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60-567: It was developed in the subsequent Cobalt silver rush of 1903. The original 843 acres of claims were purchased by Ellis P. Earle from the Ferland Syndicate. By 1907, it was the top producing mine in the area. The company completely surrounded Peterson and Carr lakes and occupied the east side of Cobalt Lake. At its peak, the mine had ten shafts working three veins , the Kendall, Meyer and Fourth of July. Additionally, it used hydraulics to strip

120-508: A charter to build a bridge across the St. Lawrence River to Valleyfield, Quebec and then operate a railway across southwestern Quebec to the United States border. Due to financial difficulties, neither line had been completed, and Booth worked to complete the entire route by 1882. The Coteau bridge was completed in 1890, thus eliminating the necessity of transshipping cargo by barge . The CAR formed

180-584: A later one in 1903. Much of Booth's personal and business records were lost in these fires. It was also of concern within the timber limits as well, and Booth once said, "If fires are kept out of the forests, there will be more pine in this country 100 years from now than there was fifty years ago, and we shall have lots of timber for the generation to come." Booth established a hydroelectric generating station at Chaudière Falls in 1909 in order to power his sawmill and planing mill, after fifty years of using penstocks distributed around his property to directly feed

240-616: A pair of skis with him, thus introducing the sport of skiing to the area. One of Booth's descendants noted in 2016 that the manner in which his predecessor had gathered his wealth was exceptional in comparison to " really old-school wealthy families " in Canada, "as most of them came from the booze business, which was illegal . So they didn’t pay taxes; it was all cash. So what J.R. did was that much more impressive." Booth died in Ottawa on December 8, 1925. On his passing, Michael Grattan O'Leary of

300-515: A railway from North Bay to New Liskeard, but these plans ended when the rate of settlement dwindled at the turn of the 20th century. In 1902 the government decided to take over the project and started development of the T&;NO, contracting out construction to a wide array of companies. By the summer of 1903 the line was about 100 miles (160 km) long and was approaching Haileybury. James J. McKinley and Ernest Darragh were contractors supplying ties to

360-403: A sole proprietorship into a corporation (known as J.R. Booth Limited). He died in 1925 at the age of 98 after being ill for several months and was survived by his sons Jackson, John Frederick, daughter Helen Gertrude Fleck and several grandchildren and great grandchildren. In 1943, J.R. Booth Limited, with the exception of its lumber division, was sold to George Weston Limited to become part of

420-621: A specific mine is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Cobalt silver rush The Cobalt silver rush was a silver rush in Ontario, Canada that began in 1903 when huge veins of silver were discovered by workers on the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway (T&NO) near the Mile 103 post. By 1905 a full-scale silver rush was underway, and the town of Cobalt, Ontario sprang up to serve as its hub. By 1908 Cobalt produced 9% of

480-637: A subsidiary, the Vermont and Province Line Railroad, which would build a line to Swanton, Vermont on the eastern shore of Lake Champlain in 1897, thus connecting Ottawa to the United States via the Delaware and Hudson Railway , the Rutland Railroad , and the Central Vermont Railway . In 1888, Booth chartered the Ottawa, Arnprior and Renfrew Railway to build a line from Ottawa to Renfrew , as well as

540-465: The Ottawa Journal noted that what people should remember about him was that he was: not the great magnate whose wealth is the envy of many and the wonder of more; but the great pioneer, the man whose genius and imagination tamed the wilderness . . . and, above all, did more than any man of his time to build up this Ottawa Valley. Also at that time, William Lyon Mackenzie King observed: Mr. Booth

600-557: The Amable du Fond River and Lake Nosbonsing area in the late 1860s, arriving at Depot Creek in 1870. Booth expanded his timber limits into the Lake Nipissing watershed in 1881. In order to reach his Ottawa mills, Booth constructed the Nosbonsing & Nipissing Railway (length 5.5 miles (8.9 km)) in 1884 to carry sawlogs over the portage from Lake Nipissing to the headwaters of

