Early history Archaeological evidence indicates that the area has been inhabited for at least 6,500 years. The first inhabitants were nomadic peoples of the
Shield Archaic culture. The area was inhabited primarily by the
Cree and
Ojibwe peoples up until the time of
European colonization. The first Europeans to make contact with the local Indigenous peoples were
French explorers in the late 1600s. The first attempt at a permanent European presence in the area did not come until 1785, nearly two decades after Great Britain defeated France in the
Seven Years' War and took over its territory in North America east of the
Mississippi River.
Philip Turnor, a surveyor and cartographer for the
Hudson's Bay Company, established a
trading outpost at
Fredrick House Lake, about north-east of present-day downtown Timmins. Although beaver fur was plentiful and still in demand in Europe, the trading post was not successful. Nearby competition, and the difficulty of navigating the
Abitibi and Fredrick House rivers by canoe, often resulted in the post being unsupplied. Frederick House Post was functionally abandoned in 1812, when a man named Capascoos killed all 12 of the trading post's staff, as well as looted and damaged the building. Capascoos was never caught, and the building was never rebuilt. However, temporary log shelters were put in place nearby to facilitate fur trading until 1821, when the post was officially declared closed by the Hudson's Bay Company.
Porcupine Gold Rush The presence of gold in the area was long known to the local indigenous people, and the few Europeans who had settled nearby. Outcroppings of gold-bearing quartz were a familiar sight in the region, but there was little commercial interest due to the area's inaccessibility. The extension of the
Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway to
Cochrane in 1907, allowed prospectors to more easily access the area. This sparked an interest in the region's natural resources, leading to the
Porcupine Gold Rush. The first known prospectors were a team led by
Reuben D'Aigle. They set out for Porcupine Lake in 1907 and dug several test pits in the surrounding area, but none of them had near the amount of gold which D'Aigle's team was seeking. They eventually abandoned their tools in the last pit they dug, approximately 8 km west of Porcupine Lake, and returned home. Two years later in 1909, a prospector duo consisting of Benny Hollinger and Alex Gillies arrived in the Porcupine region. They met up with another group, led by Jack Wilson. Earlier in the season he had found a "dome" of quartz that contained large veins of gold stretching several hundred feet in length and in width. This section was later exploited and developed as the
Dome Mine. Wilson advised Hollinger & Gillies that all the good sites in a radius had been claimed, so the duo went slightly further west. There they stumbled upon D'Aigle's abandoned test pits and tools. While Gilles was inspecting the abandoned pits, Hollinger pulled a bit of moss from a nearby quartz outcropping and revealed a large vein of gold. Gillies later noted that he had found a boot print pressed into some moss covering the gold vein. This print was believed left by one of D'Aigle's team two years before. They had departed unaware of the large vein under their feet.
Hollinger Mines was incorporated later that year with five equal partners consisting of Noah and Henry Timmins; Duncan and
John McMartin (also brothers); and Mattawa attorney
David Dunlap.
"Moss slip" story A popular
founding myth of Timmins and the Porcupine area states that a man named Harry Preston slipped on moss and uncovered gold. In some versions of the story, he is responsible for triggering the Porcupine Gold Rush. However, historical records contradict both claims. Harry Preston arrived in the Porcupine area as a part of a team led by Jack Wilson in June 1909, where they discovered a large "dome shaped quartz outcrop". Wilson was said to have been the first to notice gold as the Sun struck the quartz.
Settlement and company towns A
company town was founded near modern-day
Gillies Lake, to house
Hollinger Mines employees. Mine manager Alphonse "Al" Paré named the growing mining camp "Timmins", after his uncle,
Noah Timmins, who was then the President of Hollinger Mines. Joe Torlone noted in his dissertation that Timmins was never truly a company town. The combined mines behaved more like a "very influential industrial citizen", rather than a single company that dominated all aspects of civilian life.
Great Porcupine Fire On July 10, 1911, unusually hot and dry temperatures caused small fires to ignite at the Porcupine settlement. These were initially described as a series of "bushfires", but strong winds spread them into the dry forest and they expanded. Evacuation efforts began on the morning of July 11, with women and children being ferried to the opposite end of Porcupine Lake. The small fires eventually merged, and grew into a single wall of fire, estimated to be at least wide. The fire destroyed the Porcupine mining camp at around 3:30pm, and continued as far north as
Cochrane. The total number of deaths remains uncertain, with the lowest estimates being 73 and the highest suggesting there were more than 200 dead. A number of people drowned after fleeing into the lake in an attempt to escape the heat and smoke; others were killed by smoke while still trapped underground in the mine. The executives of the Dome Mine held meetings about reopening within two days of the fire. The camp was quickly rebuilt with help from various communities around Ontario, and operations soon resumed. The fire burned the thin layers of moss and soil characteristic of a
Canadian Shield landscape. This revealed previously unknown veins of gold and other minerals, which helped facilitate economic recovery efforts. Mine operators hired gun thugs, who fired on the picket line and were ordered out by the provincial government. After months without work, many men chose to leave the settlement; only 500 miners returned to work in July 1913. A recruitment campaign for soldiers during the First World War was successful in enlisting around 600 men out of the less than 2,000 total residents at the time. The miners were coveted by the
Canadian Expeditionary Force for their ability to dig trenches, and experience with handling explosives. News of the war and letters from soldiers abroad were frequently published in the town's local newspaper,
The Porcupine Advance (TPA). After receiving news of
armistice, major celebrations were held all around the Timmins area, as described by a journalist for TPA: The
Great Depression did not adversely affect the economy of the area, and jobs were available in mining and lumber. During the Second World War, around a third of the city's population were enlisted into the armed forces. Timmins had its own bomber squadron known as "Porcupine Squadron No. 433", a heavy bomber unit of
No. 6 group RCAF in
Skipton-on-Swale,
England. Timmins' economy suffered slightly during this period as women were prohibited from working in mines under the Ontario Mining Act, leaving no one to replace the enlisted miners.
Decline and recent history In the 1950s, Mattagami 71, the
reserve of the
Mattagami First Nation was once again relocated, this time to its present day location, south of Mattagami Lake. By the mid 1960s, the majority of the original mines had depleted their gold content and mines began to close. "super pit", 2010 In 1973, 35 townships covering , including
Porcupine,
South Porcupine,
Schumacher, and Timmins were organized into the City of Timmins. The city's population peaked in the mid 1990s, when the city became a regional service and distribution centre for Northeastern Ontario. The last of the original three mines to close was the Dome Mine, which was closed in 2017, after 107 years of operation, and about 17 million troy ounces of gold produced. ==Climate==