Steam Loco

As in most of Canada, the railroad played a big part in the history of Northern Ontario. I always admire old steam engines. This is loco 701 of the old Temiskaming & Northern Ontario railway, sitting in Englehart. It's a CLC 4-6-2. That means it was built by the Canadian Locomotive Company, with 4 leading wheels, 6 driver wheels and 2 trailing wheels. This model was built in 1921. The T&NO (affectionately called Time is No Object) led to the discovery of silver in Cobalt and followed with the great gold rushes in Kirkland Lake and Timmins.

Snow wonder...

David Phillips, Canada’s weather guru has offered some good news for our region. Speaking about weather trends on CBC Radio today, Phillips mentioned that Northeastern Ontario can always count on having lots of deep snow. That’s one of the reasons why this part of Ontario is known as Snowmobile Paradise.

The Prospector

Northern Ontario is known for having plenty of roadside monuments. You know… those big statues of wolves, geese, bison and moose. I noticed one in Schumacher today that I never photographed before. It’s The Prospector. It celebrates the exuberance and excitement of the first discovery of gold in this region. Interestingly, The famous Klondike gold rush lasted about five years. The average life of a gold mine in North America is about ten years. The mines in Timmins and Kirkland Lake have been producing gold for a hundred years… and they’re still going strong. Oh by the way, I know a few prospectors. There are still plenty of them around the North. They're nice interesting people. And yes, a couple of them are very, very, very rich.