship between goitre and the quality of drinking water. A soil sample, which he collected from near Carlton House, was correctly identified as sodium sulphate by Andrew Fyfe of Edinburgh, Scotland.

July 4. - Accompanying Richardson, Hood crosses Methy Portage and describes it in his diary. On their trip to the portage Richardson makes detailed observations on the Precambrian ("Primitive") rocks. He briefly describes the broken-up rock cliff on the shore of Amisk Lake. He delineates the western boundary of the Shield, on the basis of observations made during the journey when he crossed that boundary several times.

1821: - Royal Charter for McGill College.

March 26. - The North West Company is absorbed by the HBC.

October 20. - Circumstantial evidence suggests that Hood, in starving condition, was shot through the back of the head by Michel Terohaute, an Iroquois voyageur of the Franklin Expedition, near Fort Enterprize.

October 22.- Richardson shoots Terohaute through the head.

1822: - World's first iron railroad built in England by Stephenson for Stockton and Darlington line.

Alexander Kennedy Isbister was born at Cumberland House. His father came from the Orkneys and his mother was part Indian.

June. - Franklin and Richardson return from the Barren Lands across Methy Portage but make no observations.

1823: - Charles Babbage's early attempts to construct a calculating machine.

Publication of Richardson's Geognostical Observations, which includes descriptions of the geology of the Amisk Lake, Lac la Ronge, Ile-a-la-Crosse, Methy Portage, and the Clearwater River areas in Saskatchewan along the Churchill River.

1824: - Samuel Black (1780-1841), of the HBC, reports on the presence of earlier, higher stages of Lake Athabasca, which he had recognized.

1825: - Agreement is reached on the boundary between Russian Alaska and British North America. The North-Western Territory thus comes into being. It extends into the extreme northwestern corner of present-day Saskatchewan, while the remainder continues to be part of Rupert's Land.

In England, the opening of the Stockton and Darlington railway - the first line to carry passengers.

June 15. - Franklin and Richardson reach Cumberland House but stay only overnight. In the vicinity of the post, Richardson collects the brachiopod Virgiana decussata (from Silurian rocks), the first fossil from Saskatchewan to be identified (as Pentamerus Aylesfordii by James de Carle Sowerby).

July 11-13. - Franklin and Richardson, travelling north on Franklin's second expedition to the Arctic, cross Methy Portage together with Back, whom they met the previous day. Franklin describes and Back sketches the scenery.

1826: - Founding of Bytown (Ottawa).

December. - Richardson travels from Fort Resolution to Cumberland House to winter there.

1827: - In France Joseph Niepce, produces photographs on a metal plate.

Karl Baedeker begins publishing his travel guides.

June. - Franklin meets Richardson at Cumberland House.

1828: - Publication of Richardson's Topographical and Geological Notices.

1830: - First edition of the three-volume Principles of Geology by Sir Charles 1833: Lyell (1797-1875).

1833: - Karl G. Gauss and Wilhelm E. Weber devise the electromagnetic telegraph.

Sir James Clark Ross (1800-1862) returns from an expedition to the Arctic with his uncle, Sir John Ross (1777-1856), during which he discovered, in 1831, the position of the Magnetic North Pole at the Boothia Peninsula.

July 21. - Back describes Methy Portage, which he crosses that day on his expedition to the Arctic.

1835: - The Geological Survey of Great Britain is founded.

1836: - First Canadian railroad between La Prairie and St. Jean, near Montreal.

1837: - Daguerre's first daguerreotype.

January 23. - Thomas Simpson reaches Methy Portage by sled and describes it briefly.

1838: - The New Brunswick Department of Lands and Mines is established.

1841: - The (Methodist) Rev. James Evans constructs syllabic characters for writing Cree.

Thomas Cook founds his travel agency.

February 10. - Union of the two provinces of Upper and Lower Canada as the Province of Canada with the capital in Kingston.

1842: - The Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) is established and William Edmond Logan (1798-1875) becomes its first director.

1843: - Foundation of McGill University.

September. - John Henry Lefroy measures altitudes at Methy Portage and describes the scenery in a letter to his mother.

1847: - John Lawrence Le Conte mentions uranium from Mamainse, Ontario, now the Blind River district.

First gold rush in California.

1848: - Communist Manifesto; issued by Marx and Engels.

Revolt in Paris; revolutions in Vienna, Venice, Berlin, Milan, and Parma.

June 12. - At The Pas, on their way to the Arctic, Richardson and Dr. John Rae, in two canoes, meet the artist Paul Kane returning from his wanderings of 1846-1848.

June 13. - Richardson and Rae reach Cumberland House, but stay only one night and travel along the traditional canoe route north in search of the lost third expedition of Franklin.

July 5. - Rae writes to Sir George Simpson, Governor of the HBC, about his impressions of seeing the Clearwater River from Methy Portage.

1849: - July 26-27. Richardson returns from the Arctic, after an unsuccessful search, across Methy Portage, but does not provide further details on either geology or landscape. He establishes the height of the portage above the Clearwater River by aneroid barometer to be 634 feet.

1851: - Richardson publishes his impressions of the Methy Portage, after having crossed it six times. A Receptaculites collected by him was correctly identified by Samuel Pickworth Woodward (1821-1865). His greatest contribution of that year is the first geological map covering all of what is now Canada. On it only two geological rock units are shown: 1) "Metamorphic or Primitive Rocks"; and 2) "Fossiliferous Rocks, from the Silurian Strata, upwards". In Saskatchewan, the boundary of the Precambrian Shield is remarkably accurately shown.

1855: - David Livingstone discovers Victoria Falls on the Zambezi River.

Isbister's "On the geology of the Hudson's Bay Territories, and of the portions of the Arctic and Northwestern regions of North America" is published in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, London, the first geological publication by an author born in Saskatchewan.

1856: - The Anglican Church of Holy Trinity, the oldest surviving church building in Saskatchewan, is erected at Stanley Mission. A few years earlier a Catholic Church was built at Ile-A-la-Crosse, but the present edifice replaces an older one destroyed by fire.

1858: - Ottawa becomes the capital of Canada.

July 1. - Canadian decimal currency was introduced.

1859: - First edition of On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection by Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882).

Approximate year in which placer gold was discovered in the North Saskatchewan River. Dr. James Hector, geologist to the Palliser Expedition, when in the vicinity of Edmonton this year stated: "I have seen a few specimens of gold washed out."

1862: - The Toronto Globe carries a glowing account of gold discoveries in the North Saskatchewan River near Edmonton and this provides a further inducement for a group of adventurers ("The Overlanders") from Canada West (Ontario) to undertake a journey by land to join the Cariboo Gold Rush (which is credited with opening up the interior of British Columbia and which led to the construction of the transcontinental railroad). Although most of the gold placer activity on the North Saskatchewan River was centred near Edmonton, fine flour gold was found all the way downstream to Prince Albert. Small-scale placer mining has been taking place intermittently to the present.

1866: - Prince Albert is founded by the Rev. James Nisbet, a Presbyterian missionary.