660-655: The Canada Atlantic Railway (from Georgian Bay via Ottawa to Vermont ) to extract his logs and to export lumber and grain to the United States and Europe . In 1892, his lumber complex was the largest operation of its kind in the world. He arrived in Bytown (later renamed Ottawa ) at the same time as many other future lumber entrepreneurs such as Henry Bronson , W.G. Perley , John Harris and E.B. Eddy . Even so, by 1890 Booth had overtaken them all to become

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720-512: The Clay Belt , a band of rich soil running north of Lake Temiskaming . The government wanted to open what was then known as "New Ontario", after it had been merged into the province from formerly Northwest Territories land. At the time, direct settlement to farms was still fairly widespread, and the towns of New Liskeard and Haileybury formed in the 1890s as the hubs of this activity. The settlements generated some commercial interest in building

780-697: The E. B. Eddy Company . The lumber mill was later sold to E. B. Eddy in 1946. Booth's impact was significant on Ottawa: In Algonquin Provincial Park , Booth Lake is named after him. However, most other traces of Booth's interests in the Park (including a summer retreat at the Barclay Estate on Rock Lake ) were razed by the Province of Ontario as their leases on crown land ran out. Two geographic townships have been named after him. In Quebec , Booth Township

840-465: The Eastern Townships of Quebec , Lower Canada . His parents, John Booth ( Ireland , 1802 - Quebec, 1877) and Eleanor Helen Booth ( née Rowley) (Ireland, 1804 - Quebec, 1834) were Irish immigrants, had a number of children (variously reported as 5, 6 and 8); his paternal grandparents were John Booth and Elizabeth Hill; his patrilineal great-grandfather, Robert Booth who married Eleanor Taylor,

900-629: The Mattawa . It was subsequently incorporated as a separate company by Act of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in 1886. Booth's vision and boldness were qualities that made him a success. In 1867, he purchased, for $ 40,000, the timber rights of John Egan 's 250 square miles (650 km ) of pine on the Madawaska River in what is now Algonquin Park . Five years later, he refused an offer of more than $ 1 million to sell those rights. During

960-566: The Murray Mine ) in order to create a potential competitor to International Nickel . It was subsequently sold to Frederick Stark Pearson , William Mackenzie and Donald Mann and became the British America Nickel Corporation, in which Booth was a director. In 1921, Booth was induced to vote in favour of a bondholders' reorganization scheme through the promised issue of $ 2,000,000 of British American stock. The reorganization

1020-571: The Ottawa River valley. He was involved in the construction of a paper mill in Sherbrooke, and a sawmill in Hull. Upon completion of the latter, its owner, Andrew Leamy hired him to manage the mill for a year. He then ventured out on his own, opening a shingle mill in Hull in a mill that he rented from Alonzo Wright , but within months it was destroyed by fire. He established his own lumber company and won

1080-460: The overburden and employed an aerial tramway . The last dividend was paid in 1921 however. The mine continued to operate during the 1920s by harvesting remnants and areas overlooked during the early boom years. With the onset of the Great Depression, the price of silver collapsed and the mine became uneconomic. Underground exploration and rock breaking had ceased by 1932 and further production

1140-435: The overburden . By 1913, Cobalt Lake was polluted and the lake was drained to expose any veins. Although one of the richest veins was known as early as 1904, development was slowed by disagreements among the shareholders. These were finally worked out and mining the "Lawson Vein" started in 1908. Once mining was underway it became clear that the vein was incredibly large, as much as 10,000 tons of processed silver, making it

1200-450: The 1940s. Fire was a constant threat to his mills, and they burnt down in 1893, 1886, 1900 and 1903. In 1900 alone, 100 million feet of lumber was lost to fire, and Booth also lost his home located at Wellington and Preston Street . The extent of the fire led to a controversial proposal to restrict the amount of lumber being held in the yards, but intensive lobbying by Booth and other lumbermen effectively killed that measure as well as

1260-659: The CAR, he did everything possible in the early years of the 20th century to make every aspect of the railway profitable, and therefore attractive to potential buyers. Booth also operated grain elevators at Depot Harbour, Coteau, Duluth and Milwaukee , and steamships on the Great Lakes , and formed the Canada Atlantic Transit Company, which operated five large lake freighters on the Upper Great Lakes. Prompted by

