Editorial `Borrowing’Tony Oklend’s boat

If only Tony Oklend could see LAC Minerals today. Who was he, you might well ask? Tony was a lonely, illiterate, Lithuanian immigrant who eked out a rugged existence trapping in the Thunder Bay area, Ont., who rather miraculously found gold that led to the highly successful Little Long Lac mine from which he made a bundle of money. And he knew nothing — absolutely nothing — about prospecting or mining.

I first met him about 1930 while clerking in the general store and post office at Loon Lake, Ont., a lovely summer resort on the CPR rail line 30 miles east of Port Arthur where we had a summer cottage. He lived in a log cabin “on the other side” of the lake across which he paddled once a week for supplies. This consisted almost entirely of stale bread which we saved for him at 5 cents a loaf. His only mail, as I recollect, was Eaton’s catalogue.

But I got to know him under somewhat more intimate circumstances. For there was great fishing in that area in those days, particularly in a certain speckled trout lake several miles north of Loon, accessible only via a narrow trail that started right at Tony’s cabin.

Trouble was there was no boat. But that didn’t discourage me or my partner (who became senior staff at Royal Military College, Kingston, Ont.), for we heard Tony had an old punt in there somewhere. So, armed with axe and fishing poles, in we went. And sure enough we found it. But it was chained to a big birch tree which we had to chop down.

Just as we got settled to some serious fishing along a rock cliff on the far side of the lake, we heard some yelling and saw two men waving frantically. Sensing they wanted the boat, we pretended we neither saw nor heard them.

Some hours later we saw three men. And you guessed it. They had gone back to get Tony, who apparently had rented them the boat for the day. Furthermore, he was carrying a rifle. Scarred skinny when he fired a shot, we quickly beached his punt then and there on the wrong side of the lake which we had to walk around. Running all the way back home through the bush, we nearly got lost as we were afraid to go even close to the trail.

The store owner, who happened to be the township constable and knew Tony well, warned us to avoid him like a plague, as “he wants to kill both of you.” Fact is, I never did see him again, at least not close up.

What about that gold? It seems Tony had picked up some native gold while trapping, which he took to the Hudson Bay Trading Post at Longlac for groceries. When veteran prospector Tom Johnson heard this, he contacted Oklend to show him where it came from. And sure enough, they found the source in shallow water near the shore of Kenogamisis Lake.

That was in 1932, when a deal was quickly made that led to the rapid development of the highly successful Little Long Lac mine. Indeed it sparked a boom that saw seven producers and a whole new camp at Geraldton, Ont.

While Oklend and Johnson were partners in the initial staking, not surprisingly they soon had a falling out. “They do not enjoy one another’s conversation at all.” I was told. But both made money — lots of it.

Tony, I gathered, found a new friend in demon rum. And seeking brighter lights, he hired a taxi to take him all the way from Port Arthur to Toronto via Chicago, for there was no Trans- Canada highway at that time. He stopped in that windy city for a haircut and manicure; his generous tipping enticed the attractive young manicurist to accompany him on to Toronto where they were soon married.

They bought a fine home in Port Credit, Ont., where Tony soon succumbed to the high living of which he was unaccustomed. Presumably, his bride fared better.

That stock? First offered by F.J. Crawford & Co. of Toronto’s Standard Stock & Mining Exchange at 25 cents in 1933, it was heavily oversubscribed and never ever cut back. In fact shareholders eventually received 2.377 shares of today’s LAC Minerals for each original share. And it paid numerous dividends, including 10 cents in its first year of production in 1934.