1867: - Russia sells Alaska to the U.S.A. for $7,200,000.

July 1. - Confederation of Canada. By the British North America Act, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia join Lower Canada (Quebec) and Upper Canada (Ontario) to form the Dominion of Canada. John A. Macdonald is the first Prime Minister.

1869: - November 18. - Following successful negotiations, the HBC surrenders its deed to Rupert's Land to the Crown but, on account of resistance in the Red River Settlement led by Louis Riel, the actual transfer to Canada is not made until 1870.

December 1. - Alfred R. C. Selwyn (1824-1902) succeeds Logan as director of the GSC.

1870: - France declares war on Prussia; France capitulates in 1871.

July 15. - The transfer of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to the Dominion of Canada is implemented and the name is changed to North-West Territories; the newly-created Province of Manitoba is admitted to Confederation.

1872: - Captain W. F. Butler, F.R.G.S., author of The Wild North Land, traverses northern Saskatchewan in winter.

1873: May 23. An Act establishing the North-West Mounted Police (now RCMP) is passed in Parliament.

1878: - First International Geological Congress, in Paris.

1880: - T. A. Edison and J. W. Swan independently devise the first practical electric lights.

Summer. - A. S. Cochrane (who would become seriously ill in 1891 and die in 1894), topographical assistant to Robert Bell (1841-1917) of the GSC, strikes out on his own to travel in northern Saskatchewan, while Bell journeys north into Manitoba. Their objective is to trace the boundary between the Cambro-Silurian limestone and the more ancient rocks northwestward from the foot of Lake Winnipeg, i.e., the western boundary of the Canadian Shield.

August 10. - Cochrane reaches Cumberland House.

August 16. - Cochrane leaves for the North with P. Deschambault, after whom he names a lake and a river northwest of Cumberland House.

September 6. - Cochrane and Deschambault reach the HBC post at Brochet (Du Brochet) on the upper end of Reindeer Lake, where they winter. Cochrane mentions the presence of pipestone and its use by the Indians.

1881: - January. Cochrane finishes writing his report, draws his maps showing his exploration, and sends them to the headquarters of the GSC in Montreal.

March. - Cochrane's documents reach Montreal.

Summer. - Cochrane leaves Reindeer Lake and travels north and west up the Ice (now Cochrane) River to Fond du Lac River and from there traverses Lake Athabasca to Fort Chipewyan. Returning from there to Montreal, he crosses Methy Portage and establishes its height above the Clearwater River valley at 540 feet.

1882: - Founding of Regina and Saskatoon in the North-West Territories.

August 23. - Regina is established as the seat of the Government of the North-West Territories.

1883: - Regina has approximately 1,000 inhabitants.

1884: - Emmanuel College in Prince Albert starts the University of Saskatchewan.

1885: - Construction of the first automobile using gasoline.

Completion of the CPR.

March 26-May 16. - Riel Rebellion.

November 16. - Riel was hanged in Regina.

1888: - When making a geological reconnaissance of the south shore of Lake Athabasca, from the mouth of the Athabasca River to as far eastward as Point William, R. G. McConnell names the Athabasca Sandstone, which he holds to be of Cambrian age.

1891: - The Ontario Bureau of Miners is established.

1892: - June. Joseph Burr Tyrrell (1858-1957), an officer of the GSC since 1881, sets out from Prince Albert overland down the Beaver River valley to Ile-à-la-Crosse and from there, with hired Indian help, ascends the Mudjatik River to Cree Lake, descends the Cree River to Black Lake and goes west on it to the HBC post at Fond du Lac. Here he meets his assistant, Donaldson Bogart Dowling, who came from Edmonton via Lake Athabasca, following the south shore, which he surveyed. Together they travel to Wollaston Lake where they split up. Dowling goes south on Reindeer Lake (discovering and later describing a sulphide showing containing "a small percentage of nickel and traces of cobalt", the first description of such a showing) and Reindeer River to the Churchill and via Stanley Mission and Lac la Ronge to Prince Albert. Tyrrell ascends the Geikie River to the Foster Lakes, comes down the Foster River to the Churchill River and via Ile-d-la-Crosse travels overland back to Prince Albert, which he reaches on October 2, arriving 10 days before Dowling. Thus the first geological map showing some differentiation of rock types along traverses or tracks through northern Saskatchewan was produced. On this Map of the Country between Lake Athabasca and Churchill River, the following divisions are shown: Basic Eruptives, Norite, Gabbro, etc.; Massive Granite Rocks; Laurentian (granitoid gneisses); Huronian; Cambrian (Athabasca Sandstone); Cretaceous. The light-coloured granites and gneisses were referred to as Laurentian, and the darker schists and sediments as Huronian. Tyrrell and Dowling concur with McConnell in regarding The Athabasca Sandstone as being of Cambrian age.

1893: - Henry Ford builds his first car.

J. B. Tyrrell, assisted by his brother James W. Tyrrell, with six canoe men in two 18-foot Peterborough canoes and one 19-foot basswood canoe, travels from Lake Athabasca (the north shore of which he maps) via Fond du Lac and Black Lake into the Barrens. Bearings were taken with a prismatic or solar compass, distances were measured by floating boat logs, and observations for latitude were made by sextant. Magnetic variation was recorded. In his report, mention is made of red hills of hematitic quartzite near the northeast shore of Lake Athabasca. His map shows a small belt of rocks classified as Huronian in the vicinity of Beaverlodge Lake, the host rock of the mineral pitchblende, which was not to be recognized until 1935. From Pine Channel, near Fond du Lac, large amounts of norite, an igneous rock similar to gabbro and associated with the nickel deposits at Sudbury, Ontario, are reported. This would induce staking on mineral claims in the area in 1910.

1894: - Louis Lumiere invents the cinematograph.

J. B. Tyrrell, accompanied by R. Munro-Ferguson, a young aide-de-camp to the Governor General, the Earl of Aberdeen, sets out from Brochet for the Barrens.

1895: - Wilhelm Röntgen discovers X-rays.

Marconi invents radiotelegraphy.

George Mercer Dawson (1849-1901) succeeds Selwyn as director of the GSC.

The District of Athabasca (created in 1882) is extended from Alberta across northern Saskatchewan.

1896: - Start of Klondike gold rush.

A. H. (Henri) Becquerel discovers radiation in Paris.

J. B. Tyrrell conducts a geological track survey along the water route from Cumberland House via Namew Lake to Wekusko Lake east of Flin Flon during which he noticed the occurrence of quartz veins in the Amisk Lake area.

1898: - Madame Marie Curie and her husband Pierre discover and name the element radium in Becquerel's laboratory.

HBC establishes a post 3 miles south of present La Ronge.

1899: - Ernest Rutherford discovers alpha and beta rays in radioactive atoms.

Dowling surveys the route between Athapapuskow and Kississing Lakes.

1900: - Max Planck formulates quantum theory.

Dawson is President of the Geological Society of America.

1901: - March 2. Dawson dies and Robert Bell becomes Acting Director of the GSC.