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1320-590: The Chambers-Ferland Mine. Larose's samples were sent to Thomas W. Gibson, the Director of the Ontario Dept. of Mines. Gibson identified the mineral in the samples as niccolite . Gibson sent the samples to Willet G. Miller , a professor of geology at Queen's University . With the samples Gibson included a note which stated that "If the deposit is of any considerable size it will be a valuable one on account of

1380-621: The Larose Mine and the McKinley-Darragh Mine. These veins were up to ten feet wide and produced silver at 4,206 ounces per ton. In 1904, 57 miners were able to ship 58 tons of high-grade ore. When travel re-opened in the spring of 1905 word was out that there was silver at Cobalt Station. Prospectors and developers started pouring into the campsite, and by the end of the year 16 operating mines, employing 438 men, shipped $ 1,366,000 worth of ore. The next year another $ 2,000,000 worth of ore

1440-750: The OA&;PS on Booth's sawmill property in Ottawa while the C&;PL met the M&;OJ in Coteau, using several hundred feet of trackage rights of the Grand Trunk Railway (GTR). In 1899, the OA&PS amalgamated with the CAR. As a result, Booth ruled the largest railway empire built in North America by any one man. It was said that the first phase of the CAR's construction was undertaken without any government assistance, which

1500-610: The Ottawa and Parry Sound Railway to do the same from Parry Sound to Renfrew. In 1891, the two lines (together with the Parry Sound Colonization Railway in 1893) were amalgamated into the Ottawa, Arnprior and Parry Sound Railway (OA&PS), which ran from Georgian Bay through southern Algonquin Park to Ottawa. When the PSCR was taken over by Booth, the original intention was to have its terminus at Parry Sound . However,

1560-465: The T&NO along Mile 103 from North Bay . On the banks of Long Lake (now called Cobalt Lake), south of Haileybury, they noticed metal in a road cut. On August 30, 1903 they staked a claim on a timber limit owned by John Rudolphus Booth , and sent several samples to an assayer in Montreal. These proved to have 4,000 ounces of silver per ton. According to Barnes, "this was one of the richest properties in

1620-573: The United States through the establishment of docks and a distribution centre at Rouses Point, New York , a planing mill and box factory at Burlington, Vermont , and a sales office in Boston . The mills' output was so large that its Fraserfield lumber yard and railyard , acquired in 1870, extended along Bronson Avenue as far south as Carling Avenue , backing onto The Glebe . The Chaudière Island mills were so extensive that Booth issued tokens for use there, which were in circulation from 1893 until

1680-608: The area of Sasaginiga Lake. Trethewey staked two claims on some veins, one of which became the Coniagas Mine since it showed signs of copper, nickel, silver and arsenic. Longwell staked a claim which became the Buffalo Mine . In 1905, William Henry Drummond staked claims at the east end of Kerr Lake, which became the Drummond Mine. Henry Pellatt 's Cobalt Lake Mining Company developed the vein system under Cobalt Lake, in between

1740-412: The area." A mine followed three years later. Fred La Rose , a blacksmith also working as a contractor on the railway near the Mile 103. About two weeks after McKinley and Darragh, LaRose noticed erythrite along the tracks. LaRose noted "One evening I found a float, a piece as big as my hand, with little sharp points all over it. I say nothing but come back and the next night I take pick and look for

1800-587: The brother-in-law of the Timmins brothers. Ferland formed a syndicate with the railway engineers T. Chambers and R. Gilbraith, and acquired 846 acres (3.42 km ) of claims, including Herbert's. The syndicate promptly sold 843 acreas for $ 1 million to Ellis P. Earle, which developed into the Nipissing Mine . Earle's claim included the Little Vein and "silver nuggets the size of acorns." The remaining 3 acres became

1860-416: The cobalt. Ten mines were in operation after the war. Increasing silver values and better mining processes started to make the area profitable, and the 1950s saw a brief resurgence of mining. Most of these closed by the 1970s, and the few remaining ones by the early 1980s. By 2017 however, several cobalt exploration companies were focusing on the area around Cobalt, as one alternative to cobalt mining in

