EDITORIAL & OPINION — ODDS ‘N’ SODS — Out with the old

I left Alberta for Ontario in the late 1920s. It was to be a new life for me and my family at the Dome mines, near Timmins.

By that time, Dome operations had slipped in some ways. Many of the buildings were shabby and others were ready for the waste heap. I clashed once or twice with H.P. DePencier, the manager, over my habit of tearing down old buildings in favor of new ones, but he eventually accepted my way of doing things and let me run the show.

One of the first buildings to go was the original brick school. It was unused and I wanted the land, so I tore it down. I got a verbal blasting from John Fell, a former chairman of the school board, but he later conceded that I was right.

A real turning point came on Oct. 29, 1929, the day the mill burned down. When I arrived on the scene, the fire was in control and the hoses were being used to save the crusher house. Had I been able to do so, I would have cut the hoses and let that building go as well. I called our president, Mr. Bache, and told him the news. Of course, that day also marked the crash of Wall Street, and news that Dome Mines, Bache’s pet investment, was in trouble didn’t add much joy to his life.

When the Dome first went into operation, several groups of homes were built for employees in the area of the plant. They were virtually shacks and in poor condition. When the Dome was extended, a village called Dome Extension was built for some of the workmen.

The black houses by the dump were the first to go, as we needed space to expand. When replacement homes were built in the village of Dome Extension, I gleefully set a match to paper in one of the four shacks. In an hour, they were no more.

DePencier seemed to like what was taking place. He told me that if I could find another good well in Dome Extension, he would ask the board of directors to replace seven homes known as Cyanide Alley. Joe Campaguola, a fellow employee, and I put our heads together and decided to switch for water with a divining rod. Believe it or not, we found a second good well. Good-bye Cyanide Alley.

The last area in need of razing was called Little Italy. After we bought the Schumacher claims and were making extra money, I asked that I be allowed to do away with the houses there. I was given permission to build more homes at Dome Extension. The owners of the homes in Little Italy were given the option of renting a new home at Dome Extension or moving their shacks off the property. Most of the employees living there moved into the new homes in Dome Extension. The original homes there had only a toilet, but these new ones had full bathroom facilities.

The housing situation at Dome had become pretty fair, and the number of employees living on the mine property provided an unusual unity.

— The preceding is an excerpt from A Mining Trail: 1902-1945. The author, who retired in 1945, was a manager of the Dome, Sigma and Red Lake mines in Porcupine, Ont.