1903: - Orville and Wilbur Wright successfully fly a powered airplane.

Dan Mosher, with his brothers Jack and Rufus and sister Elsie, moves from Ontario to Prince Albert. In 1913, when almost fifty years of age, he would be prospecting for John Edward ("Jack") Hammell, Toronto entrepreneur, mining promoter, and one-time prize fighter.

1904: - Revillon Freres establishes a trading post in the present La Ronge.

A gold dredge is built in the shops of the Prince Albert Lumber Company for Roughsedge and Ramsay, the dredging company. The machinery was second-hand and shipped in from South America.

1905: - Albert Einstein formulates his Special Theory of Relativity and establishes the law of mass-energy equivalence.

September 1. - The Province of Saskatchewan, with its present boundaries, is created. The spelling of the remainder of the territory is changed to the Northwest Territories in the spring of 1906. Alberta also becomes a province.

1905: - Placer mining employing a large steam dredge is undertaken in 1909, on the North Saskatchewan River near Prince Albert, but without much success.

1906: - Richard Hall promotes a gold strike at Rottenstone Lake.

1907: - An investigation by Consolidated Mining and Smelting (Cominco) does not reveal the presence of profitable ore.

1907: - The Quebec bridge collapses.

Founding of the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon.

William McInnes (1858-1925) explores the Carrot River, as well as the northern and eastern slopes of the Pasquia Hills, for the GSC.

1908: - Louis Bleriot flies across the English Channel.

A branch line from Hudson Bay Junction, in Saskatchewan, to The Pas, Manitoba, is the beginning of the Hudson Bay Railway which would reach Kettle Rapids on the Nelson River near Gillam, Manitoba, in 1914. Financial complications of World War I intervened and it would not reach Churchill, Manitoba, until April 3, 1929.

The Churchill River between South Indian Lake, Manitoba, and Lac la Ronge is surveyed by McInnes. He finds sulphides containing chalcopyrite at Moose Point on the northwest shore of Lac la Ronge, probably already known to exist by local Indians. This deposit will come into production in 1966 as the Anglo-Rouyn Mine.

Summer. - Mineral claims for copper are staked on sulphides in the Lac la Ronge area. A gold rush starts in the area, with prospectors coming from all over Canada and the USA.

1909: - Attainment of the North Pole claimed by Robert E. Peary; Dr. Frederick Cook claims to have done so one year earlier.

Some sulphide occurrences were staked before this year in the Dog (now Sulphide), Lake area near La Ronge.

May 15. - Regina is mildly shaken by an earthquake.

1910: - A railroad-road bridge is built across the Saskatchewan River at The Pas, Manitoba.

McInnes explores Wapawekka Lake, a large part of Lac la Ronge, Nemeiben Lake, and part of the Churchill River above the mouth of the Rapid River. He surveys Deschambault Lake, Deschambault River, Grassberry River, Amisk Lake, Candle River, and the western part of Cumberland Lake.

Piche, a prospector, stakes a claim for copper and nickel west of Robillard Bay on the north shore of Lake Athabasca, 18 miles east of Fond du Lac.

According to some sources, a discovery of gold in quartz along the north shore of Pine Channel, Lake Athabasca in this year by a miner named Dalton is the first find of free gold in the Precambrian Shield of Saskatchewan. A short tunnel is driven but the results are not encouraging and the project is abandoned.

1911: - Roald Amundsen reaches the South Pole, preceding Robert F. Scott, who perishes on return in 1912.

S.C. Ells briefly examines reported asphaltic deposits on the shores of Peter Pond Lake for the GSC.

E.L. Bruce (1884-1949) starts a three-year detailed investigation of the geology of the Amisk Lake area for the GSC. Inspired by the discovery of gold-bearing quartz veins the previous year, his study is designed to evaluate the economic geology; thus, in his own words, entering a new and third stage of exploration, the first having been the original or pioneer ventures, and the second the track surveys. No longer does he apply the eastern names of Huronian and Laurentian, but instead uses local names (Amisk volcanic, Missi conglomerate, Kisseynew gneisses).

A.G. Haultain commences a survey of Lake Athabasca for the GSC, using transit and stadia checked to employ astronomic readings. This survey was to be completed the following year by B.R. MacKay. Active staking and prospecting continue on the north shore of Lake Athabasca. Charles Camsell (1876-1958), who would later become Deputy Minister of the Department of Mines, explores a route from Black Lake to Great Slave Lake and in so doing investigates the geology of the extreme northwestern corner of Saskatchewan along the Tazin River. His assistant, F.J. Alcock, investigates the north shore of Lake Athabasca.

May 11. - The first aircraft flight in Saskatchewan is undertaken in Saskatoon, in preparation for the Exhibition, by C.W. "Lucky Bob" Shaffer, stage actor, whose Curtiss biplane crashes from about 60 feet up.

1912: - The boundaries of Manitoba are extended northward.

Viljhalmur Stefansson and Rudolph Anderson explore Arctic Canada.

The claim-staking by Piche and other prospectors, which had started in 1910, continues but moves farther east along the north shore of Lake Athabasca to the Narrows, at the eastern end of the lake. Also, an expedition backed by the then Lieutenant-Governor of Alberta, G.H.V. Bulyea, and led by E.N. Burwash, son of the Chancellor of Victoria College, University of Toronto, prospected in the eastern Lake Athabasca area looking for iron, copper, and precious metals. The results are disappointing and the prospectors fail to find the gold-bearing quartz veins, which would be discovered in the same area in 1934.

Thomas Creighton (1874-1949), from Ontario, arrives in The Pas, where he teams up with prospectors Leon Dion and Jack Mosher to investigate the rocks between Lac la Ronge and east of Amisk Lake.

1913: - H. Geiger introduces the first successful electrical devise capable of counting individual alpha rays; Niels Bohr formulates his theory of atomic structure.

Further claims are staked on the north shore of Lake Athabasca. August. Creighton, Daniel and Jack Mosher, and Leon and Isadore Dion jointly discover free gold in quartz veins on the northwest shore of Amisk Lake and stake claims for Hammell (see 1903). Shearing almost parallel to the bedding planes of metamorphosed sedimentary rocks produced irregular, lenticular openings or fissures in which the ore occurs. The values are carried chiefly as visible gold. Assays from quartz samples in which no flakes are to be seen rarely carry more than traces. The sulphides and arsenosulphides are always auriferous but the values in them are not very high. The claims, the first to be staked in the district, become known as the Prince Albert Group, as most of the money for the venture of developing them was raised in that town. Native gold, visible to the unaided eye, is reported to occur as specks and blebs in massive white quartz. This discovery sparks a prospective rush to the area resulting in the staking of numerous deposits. The Prince Albert deposit would later be mined in 1937 and 1940-1942.

1914: - Beginning of radio broadcasting in Canada.