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1920-462: The contract to supply wood for the Parliament buildings at the new Canadian capital of Ottawa , selected by Queen Victoria in 1858. In winning the contract, he underbid more established firms by hiring unemployed longshoremen from Montreal . Booth harvested timber from the upper Ottawa River and its tributaries, driving them down the river to his mills, and is known to have started logging in

1980-462: The development of Canada's railway system when he purchased the Montreal and City of Ottawa Junction Railway (M&OJ) and the Coteau and Province Line Railway and Bridge Company (C&PL) in 1879, amalgamating them to form the Canada Atlantic Railway . The M&OJ had received a charter to build southeast from Ottawa to Coteau Landing on the north bank of the St. Lawrence River . The C&PL had received

2040-457: The end of the war, Cobalt had a population of about 7,000 or 8,000, and the camp had reached its 10,000th ounce of silver produced. By 1932 only one mine remained open. The Larose and Nipissing had closed in 1930. In the World War II era and immediately thereafter, cobalt became a valuable mineral in its own right, and a number of operations opened to process the tailings again, this time for

2100-677: The entire system as well as the Depot Harbour and Ottawa terminals was $ 16,000,000. The Grand Trunk took over all operations of the CAR on 1 October 1905, but the actual purchase was ratified by Parliament only in 1914. Booth was subsequently one of the GTR's directors until its nationalization as part of the Canadian National Railways in 1923. At the creation of the Lady Stanley Institute for Trained Nurses in 1890 in Ottawa, he

2160-656: The federal government, the Grand Trunk Railway began negotiating with Booth to acquire the Canada Atlantic as part of the Grand Trunk's efforts to expand into northern Ontario and eventually into Western Canada. In August 1904 the GTR agreed to purchase the Canada Atlantic system, including the Great Lakes steamship fleet and the line in Vermont which connected with its Central Vermont Railway subsidiary. The agreed-upon price for

2220-755: The high percentage of nickel which this mineral contains. I think it will be almost worth your while to pay a visit to the locality before navigation closes." Miller visited the area in Oct. and discovered a number of veins , reporting "pieces of native silver as big as stove lids and cannon balls." He noted the silver was located within veins cutting through the Nipissing sills of the Huronian Supergroup . The O'Brien Mine started operations in 1903. William Trethewey and Alex Longwell arrived in May 1904 and set out prospecting

2280-513: The high prices demanded by local landowners prompted him to choose a location on nearby Parry Island , which would become Depot Harbour . When completed, Depot Harbour became one of the most prominent ports on the Great Lakes , rivalling Collingwood , Midland and Owen Sound . It was the shortest route for shipping grain to the Atlantic , with trains arriving and departing every twenty minutes. All three lines met "end to end". The M&OJ met

2340-447: The largest lumber producer in the world. It was said that at one point the timberlands under his control occupied an area larger than France . He was familiar with all aspects of his industry, and one observer noted: [He] knew the forest as a sailor knows the sea, and his success was largely due to the fact that he never overestimated its potentialities. J. R. Booth was born on a farm at Lowes near Waterloo ( Shefford County ) in

2400-433: The largest single find in the world to this day. It is better known today as the "Silver Sidewalk". The rush reached its peak in 1911, producing 30 million ounces of silver. The town had grown considerably by 1912, and had a population of between 10,000 and 15,000, with 3500 working the mines. By 1913, the deepest silver mine was operated by Beaver Consolidated Mines Ltd. World War I made labour hard to come by. At

2460-452: The latter half of the 19th Century, he amassed timber rights approaching 7,000 square miles (18,000 km ) in Central and Northern Ontario which he would harvest for his mills. He often went to his Algonquin timber limits in his own private railway car, working beside his men during the day and on business affairs most of the night, seldom sleeping for more than a few hours. He was always on

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2520-463: The lookout for opportunities to reduce costs, and in 1894 he began investing in tugboats in order to accelerate the delivery of log booms to the Chaudière mill. In 1891, Booth installed 13 band saws at his Ottawa mill, which was said to be more than anywhere else in the world. The next year, that mill produced 140 million board feet (about 25,000 cubic feet (710 m )) of lumber. It required

