BOOKS IN REVIEW — Lively chronology of a gold rush

Ontario’s First Gold Rush: Eldorado, by Gerry Boyce. Published by Natural Heritage/Natural History Inc. P.O. Box 95, Station O, Toronto, Ont. M4A 2M8.

Few people realize that Ontario’s first gold rush occurred in a sleepy little hamlet, 180 km northeast of Toronto. In 1866 a discovery of gold was made on a farm at a place now called Eldorado, just north of the village of Madoc, Ont.

Ontario’s First Gold Rush is a historical account imbued with lively anecdotes and interesting portraits of leading players.

Noteworthy is the legendary Cariboo Cameron who, infected by gold fever, moved from the West Coast to Eastern Canada.

During the rush, a special detachment of the mounted police was formed to maintain law and order. Ironically, some of the policemen themselves violated the law which they were hired to uphold.

Author Gerry Boyce spent three decades piecing together fragmentary information into a coherent chronology of major events. A labor of love, it is also a tribute to the province’s mining heritage.