Harold Victor Dardier, backed by capital from the British armament firm of Vickers Ltd., prospects together with John Gibbs Devlin and George Fowler for nickel on the north shore of Lake Athabasca, near Fond du Lac, from where J.B. Tyrrell had reported norite in 1893. However, they encounter only a few stringers of sulphides and no commercial deposits. The area is also investigated by Alcock (GSC), assisted by Camsell (see 1911), who reports finding traces of nickel.

Development of the gold property on the northwest shore of Amisk Lake, discovered the previous year by Creighton, the Dions, and Moshers, begins when the Beaver Lake Gold Mining Company sinks an inclined shaft to a depth of 70 feet. Just after the breakup, a young San Francisco engineer, Emmet R. Cullity, accompanied by assayer Zar Crittenden of Butte, Montana, left the railroad at The Pas to ascend the Saskatchewan River by steamboat to Cumberland House and across Cumberland and Namew Lakes to Shining Bay and Sturgeon Landing, at the outlet of the Sturgeon-weir River. From there they travelled by way of a 17.5-mile wagon road leading from Sturgeon Landing to Beaver Landing, at the inlet of the Sturgeon-weir River in the southeast corner of Amisk Lake. At Beaver Landing the brothers Will and Jack Hayes, fishermen and freighters, operated a cluster of log cabins as shelter for travellers. From Beaver Landing Cullity and Crittenden paddled to the site of the Beaver Lake Gold Mining Company where several log buildings had been erected. John Ashby was a company clerk and Dan Milligan camp cook. A physician, Dr. Mathieson, served on the company staff. The claims were being surveyed by J. E. Morier of Montgomery and Morier, Prince Albert. In the vicinity of the mine was a general store operated by the "Bannock King", Leon H. G. Moore. A motor launch, operated by Dave Collett between Beaver Landing and the mining camp, carried mail, supplies, and the occasional passenger. After the prospecting team of Creighton-Dan Mosher-Leon Dion had left the camp by September, the property was placed under the charge of Cullity, who was responsible for mine development. The assay laboratory, which was operated on a custom basis, was placed in the care of Crittenden.

Bruce commences, for the GSC, geological mapping of the country in the vicinity of Amisk Lake extending eastward along the edge of the Paleozoic rocks towards the Hudson Bay Railway (then reaching as far as Kettle Rapids, Manitoba). Also visiting the area were Alcock, GSC; John Reid, nicknamed "Turn 'em down" Reid, an engineer from Toronto; Bateman, the chief geologist of the Canadian Exploration Company; and Peacock and Jamison, two mine operators from the State of Washington.

J. Sales of Prince Albert discovers a gold prospect located north of the North Channel at the northern tip of Amisk Lake. It was developed by a 35-foot shaft and several trenches. It became known as the Graham Mine.

The Waverley Island gold occurrence in the northwestern part of Amisk Lake is staked. A. S. Davenport and E. W. Fahey are staking claims about 1 mile north of Amisk Lake. On the Wolverine Claims, 2 miles north of the northeast bay of Amisk Lake and near the Prince Albert Group of claims, a vein is traced by cross-tracking for a distance of 2,000 feet. Part of it is completely stripped but no further work is done.

Messrs. Hackett and Woolsey stake claims and find several gold showings in veins on the east shore of Wekusko (Herb) Lake across the boundary east of Amisk Lake, in Manitoba.

On a portage between the Churchill River and Lac la Ronge, Creighton (see 1912) finds a pocketbook entitled The Sunless City by Joyce Emerson Preston Muddock first published in London in 1905. The principal character of this adventure novel was Professor Josiah Flintabbatey Flonatin (Flin Flon for short) who, after having discovered an underground city of gold escapes back to the surface through the hole of an inactive volcano. The next year Creighton would give the name Flin Flon (spelled Flinflon until 1929) to a lake locally known as Fishpole (now Flin Flon) Lake on the shore of which his party staked the Apex and Unique claims, located to the east of Amisk Lake and straddling the Saskatchewan-Manitoba boundary.

August 4. - War with Germany.

Fall. - While his partners, Dan and Jack Mosher and Leon Dion, remain at Amisk Lake to continue prospecting and staking claims, Creighton establishes a campsite at Phantom Lake. He is joined by Isadore Dion and Milligan.

1915: - Einstein postulates his General Theory of Relativity.

The prospecting brothers Richard and Gordon Hall stake a copper deposit on the northwest shore of Lac la Ronge at Moose Point, on the east side of Waden Bay, where mineralization had previously been recorded by McInnes in 1908.

R. Graham stakes six surveyed claims (Valley, Surprise, Ironside, Motherlode, Golden Gate, and Chicagoff) approximately 2.4 km north of the northeast end of North Channel, Amisk Lake.

January. - Dardier and his men return from the Pine Channel area to Athabasca Landing, Alberta, with several hundred pounds of samples.

March-April. - Based on a rumour spread by one of Dardier's men, Devlin, that a sample of ore from near Fond du Lac yielded a very high assay in silver, a staking rush by the dog team develops. The deposit is investigated from June 27 to July 10, by Camsell, who returns to the region in which he had worked the year before. He travels on Lake Athabasca using a small canoe motor borrowed from Mr. Colin Fraser (HBC trader) at Fort Chipewyan, for the 200-mile trip. This is perhaps the first time a canoe motor was used for geological exploration in northern Saskatchewan.

March. - Mining equipment is shipped by rail to The Pas and from there over the ice by freight teams to the Beaver Lake Gold Mining Company. This equipment consisted of a small second-hand steam power plant, shaft sinking equipment, and an incomplete amalgamation mill from a defunct mine in Ontario. When it arrived, the company was out of money and unable to refinance. Not only was the equipment not installed, but also no work was done on the claims in 1915, 1916, or 1917.

Spring. - At their Phantom Lake campsite Creighton, Isadore Dion, and Milligan are joined by Dan and Jack Mosher and Leon Dion. By this time Dan Mosher had obtained financial backing from Hammell for the development of the claims at the north end of Wolverine Lake. The work carried out between 1915 and 1918 only showed the ore to have a below-average gold content.

May 7. - The S.S. Lusitania is torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine. One of the survivors is Scott Turner who was on his way to St. Petersburg to negotiate the sale of the Spitsbergen coal mines, then operated by American interests under the name of the Arctic Coal Company, to the Czar of Russia. Turner, delayed by the German war action, arrived at St. Petersburg only after the Czar had fled. Turner consequently negotiated the sale of the coal mine to the Norwegian government. From 1920 to 1926 Turner was involved in the development of Flin Flon as technical head and consulting engineer of the Mining Corporation of Canada. He later worked under the leadership of Herbert Hoover, himself a mining engineer, and became the Director of the United States Bureau of Mines.

Summer. - Bruce continues geological mapping in the Amisk Lake - Athapapuskow Lake area.

July. - Most prospectors have now left the Fond du Lac area because they failed to find any silver.