2580-530: The mills' output was shipped to England; the rest to the United States and throughout Canada. White pine from Booth's lumber yards was used to build the decks on the ocean liners of the Cunard Line , including the Lusitania and Mauretania . In 1905, he constructed a new plant and entered the pulp and paper business, thus being able to use softwood that he had been previously forced to sell. He expanded into

2640-475: The politically-unstable Democratic Republic of Congo . Major companies that require this mineral for their batteries were searching for ethically-sourced product. Silver was selling for US$ 17 per ounce in late October 2017, down significantly from its peak of US$ 50 in 2012, but cobalt was at about US$ 30 per pound, up significantly from the US$ 10 price in late 2015. The prices will increase according to Gino Chitaroni,

2700-591: The president of the Northern Prospectors' Association. He also predicted that the area around Cobalt would be a primary source of both silver and cobalt. "It's spectacular ... We have the infrastructure. We have a historic mining area. It puts us a step up on anywhere [else] in the world." John Rudolphus Booth John Rudolphus Booth (April 5, 1827 - December 8, 1925) was a Canadian lumber tycoon and railroad baron . He controlled logging rights for large tracts of forest land in central Ontario , and built

2760-430: The property was later re-evaluated upwards to $ 23 million. Although succession duties of $ 4.28 million were paid in 1927, in 1937 Ontario Premier Mitchell Hepburn subsequently claimed more and had the Legislative Assembly of Ontario pass the necessary legislation to overcome the legal obstacles. J.R's heirs eventually paid another $ 3 million in 1939. His son John Frederick Booth, who lived in Canada, married and had

2820-443: The supply of 2 million logs annually in order to run at capacity, and some of his timber limits were so remote that it took up to two years for logs to reach the mill. Booth was so dominant in the industry that he assumed the role of price leader , where all competitors met the prices he set for his product. His leading status would continue until 1919, when William Cameron Edwards and others would achieve greater outputs. Half of

2880-530: The vein. The second evening I found it." He and his boss, Duncan McMartin staked claims on September 3, 1903. LaRose and the McMartin brothers were not sure what the metal was though. LaRose started on his way back to his home in Hull, Quebec and stopped on the way in Mattawa . There, he visited a store owned by locals Noah Timmins and his brother Henry. Larose showed the samples to Noah before moving on to Hull. Henry

2940-509: The water turbines that powered his machinery. The construction of the station resulted in the water level of the Ottawa River being raised by 10 feet (3 m), which meant the end of log rafting there. Booth's sawmill operations could never run at full capacity because the output could not be carried out of the lumber yards fast enough. Because of these transportation problems in the Ottawa area, Booth became an important participant in

3000-471: The world's silver, and in 1911 produced 31,507,791 ounces of silver. However, the good ore ran out fairly rapidly, and most of the mines were closed by the 1930s. There were several small revivals over the years, notably in World War II and again in the 1950s, but both petered out and today there is no active mining in the area. In total, the Cobalt area mines produced 460 million ounces of silver. The Cobalt Rush

3060-766: Was a member of the Provisional Committee. Later in 1892, he became Life Governor of that same Institute by paying at least the amount of $ 500. Booth was a significant investor in the Canada Cement Company formed by Max Aitken , which is now part of Lafarge . He was also a director of Foster-Cobalt Mining which took part in the Cobalt silver rush , whose origin took place on one of Booth's timber limits. Together with M.J. O'Brien , he also invested in The Dominion Nickel-Copper Company (owner of

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3120-439: Was from various rock dumps. In 1952 the company merged with O'Brien Mines to become Nipissing-O'Brien Mines with minor operations through extraction of floors and pillars in the old workings. The resultant company would later merge into Agnico Mines which was a forerunner to Agnico-Eagle Mines of today. This Northern Ontario geographical article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about

