History Red Lake, Ontario

red lake downtown 1936 left: red lake cafe & meat market (almost hidden @ extreme left, later buffalo bakery , lakeview bakery & cafe - still in existence 2016), mason-goodison block, mccuaig s hotel , red lake supply store (and red lake hotel in background)

according archeological surveys in area, proposed first nations people have inhabited red lake area 2,000 years. first people live in land members of sioux , cree tribes. approximately 200–300 years ago ojibwe people began inhabit area, becoming predominant people @ time.

in 1897, r.j. gilbert expedition discovered gold , staked 8 claims. these surveyed j.b. tyrrell, brother of joseph tyrrell, , rock sample 8-meter shaft assayed 0.6 ounces gold per ton. however, remoteness of site precluded further exploration until 1922. report department of mines geologist , former head of geology @ queen s university dr. everend lester bruce indicated gold-bearing quartz found in greenstone around lake. fred carroll staked become cochenour-willans mine, , herbert tyrell staked become mcmarmac mine on mckenzie island. in 1925, lorne , ray howey, along brother-in-law george mcneely, plus w.f. morgan staked claims became howey , hasaga mines. marius madsen staked claims became madsen mine. mcdonough brothers staked future red lake gold shore mines.

aerial view of red lake 1936 lower right hand corner of photo log boom full of saw logs in location of mcdougall s sawmill

the town experienced sudden surge of economic, industrial, , population growth discovery of gold in 1926. in fact, 1936, red lake s howey bay busiest airport in world, more flights landing , taking off per hour other.

by 1941, howey mine had produced 421,592 ounces of gold. hasaga gold mines produced 218,213 ounces on 14 years. mckenzie red lake gold mines produced 651,156 ounces 1966, madsen mine produced 2,416,609 ounces 1976, , cochenour-willans mine produced 1,244,279 ounces 1971. jack hammell developed uchi lake produced 114,467 ounces 1943. h. dewitt smith developed berens river, produced 157,341 ounces 1948. george campbell started second red lake gold rush in 1949 development of campbell red lake mines. produced peak of 300,472 ounces in 1993, same year cumulative production reached 8,000,000 ounces. dickenson red lake gold mine had produced 3,000,000 ounces of gold 1993.

in 1995 goldcorp, owners of red lake mine, discovered contains world s richest grade gold ore (two troy ounces of gold per metric ton). shortly thereafter, mine suffered through four-year-long miners strike. since then, mine has become 1 of richest gold mines in world.