July-August. - An Indian named David Collins shows rock samples to Creighton's prospecting party which guided them to the sulphide ore bodies on the east shore of Flin Flon Lake where the Apex and Unique claims were subsequently developed. While development work was going on, Hammell and his wife Eola arrived at Wolverine Lake intending to see how the work was proving up when word reached them that Dan Mosher, whose prospecting activities he was backing financially, had found something promising at a location northeast of Amisk Lake. Hammell and his wife then canoed to Flin Flon Lake. Once there he recognized the importance of the find and soon dispatched samples to Crittenden's and Cullity's custom assay laboratory at Amisk Lake to run assays. In the company of Dan Mosher, he set off for The Pas in mid-August to register the claims. Between the time of finding the mineral late in the summer of 1915 and the freeze-up in November, the locators of the original group of claims trenched across the ore in two places and opened a few pits down through the overburden where the cover was deep. Enough work was done to make it apparent that there was a large amount of ore. This activity brought on a flurry of prospecting. One of the prospecting teams consisted of Fred C. Jackson, a civil engineer with the Hudson Bay Railway, and Sidney S. Reynolds, an experienced prospector. On their first joint venture, they camped on top of an outcrop of a lens of solid chalcopyrite, 35 feet wide, located just north of the mouth of Phantom Creek, 2 miles from the north end of the northwest arm of Schist Lake, south of the present Flin Flon, and just east of the Saskatchewan-Manitoba boundary.

September: - Dardier leaves Edmonton for Lake Athabasca. His party consisted of 25 engineers, assayers, and mineralogists, about 75 Metis labourers, and included his wife and the wife of his camp foreman. This expedition, estimated to cost about $100,000, headed for Pine Channel, where the camp was set up on Dardier Island. Two Davis-calyx steam-powered shot drills were used to obtain samples.

October: - Jackson registers his and Reynolds' find in The Pas as the "Mandy", after his (Jackson's) wife. A representative of Tonopah Canadian Mines Limited, J. E. Spurr of Nevada, after having been shown an ore specimen, negotiated a deal on behalf of his company whereby an option would be taken on the property to develop it, with the original owners receiving a percentage of the profits. The operation would be by the Mandy Mining Company, a subsidiary of the Tonopah Mining Company of Nevada.

1916: - The Quebec Bridge collapses a second time.

Alcock continues his studies of the geology of the north shore of Lake Athabasca.

January. - A diamond drill is brought in on the ice to evaluate the Mandy ore body, the first such drill in northern Manitoba. Drilling and surface trenching reveal 25,000 tons of chalcopyrite, averaging over 20 percent copper, with silver and gold to the value of $5.00 per ton, and 180,000 tons of lower-grade ore consisting of mixed copper, iron, and zinc sulphides assaying from 5 to 8 percent copper, 20 to 30 percent zinc with gold and silver to the value of $5.00 per ton. For every $1,000 spent on drilling, over $1,250,000 in ore was disclosed. The ore body was too small for a smelter on the property. However, owing to the war price of 26 cents a pound for copper, it was decided to commence operations immediately. The main difficulty was transportation. Hauling supplies from The Pas begins in January. Buildings and stables are erected and 85 miles of winter road are constructed. The mining equipment consists of a 125 h.p. boiler, seven-drill compressor, and a hoist, as well as a portable sawmill for cutting lumber for the mine buildings. Four 40-ton barges and a small sternwheeler to handle them were built for use on Schist and Athapapuskow Lakes. During the winter, a 60-ton tug was brought across the winter road from Sturgeon Lake to Athapapuskow Lake to carry freight from the end of the road to the mouth of Schist Creek. A lock is being built on Schist Creek to overcome shallow places and allow barges to be brought from the mine directly to the south end of Athapapuskow Lake without unloading. This will cut the sleigh haul in half.

March. - From now until the middle of July, when work is suspended, two diamond drills work continuously on Flin Flon Lake properties and a very large body of ore is outlined. However, the ore is not of very high grade and the constituent minerals are intimately associated. It was impossible at the time to separate the copper and zinc minerals from the pyrite that forms the bulk of the ore. Hence the concentration of the ore and the shipping of high-grade concentrates during the winter is not feasible. This metallurgical problem would not be solved until 1927. In the meantime, Hammell is busy raising funds for the Flin Flon mining venture. He forms an all-Canadian syndicate that includes himself, lawyer Alexander Fasken (long-time director of Excelsior Life, director of Dome Mines and Nipissing Mining Company), prospector Dan Mosher, hotelman Frank Currie, and a man named Hugh Ryan. Sometime later David Fasken (wealthy Haileyburian, barrister-at-law, lumberman, president of Northern Canada Power Company and Northern Ontario Light and Power Company, future president of Nipissing Mining Company) forms the Great Sulphide Company. Thus the Fasken brothers were the first financiers to become involved in Flin Flon as a result of Hammell's search for development capital. Hammell, Creighton, Dan and Jack Mosher, along with Leon Dion, shared ownership of Flin Flon, with Great Sulphide Company holding a 35 percent interest.

Spring and Summer. - Drilling proceeds at Dardier's camp, Pine Channel, but nothing of economic interest is found. Dardier and his wife leave in the Spring, and the other crew members in late August when the camp was abandoned.

Summer and Fall. - The Dominion Government sends a team of engineers north to assess the water resources of the Churchill River. A visit to both the Mandy Mine and Flin Flon property is paid for by geology professors R.C. Wallace and J.S. DeLury (1884-1968) of the University of Manitoba.

Fall. - Dardier returns to the Pine Channel area with some gas-engine-operated diamond drills and a small crew. They stay 10 months and work both 12 miles east and 12 miles west of the original camp.

December. - A contract is let to Charlie Morgan of The Pas for the hauling, by teams pulling sleighs, of about 3,300 tons of ore from the Mandy Mine over a distance of some 40 miles to Sturgeon Landing, at the head of navigation, for stockpiling. From there the Ross Navigation Company next summer would use a steam tug and barges to ship the ore 130 miles to The Pas whence it was sent by rail to Trail, British Columbia, about 1,200 miles away. To get the transportation of ore underway, work commences at the end of 1916 on the establishment of three complete sets of camps to be occupied by 110 men and 92 teams of horses, a task accomplished in two weeks. In addition to the teams engaged in hauling ore, a considerable number were employed in hauling supplies and taking out fish from Athapapuskow Lake. At least 120 teams were using this road continuously during the winter months.

1917: - Spring. A powerhouse and other mine buildings are erected and a vertical shaft is sunk to 100 feet on the Mandy claim. A crosscut is driven to the orebody and a drift and raise are made in the chalcopyrite lens. The ore was loaded directly from the shaft head by a tramway to barges that were towed down Schist Creek and thence to the south side of Athapapuskow Lake, hauled to Sturgeon Landing and thence to The Pas. In this year 6,000 tons were shipped. The ore at the Mandy has much the same composition as that of the Flin Flon Lake deposit but owes its value chiefly to the rich chalcopyrite in the middle of the lens. All the sulphides carry gold and silver but the value of these minerals is not high enough to warrant shipping for them alone. The segregation of the high-grade copper ore, however, makes it possible to mine and ship that much of the lens, though it must bear the excessive cost of transportation. Only the phenomenally rich part of the deposit will be able to bear this expense. A few small bodies of sulphides were also opened up but nothing was found that was at all comparable to the two original deposits at Flin Flon Lake and the Mandy claim, both in Manitoba, close and to the east of Amisk Lake. Robert Graham, for instance, directed assessment work on a property north of Beaver Lake Gold Mining Company which consisted of claims staked in 1914 by Sales. This Mother Lode Gold Mine was financed mainly by people living in The Pas. A ten-ton mill was built by a Duluth, Minnesota, company but ultimately the mine became inactive.