3180-557: Was in Montreal at the time, so Noah cabled him, telling him about LaRose's find. Henry immediately set out for Hull, meeting LaRose and offering him $ 3,500 for half of the claim. Some time later a story developed that he found a vein when he threw a hammer at a pesky fox. In October 1903, a timber cruiser called Tom Herbert, staked the east side of Long Lake, 104 miles north of North Bay. He showed samples to Arthur Ferland in Haileybury,

3240-475: Was indeed one of the Fathers of Canada; it is not too much to say that it is to men of such sterling worth and indomitable will as he possessed, more than aught else, that we owe the development of our Dominion. Booth's fortune was a subject of much speculative commentary during the latter years of his life, with estimates ranging up to $ 100 million. At his death his estate was officially valued at almost $ 7.7 million;

3300-588: Was instrumental in opening northern Ontario for mineral exploration. Prospectors fanned out from Cobalt, and soon caused the nearby Porcupine Gold Rush in 1909, and the Kirkland Lake Gold Rush of 1912. Much of the settlement in northern Ontario outside the Clay Belt owes its existence indirectly to the Cobalt Rush. In the late 19th century the Ontario government started a program to establish settlements in

3360-694: Was later held by the Ontario courts as not binding on the minority bondholders, and the ruling was upheld by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in a decision that has influenced corporate jurisprudence throughout the British Commonwealth . After Inco drove British American into bankruptcy in 1924 by aggressively cutting the price of nickel, it later acquired British American's assets. J. R. Booth continued to run his business empire well into his nineties. Only in 1921 did he convert it from

3420-415: Was shipped. The top producing mines in 1907, included Coniagas, Nipissing, O'Brien, Buffalo, Trethewey, Larose, Silver Queen, Kerr Lake Foster, Temiskaming and Hudson Bay, Green-Meehan, McKinley-Darragh, Nova Scotia, Townsite and Right-of-Way. The Nipissing Mine was the top producer. Additionally, 9 stamp mills were in operation. The Nipissing Mine introduced the use of high-pressure water to remove

3480-466: Was surveyed and established in 1908. It is located east of Kipawa , and is part of the unorganized territory of Les Lacs-du-Témiscamingue in the Témiscamingue Regional County Municipality . In Ontario , Booth Township was surveyed and established in 1962. It is located immediately north of Nipigon in Thunder Bay District . In 1892, Booth rented a cottage at Saranac Lake, New York , where his daughter would cure for several years. Booth brought

3540-1247: Was the son of Peter Booth, whose father, James Booth, a Freeman of Dublin , was fourth son of the Rev. Humphrey Booth and wife Letitia Jones. He was related to the Booth Baronets . John Booth left the family farm at the age of 21 and got a job as a carpenter with the Central Vermont Railroad . In Kingsey Township, Lower Canada, on January 7, 1853, he married Rosalinda Cooke ( Philipsburg , Monteregie Region, Quebec, March 12, 1829 - Ottawa, Ontario, March 24, 1886, buried in Beechwood Cemetery, Ottawa, Ottawa Municipality, Ontario), daughter of Thomas Cooke (1790 - Abbott's Corner, Monteregie Region, Quebec, July 15, 1873) and wife Eliza Armstrong (Ireland, July 1808 - Saint-Armand, Monteregie Region, Quebec, March 29, 1871, buried in Abbott's Corner Cemetery, Monteregie Region, Quebec), and maternal granddaughter of Robert Armstrong Sr. ( Whalton , Northumberland , August 30, 1777 - Franklin , Franklin County , Vermont , January 30, 1850, buried in Abbott's Corner Cemetery, Monteregie Region, Quebec) and wife Ann Lattimore Booth ( Rennington , Northumberland, April 8, 1786 - Franklin, Franklin County, Vermont, October 21, 1849, buried in Abbott's Corner Cemetery, Monteregie Region, Quebec), and moved to

3600-512: Was unusual at the time. Booth himself was concerned with building the railways as well as marketing the service to build and maintain tonnage on the new lines. He was open to cooperation with other railways in eastern and western Canada, as well as to sale or amalgamation with a larger railway system, and was contemplating such a sale by 1901. Whether it was because Booth at age 74 was tired, or because he realized that competition from other transcontinental lines would soon cause serious problems for

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