It was 109 years ago this past Saturday that a raging forest fire flattened the Porcupine Mining Camp, all the way to Cochrane.
In part two of three of our look back on July 11th, 1911, Timmins Museum director-curator Karen Bachmann tells of the resourcefulness of some of the residents around the Dome mine, when they knew the flames were approaching.
“Many people though in the camp, when they saw things coming, buried a lot of their personal effects,” she says. “So chests and trunks and one lady buried a roast that she had in a pot and when the fire was over, she actually had a really nice dinner, which was very lovely for her family.”
“And it’s funny because some people are still finding things in their backyard and wondering ‘why is this tea cup buried in my backyard?’ or ‘why was this gun buried in my backyard?’ And these are all things that came to the museum afterwards and were all leftovers from that fire.”
Next week: How a mine manager thought he and his family might escape the fire.