EXPLORATION ’93 — Red Lake prospector loves mining life

Charlie Peterson will soon celebrate his 80th birthday. And while the years may have slowed him down somewhat, nothing has impeded his determination to find another mine in the heart of Ontario’s Red Lake gold camp.

Peterson is well-known as one of the area’s senior prospectors. He first came to Red Lake from his home in Kenora via the lumber camps of Lac Seul back in 1933. Although he entered working life as a carpenter, building many of the early buildings in Red Lake, he quickly caught the mining bug. A lifestyle as well as a business, mining has been good to Peterson and his family.

“Mining has pretty well been my entire life — and if I had it to do all over again, I wouldn’t change very much of it,” he tells The Northern Miner. “The ground is only going to be as good to you as you are to it. If you give it what you have, it will pay rewards all your life.”

A long-time and highly respected member of the Red Lake community, Peterson says many prospectors came to the camp to make a quick fortune and then were never heard from again.

“Like players in a lottery, these fellows sometimes succeed, but perseverance, hard work and a belief in what you are doing is what really counts,” he ruminates.

And Peterson should know. Although he doesn’t own a condominium in Florida on the eighteenth green, he says he could. The truth is that the idle, sedentary lifestyle does not suit this self-made prospector. He is much happier taking out his diamond drill to sink holes on claims he holds in key parcels of this still-active and yet-to-be-fully-developed gold camp.

“I remember talking to the manager at the Howey mine when that company was pulling out of town,” he says. “Old Mr. (Ralph) Sullivan told me that they were leaving because all the gold had run out. Well, that was before Campbell (referring to Placer Dome’s Campbell Red Lake mine) was discovered. So it just goes to show you that there is still lots of potential . . . Yes, there are still more Campbells and I want to do my part in developing those orebodies.”

Developing mines is something in which Charlie has considerable experience. In the early years between 1934 and 1936, he worked at the May-Spiers, Cole and Lake Rowan gold prospects. He also hoisted the first bucket of muck from the past-producing Hasaga mine.

A tale oft repeated amongst Red Lake old-timers concerns Peterson’s having paddled on, as well as under, Pipestone Bay:

“When we were drifting under Pipestone, I guess we hit a mud seam and the mine started to flood. Well, to make a long story short, I was one of the drift crew that hauled 70 bags of cement and a duplex Cameron pump to the end of the drift by paddling it in a canoe. We plugged the leak and continued mining.”

Peterson is also happy to describe the time he supplied fuel, on behalf of British-American Oil, to the Campbell-based Morisette diamond drill crew: “The boys were ready to move, but Joe Pitura (now deceased) couldn’t get his horses across the ice to move the drill. So the geologist told them to drill the 10th hole anywhere.

“Well, they swung the drill around, moved it about 200 ft. or so and started drilling. At 2:00 in the morning, they hit the glory hole and the entire section of core was smeared yellow with gold.”

In 1954, Peterson went prospecting full-time, staking some 160 claims next to the Dickenson mine, on behalf of British-based Western Selections. That was the start of Cordoba Mines.

About $1.5 million was pumped into the property and some encouraging results were realized. However, many holes were drilled merely to chase assessment credits, and finally, in 1961, Western Selections let the property go. It reverted into Charlie’s hands and he still holds 12 key claims under his company, Peterson Red Lake Gold Mines.

Peterson keeps on drilling and collecting samples, crediting the government’s various mineral incentive programs with helping him fund work programs. His unflagging determination has attracted literally millions of exploration dollars to the Red Lake camp.

Indeed, mining is the basis of this man’s entire life. On six acres at the edge of Red Lake on a site that was once the Gold Shore mine, Peterson and wife Lena make their home. The house is attached to the original, still-standing “Picking Belt” part of the mill, which he uses to store much of his prospecting gear.

When asked if he expects to retire soon, Peterson responds: “I thought about retiring when I was 65, but that was too early. Then again, when I turned 75, but that was also too soon . . . You know, I like to see what’s over there, on the other side of the hill, and no one will know unless someone goes to look. I like to keep on looking.”

— The writer is a resident of Red Lake, Ont.