This week’s Timmins history feature wraps up our look back at the Great Fire of July, 1911.
Museum director-curator Karen Bachmann has told us how big city reporters covering the building of the mining camp filed stories as the flames devoured the area.
Investors reacted, proving that money talks, and everything was rebuilt by October.
“And I mean that’s phenomenal to think that in July, people were living in tents,” Bachmann observes. “There was no lumber to be had, because everything was burnt, but there was a real desire to see things happen and to grow.”
Fourteen mining properties had been consumed by the blaze, including the Dome and the Hollinger, which had just built its mill.
“The fire, although it’s 111 years ago I think still has an impact on the community and the way that the community developed and I think in the history of the community, how we see ourselves as Northerners,” Bachmann concludes.
Thanks to Karen Bachmann and the Timmins Museum: National Exhibition Centre for making our weekly history feature possible.
