Kirkland Lake

History

Gold in the Kirkland Lake region was originally reported in the late 1800s by Chief Ignace Tonené of the Temagami First Nation. In fact, he staked a claim near the north arm of Larder Lake but stated it was jumped (stolen). No action was taken on his report. Chief Tonene Lake was named in his honour. Chief Ignace Tonené would go on to help form Beaverhouse First Nation. Later, Tom Price discovered a boulder containing gold on a visit to the Kirkland Lake area in 1906. Their first task was the establishment of public utilities, including roads and water pipes, in the rapidly growing area. Kirkland Lake had numerous mines, in the early years, including the Teck-Hughes (1917–1968), Lake Shore (1918–1968), Kirkland Minerals (1919–1960), Wright-Hargreaves (1921–1965), Sylvanite (1927–1961), Tough-Oakes-Burnside (later Toburn) (1913–1953), and Macassa Mine (1933–1999). The Kirkland Lake camp produced $636,667 worth of gold in 1918 and that rose to a value of $17,000,000 in 1930. As Pain points out, "Kirkland Lake camp came to occupy a position of real importance in the mining world." By 1934, the production had reached $34,000,000 and 2,000,000 tons were being milled annually. Peak employment of 4,761 wage earners occurred in 1939, but that dropped to 2,064 by 1944. The 1939 population was 24,200. The Kirkland Lake Cemetery is a member of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and is the location of the graves of 12 soldiers, and 3 airmen of the Canadian forces who died during the Second World War. Kirkland Lake's first fire hall was established in 1935 and the second fire hall in 1955. In 1963 the open-pit Adams Mine began developing its iron ore resources. The mine would stay in production until 1990. The Kirkland Lake Community Complex, now the Joe Mavrinac…

Geography

Kirkland Lake includes the townships of Teck, Bernhardt and Morrisette. Kirkland Lake is located in the resource-rich Precambrian Shield, an ancient geological core of the North American continent. Nearby is the Arctic Watershed, a drainage divide at an elevation of . Rivers south of that elevation flow into a drainage basin which includes Lake Ontario and the Saint Lawrence River, while rivers north of the watershed flow into Hudson Bay. Noticeable local landmarks include Mount Cheminis, rising above sea level, and many small kettle lakes, scraped out of the rock during the last Ice Age and filled with clear water. Black spruce, jack pine, trembling aspen, white birch, white spruce, balsam poplar, and balsam fir are the dominant trees in the area. A prominent forest form in this part of the black spruce distribution is the black spruce/feathermoss climax forest, which characteristically exhibits moderately dense canopy and features a forest floor of feathermosses. Moose, beaver, muskrat, snowshoe hare, as well as numerous predators roam this area, including marten, ermine, fisher, otter, black bear, wolf, and lynx. The many wetlands and lakes support a diversity of bird species, such as great blue herons, ducks, geese, and that symbol of the north, the common loon. Ground and tree dwelling birds are also plentiful, including grouse, partridge, robins, blue jays, and Canada jays as well as birds of prey such as hawks. Kirkland Lake is located within the Abitibi greenstone belt and the Abitibi gold belt. The main geologic feature in the Kirkland Lake Camp is the Kirkland Lake Break, or Main Break. This Break is a vein located along a thrust fault extending east to west and dipping steeply to the south. The area mine shafts are all located along this Break.…

Most-observed species

• Common Raven

  Corvus corax Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  562
• Common Grackle

  Quiscalus quiscula (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  541
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  538
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  519
• Ring-billed Gull

  Larus delawarensis Ord, 1815 · Aves
  435
• Black-capped Chickadee

  Poecile atricapillus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  432
• Red-winged Blackbird

  Agelaius phoeniceus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  412
• White-throated Sparrow

  Zonotrichia albicollis (J.F.Gmelin, 1789) · Aves
  380

Most recent

• M 2.9 — 2020-04-01
  3 km NE of Saint-Isidore, Canada
• M 2.5 — 2010-12-16
  5 km WSW of Kirkland Lake, Canada