March. - Diamond drilling commences at Flin Flon and will continue until July 1918, when 44 holes representing 25,664 feet are completed.

Summer-Fall. - Dardier leaves the Lake Athabasca area for good, no worthwhile orebodies having been discovered.

December 6. - A collision of two ships in the harbour causes an explosion in which half of Halifax is destroyed, 1300 killed, and 6000 wounded.

1918: - In the third year of its operation (1918-19) the Mandy Mineshaft is sunk another 100 feet to the 200-foot level to make possible mining from two levels. A total of 8,000 tons of ore is hauled by a team a distance of 10 miles and piled near the outlet of Schist Lake, whence it would be hauled in 1919. Also, 5,000 tons are hauled by the team from the mine to Sturgeon Landing. The Mandy Mining Company takes over the boats from Ross Navigation Company and handles all their transportation themselves on the Saskatchewan River. The average load of a single team of horses for the winter haul is 6.5 tons and the cost of transportation is 37.5 cents per ton-mile. A total of 300 teams are employed.

November 11. - Armistice signed between the Allies and Germany.

1919: - A fall in copper prices and the exhaustion of the richest vein leads to the closing of the Mandy Mine. Most of the equipment is sold to a Canadian syndicate hoping to develop the Ffin Flon property. The work of transporting Mandy ore has lasted four years. The first shipment was made from The Pas in 1917, and the last in August 1920.

Bruce completes geological mapping in the Amisk Lake-Athapapuskow Lake area in this, his third, field season.

June 28. - Signing of Versailles Peace Treaty.

1920: - The Alberta Research Council is established. In Saskatchewan, the Bureau of Labour and Industries starts its work. Both organizations encompass geological work. The University of Saskatchewan becomes involved in consultative work for the government, with Professor W. G. Worcester, a ceramic engineer, playing a major role.

Hammell approaches the Mining Corporation of Canada, then winding up their Cobalt, Ontario, silver operations, for re-financing of the Flin Flon property. Turner, the consulting engineer, advises the Corporation to purchase a 65 percent interest in Flin Flon. This is done and a new subsidiary of the Mining Corporation of Canada is created, the Manitoba Metals Mining Company.

October17. - The first aerial photograph of northern Canada is taken by Frank H. Ellis, northeast of Hudson Bay, Saskatchewan, on a flight to The Pas, Manitoba, from 3,000 feet.

1921: - After newspaper reports about the occurrence of enormous beds of hematite, claims are staked for iron in the Fish Hook Bay area on the north shore of Lake Athabasca, 56 miles east of the Alberta-Saskatchewan border and a few miles east of the future Goldfields. Iron was known to exist here since J. B. Tyrrell's exploration of 1893.

Prince Albert Gold Mines Limited acquires the gold mine northwest of Amisk Lake from the Beaver Lake Gold Mining Company.

1922: - The Evinrude outboard motor for canoes is now firmly established in the northern bushland.

A placer gold flurry develops at the Waterhen River in which the Studer brothers, John, Ernest, and Adolph participate.

J.A. Allan and A.E. Cameron, for the Government of Alberta, investigate the reported iron occurrences at Fish Hook Bay, which caused some excitement in the previous year. They find the deposits of too low a grade to be economically exploitable and discern no indications for a possible enrichment with depth. Based on his travels in this area, Cameron also publishes the postglacial history of Lake Athabasca.

Fieldwork in the Flin Flon area is done by Alcock for the GSC.

1923: - DeLury investigates the Wapawekka-Deschambault area for the GSC.

1924: - DeLury continues his fieldwork in the Wapawekka-Deschambault area.

Late summer. - Turner, knowing of their interests in mining speculation, corresponds with the offices of Harry Payne Whitney of New York. Whitney forwarded Turner's reports on Flin Flon to the west coast office of Roscoe Harry Channing, who was in charge of all Whitney mining interests. The letter was read by Robert Earl Phelan, chief engineer, and resulted in a visit to the Toronto office of the Mining Corporation of Canada by the son of H.P. Whitney, Cornelius Vanderbilt "Sonny" Whitney. Among the Whitney interests was a company called Complex Ore Recoveries, headed by Channing, and staffed by faculty from the Colorado School of Mines. It was this group that would work on and solve the metallurgical problems of Flin Flon ore.

1925: - John Hyslin and associates stake a gold property on the east shore of a peninsula projecting north from the west side of Missi Island, northern Amisk Lake. Native gold is reported to occur in a schist with pyrite crystals and magnetite. Gold is panned from the rusty capping at several points on the deposit. A 28-foot shaft and several trenches along 1,200 feet of the shore comprise the workings on the property.

June. - H.P. Whitney dispatches a party to the Flin Flon orebody to investigate the feasibility of mining, which depends on the quantity of ore and the availability of plentiful electrical power needed for the beneficiation process developed by Channing and his researchers. A source of power is located at Island Falls, 60 miles to the north.

1926: - Eldorado Gold Mines Ltd. is incorporated by Gilbert LaBine to develop some gold properties, mainly in the Long Lake District, Manitoba, where mining commences this year but will be suspended in 1929 when the gold supply is depleted.

W. H. Hastings, on a mineral reconnaissance for the Saskatchewan Bureau of Labour and Industries, reports the first indications of gold in the La Ronge area. A sample from a copper showing on Moose Point, Lac la Ronge (which was later to become the Anglo-Rouyn Mine) returned a value of $2.00 per ton gold; samples from the Lynx River and Sulphide Lake areas returned gold values of 20 to 30 cents per ton.

August. - A small power plant and pilot mill are built at the site of the Flin Flon ore body. Waldron Alvord "Baldy" Green, superintendent of the construction phases of the semi-commercial-sized plant set up in 1926-27 under the direction of Channing and Phelan met at The Pas with Gordon G. Duncan, who served as Channing's assistant superintendent, to discuss the planned movement of a huge tonnage of freight to Flin Flon. During this period of organization of the metallurgical works Duncan, who had received his technical training from Channing, was the only Canadian in a supervisory capacity at Flin Flon.

1927: - Copper-zinc sulphides are discovered on the shores of Reindeer Lake at Paskwachi Bay.

Hammell founds Northern Aerial Mineral Explorations Ltd. (NAME) with a plan to undertake mineral explorations with a large fleet of airplanes around the rim of the Arctic Circle.

DeLury accepts the position of Professor and Head of the Department of Geology at the University of Saskatchewan.

March. - At Flin Flon, the power plant and pilot mill are completed and underground stoping is begun.

