We continue our dive into the history of Timmins this week with another look at some early swimming facilities.
Timmins Museum director-curator Karen Bachmann says when the mining sector migrated from Golden City – what we now call Porcupine – to South Porcupine and Timmins in the 1920s,the community looked into developing Porcupine Lake.
A woman named Mrs. Deakter owned a lakeside resort.
“She offered boating and swimming and all those good things and she had change rooms,” Bachmann states. “She had an ince cream parlour. Eventually they build a dance hall on that area, so that people can go and enjoy the lake.”
Moving west to the Mattagami River also brings us to the year 1921.
Bachmann says it didn’t matter that the river was already busy with logging operations. The regatta offered swimming and boating competitions.
“And the big thing at that time was that we brought in a gentleman, a Mr. Hare from the Dunlop Tire and Rubber Co. of Toronto. But his specialty was high-diving. So he would do high-diving competitions off of the girders and the trestles on the very top of the bridge.”
More in the water in the early days of Timmins in the weeks ahead.