December 17. - Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting Ltd. (H.B.M.&S.) is formed with Whitney's interests holding 50 percent, Newmont Company 35 percent, and Mining Corporation of Canada 15 percent. Channing became head of the entire operation; Frank L. Crocker, personal attorney to H. P. Whitney, became president.

1928: - Founding of Flin Flon, Manitoba. Construction of the mine and mill complex is now underway.

An attempt is made to re-activate the Mandy Mine but there is to be no production and in 1930 the company becomes inactive.

Claims staked by two trappers, Tremblay and Olsen, on the Rottenstone Lake deposit, were acquired by Richard Hall, MLA for Cumberland, and his brother. They optioned the property to Cominco. The deposit, a gossan dome of decomposed (rotten) rock 200 feet high rising abruptly at the east end of Rottenstone Lake, was discovered originally by local Indians who brought it to the attention of traders in the early part of this century. It assayed on the surface very high in nickel, iridium, platinum, and other precious metals. Drilling equipment was transported by horses from Prince Albert, a distance of about 300 miles. Drilling, however, shows the deposit to be small and uneconomic. Work is abandoned.

George Chatten stakes a gold property claim on the west side of a peninsula projecting into the West Channel at the northwest end of Amisk Lake.

James Hayes stakes what is to become the Amisk Syndicate Mine on the west shore of Comeback Bay, northeast end of Amisk Lake. The development consists of several pits and trenches, a 40-foot adit, and one other adit.

W. D. Cox stakes eight surveyed claims, named Duplex, on the northwest shore of Amisk Lake.

Dominion Explorers Ltd. finds copper-nickel sulphide on Axis Lake, 8 miles northwest of Stony Rapids, but the grade proves to be much too low for commercial exploitation.

When Dr. R.C. Wallace leaves the University of Manitoba to become Principal of Queen's University, DeLury returns to Manitoba to succeed him as Head of the Department of Geology.

Cominco options the Moose Point prospect and does some trenching and drilling. The Flynn Saskatchewan Syndicate trenches some mineralization near Sulphide Lake.

The Mammoth claims, a large sulphide deposit near Forbes Lake staked by H.G. Montgomery and Pete Davidson, are investigated by Cominco utilizing a diamond-drilling program.

March 1. - The first pick is struck in the ground at the site of the permanent warehouse of H.B.M.&S. to mark the beginning of construction of the Flin Flon mine and metallurgical works.

April 3. - The Hudson Bay Railway (without its roadbed) reaches Churchill, Manitoba.

September 13. - Roadbed of the Hudson Bay Railway is completed and the line is ready for use by the CNR.

1928: - The Martin group of claims, located on the mainland opposite the 1932: the northernmost tip of Missi Island, Amisk Lake, is staked by J. L. Griffin and E. Buckler.

1929: - The Ace Deposit, in the southwestern part of Missi Island is staked by R. Besler. Native gold is panned from the rusty weathered porphyry that forms a capping on the deposit. The development consists of four pits on the southwest side of a large outcrop and three pits on its northwest side.

Dr. J.B. Mawdsley (1894-1964) is appointed Professor and Head of the Department of Geology, University of Saskatchewan.

1929: - The stock market crash and ensuing depression adversely affect 1933: prospecting for mineral deposits.

1930: - The total metallic mineral production of the Province of Saskatchewan is less than $10,000.

Production starts at the Flin Flon Mine after metallurgical problems have been solved. An expenditure of $21,000,000 has been made by H.B.M.&S. The power for the mine comes from Island Falls on the Churchill River near Sandy Bay.

Work is done by J. D. Nicholson (retired inspector of the Alberta Provincial Police), field manager of the Mineral Belt Locators Syndicate, on a copper showing on their property in the area between Cornwall Bay and Fish Hook Bay. On this property, which now becomes known as the "Nicholson", pitchblende will be discovered in 1935.

Amisk Gold Syndicate Co. Ltd. sinks two inclined shafts to depths of 125 and 30 feet on the property staked two years earlier by Chatten.

W. W. Boehme and associates stake a group of claims in "Kisseynew-type" rocks approximately 800 m north of the easternmost bay in Mari Lake (Dolly claim).

March 20. - Mineral rights vested in the Crown are transferred from the federal to the provincial government, except for those affecting Indian reservations.

May 16. - Discovery of pitchblende on the southeast shore of Great Bear Lake by LaBine of Eldorado Gold Mines. There the Port Radium Mine would develop.

October 1. - The Saskatchewan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is created by Act of the Legislature to be the administrative body of the mineral resources under its Mines Division as the result of the transfer of all natural resources from the federal to the provincial government. The staff of the new department totals 135 of which 100 are transfered from the dominion government and 35 from other departments.

1930?: - Patty Houlihan, A.S. Davenport, and associates of Flin Flon, stake four gold claims (Star, Sky, Sun, and Moon) on Hannay Island located in the West Channel in the northwestern part of Amisk Lake, west of Missi Island. Gold is panned from a rusty weathered schist exposed in a trench and a couple of pits.

1931: - An area north of Pelican Narrows is investigated by J. Satterly for the GSC.

Mawdsley reconnoitres a few unmapped areas in northern Saskatchewan and obtains assay values of 0.07 and 0.08 ounces of gold from a pair of grab samples in the Sulphide Lake Belt - the first geological work undertaken by the DNR - with, in his own words, "disappointing results". In this, his first investigation in the Precambrian Shield area of Saskatchewan gold showings in the Amisk Lake area was also visited. Many such subsequent studies by him result in nine geological reports issued by the Department of Natural (later, Mineral) Resources, two reports for the GSC, and several papers in scientific and technical journals.

The Sonora deposit is staked for gold, by S. "Shorty" Russick and associates (John Hyslin, Rudolph Singbell, Roy Besler, and Richard Nelson). It is located on the east shore of the larger of two islands directly southwest of Waverley Island, Amisk Lake. Seven trenches expose the mineralization. A. J. McDonald and associates stake and control six claims (Royal) for gold on Parker Island, north end of North Channel, Amisk Lake. C. M. Mitchell stakes gold claims between Wolverine Bay, Amisk Lake, and Wolverine Lake. East of the south end of Wolverine Lake, A. C. Symons stakes three claims for gold.

A. J. Henning and P. J. Maloney stake a gold claim approximately 1.5 km south of the south end of Douglas Lake and 0.3 km east of Bootleg Lake, about 7.2 km south of Creighton, Saskatchewan.

Summer. - The first ore goes through the crushing plant at Flin Flon. In the space of 21/2 years, a railroad is built, a hydro-electric plant was erected on the Churchill River, a high voltage power line was built from Island Falls to Flin Flon, a portion of Flin Flon Lake was dammed and drained, and both underground and open pit mining operations established.

September. - With all buildings at Churchill completed, the Hudson Bay Railway is officially declared open.

Winter. - At the University of Saskatchewan a two-week course in mineralogy and prospecting is taught by professors Mawdsley and F. H. Edmunds. One of their students is Fred Peet who the following summer will travel north to Port Radium, Great Bear Lake, in the uranium rush that developed after LaBine's discovery.

1932: - A research council is established in Saskatchewan as a precursor of a geological survey but remains a budgetary victim of the Great Depression.

Development work on the Waverley Island gold occurrence begins. One trench dug is 130 feet long and another, about 200 feet away, is 75 feet long with a 10-foot shaft at one end. Other openings are made on the east side of the island.

Amisk Gold Syndicate Company Limited ceases operations.

A gravel road reaches from Prince Albert north to the southern end of Montreal Lake.

Adolph Studer, acting on the advice of Mawdsley, begins work in the Sulphide Lake area, discovering several gold showings in the 1932-1937 period.

July. - Symons discovers a small quartz lens with abundant free gold farther south from the claims he staked the previous year.

1932, - W. W. Bowe builds a 10-ton mill and did considerable development work in 1933: on the Graham property (Amisk Lake area). Some gold was probably produced but no production figures are available.

1933: - J. F. Wright and C. H. Stockwell, both officers of the GSC, who worked in the Amisk Lake area in 1930-1932, describe gold showings in the area.

J. Beda, T. Lathena, and J. Tikkanen of Flin Flon stake 30 claims for gold on the southeast shore of Douglas Lake, about 2 miles south-southwest of Creighton. A grade of 0.458 ounces of gold per ton and 15 percent arsenic is reported.

1934: - Chadwick discovers the neutron.

Yellowknife, N.W.T. established to mine gold.

In the Amisk Lake-Flin Flon area, Man-Sask Gold Mines Limited sinks a vertical shaft and carries out underground development near the south end of Phantom Lake, south of Flin Flon. Small quantities of gold are taken from the shaft. Henning-Maloney Gold Mines Ltd. is formed and the company sinks a two-compartment vertical shaft to a depth of 160 feet with levels at 125 and 150 feet and carries out underground development near the south end of Bootleg Lake.

July. - Beda and associates form the Flin Flon Gold Mining Syndicate, Limited. Considerable drilling is done on the property, located on the east side of Douglas Lake, Amisk Lake area, which indicates the presence of two ore shoots, approximately 60 m apart along the strike. A combined length of 167 m of the two ore shoots is indicated at the 30 m level, grading $10.50 per ton of gold across a width of 0.9 m.

August. - Tom Box (from Edmonton) and Gus Nyman, two prospectors, discover gold by Vick Lake, a small lake between Lodge Bay and Neiman Bay on the north shore of Lake Athabasca. Their 17 claims are taken up by Cominco which develops the Box Mine. Ore samples from the claims contain not only gold but also nickel, copper, molybdenum, lead, and silver. Shortly after this discovery, J. E. Day and Associates of Toronto stake the Murmac group (later transferred to Murmac Lake Athabasca Mines Limited) to the east. This is followed by general staking by residents of Fort Chipewyan. Subsequently Great Bear Lake Mines Limited (in 1935 renamed Athona Mines Ltd.) stake the Lucky-Willy groups southeast of the Vick group. Prospectors C. W. Shearing and R. Alloway stake several groups of claims for Northwest Minerals in the Caldwell Bay area. Athabasca-Beaverlodge Gold Mines Limited stakes the Yah group in the Fish Hook Bay area. Also, the Melma group (later owned by Athabasca Portal Gold Mines Limited) is staked, southwest of the Lucky-Willy groups. E. Cody, 0. Knutson and J. G. Paulsen stake the Bearcat group, near Wabba Lake.

1934: - The GSC undertakes an extensive program of reconnaissance mapping of the Precambrian Shield in Saskatchewan, resulting in 24 geological maps to the scale of 1 inch to 4 miles and covering 42,000 square miles. Party chiefs were F.J. Alcock, G.M. Furnival, M.L. Keith, R.C. Murphy, J.C. Sproule, and J.F. Wright.

1935: - Flin Flon Gold Mines Limited commences work on the Tikkanen property. Monarch Gold Miners Syndicate leases the gold deposit held by Prince Albert Gold Mines Limited in the Amisk Lake area. The company deepens the original prospect shaft and establishes two underground levels.

Goldfields established. Work starts on a 1,000-ton mill and Cominco develops a hydro-electric power plant on the Wellington River, 22 miles from Goldfields, which was needed to power the mine and mill.

Diamond drilling commences on the Cominco Box and Great Bear Lake (Athona) properties, Lake Athabasca. The Star group (later transferred to Greenlee Mines Limited) is staked southwest of the Melma group.

The Bearcat group of claims is transferred to Ventures Limited.

Working for the GSC, Alcock maps some 400 square miles on the north shore of Lake Athabasca. The provisional topographic sheets, which he uses in this mapping in the Tazin Lake, Fond du Lac, and Stony Rapids areas are prepared by the Topographical Survey Branch of the Canada Department of the Interior from oblique aerial photographs, taken by the RCAF. Alcock uses float-equipped aircraft to visit his field parties. He divides his field crew into groups, each consisting of four men with two canoes. E.A. Hart, assisted by B.A. Valde, S.L. Tallman, and G. Munthe covered the area from the Alberta boundary eastward to Cannery Bay and northward to Tazin Lake. J. Anderson Thomson, with F.E. Hogg, E.G. Tallman, and Earl Till, mapped the region drained by Chariot and Crackingstone Rivers. E.S. Carpenter, with W.G. Robinson, W.N. Mulock, and W.G. Cameron, worked eastward from Tazin Lake up the Tazin River and down through the country drained by the upper Oldman River to Beaverlodge Lake. D.T. Willis, assisted by W.G. Gallup, J.G. Thibault, and J.R. Talbot, covered the area drained by the Bulyea River north of Fond du Lac. A.E. Moss, with B. Sigurdson, T.J. Boyle, and J.D. Cardy, covered the region drained by the north branch of the Grease River. L.S. Trenholm, with K. Barnard, A. Agnew and G.D. Campbell, mapped the region around Scott, Premier, Dodge, and Grollier Lakes in the section between the two branches of the Grease River. C.A.L. (Vern) Hogg, assisted by E.W. Greig, R.S. Campbell, and B. Sutherland, explored the country lying between the east branch of the Grease River and the Fond du Lac River. In the work in the region around Lodge Bay, Alcock was assisted by B.C. Elsley, J.W. Lehman, G.M. Godfrey, and S. Sutherland.

April. - A combination steam and diesel mining plant is installed at the Beda group holdings on the east side of Douglas Lake.

June. - Shaft sinking starts at the Beda property and considerable underground development is undertaken.

Spring-Summer. - A provincial mining recorder's office, set up to take care of the staking rush on the north shore of Lake Athabasca following last year's gold discovery, is the beginning of a townsite, first named Beaverlodge, then Goldfields. A post office is established and weekly air service is maintained by Canadian Airways with Waterways, the end of steel in Alberta. Mackenzie Air Service Ltd. and Canadian Airways also fly direct to Edmonton. Wings Ltd. maintains bi-weekly service with Prince Albert.

June. - Work is begun on two shafts at the Athona property.