STLLR Gold Inc (ME)

[NYBob]

HISTORY: Gold rush inspired songs



By Karen Bachmann, The Daily Press-freelance
Saturday, September 7, 2013 10:53:41 EDT AM



This photo, reprinted in the CIMM’s satirical newspaper “Der
Norden Miner,” in conjunction with their 1938 conference,
had as a caption: “Well known Cobalt hostess as she appears
every morning before and after breakfast.”
This photo, reprinted in the CIMM’s satirical newspaper “Der
Norden Miner,” in conjunction with their 1938 conference, had
as a caption: “Well known Cobalt hostess as she appears every
morning before and after breakfast.”

TIMMINS - I was at a total loss this week — not sure what to write about — quite convinced that I had nothing left to say (writer’s block is an ugly thing, confidence sapper, I believe is the term).

What to write, what to write? Food (not again!); early days (and what precisely would be of interest not only to readers, but to me); sports (I’ll pretend I did not hear that); politics (that’s giving me a migraine). No, nothing struck my fancy.

And yet, here we are — unbelievably, when all seemed lost, I stumbled upon a little gem hidden in our archives — a “newspaper” that lasted for only one issue and was available only for a few days in Toronto.

Published on March 14, 1938 under the auspicious name “Der Nordern Miner,” this satirical little rag was the solution to my problems.

Der Nordern miner (not to be confused with its parent paper, The Northern Miner) was printed in conjunction with the 39th annual meeting of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.

Mr. Lap Laprairie, a Porcupine man who had been transferred to Toronto with CIL, chaired the evening’s entertainment (where this little newspaper was made available) at the Concert Hall in the Royal York Hotel.

The men present enjoyed a Dutch Lunch, courtesy of the Dominion Stores Ltd, which included buttered pumpernickel bread, liverwurst, Brunswick sausage, gruyere aux cartwheel, crumbly stilton, Roquefort, dill pickles, pretzels and crackers, all washed down with a good Pilsner beer (coffee, ginger ale or soda water would be served on request only).

The beer garden special publication was presented tongue in cheek, but yielded a few really good reprints of the early news happening in the Porcupine Camp.

It also reprinted many of the old songs that were written when the Porcupine was still young (like I am fond of saying, the Klondike has nothing on us when it comes to romanticizing the Gold Rush).

Here are a few of these gems (Note: the Porcupine area was obviously held in great esteem by the mining community as the bulk of the stories had to do with the Porcupine Gold Rush).

The Moneta Song, sung to the tune Oh, My Darling Clementine:

In the sand plain next the golf course

Moneta ne’er could be a mine,

Through the ages all the sages

Turned it down in record time

(Chorus) Oh Moneta, Oh, Moneta

Newest star in Porcupine

Battling Walter didn’t falter

Now Moneta is a mine.

Many years ago they tried it

The old shafts they numbered nine

But that didn’t bother Walter

Now Moneta is a mine.

When they built it Walter drilled it

And he said the grade was fine

Was he right or was he cockeyed

Now Moneta is a mine

Then he sank a shaft upon it

It went down in record time

Then he built a mill to mill it

Now Moneta is a mine.

So today he pours a gold brick

And we toast him with this wine

May he pour a million others

And we’ll drink with him each time.

The Porcupine Miners’ Song, a popular piece by W.Stanley Johns of Timmins, is also sung to the Darling Clementine tune. It is one that has been reprinted in many books about the early Porcupine Gold Rush:

We are miners, Porcupiners,

Every morning we’re on time

In the shaft-house you will find us

With our tools, right on time.

When the whistle blows at seven

And the cage starts to descend

We get off right on our level

Up the stope, start to ascend.

With the drill steel on our shoulders

To the working face we go,

Scale and drill and muck and back also

For we have to make a show.

“How’s she going, boys”? says the captain

As he comes through on his beat.

Drill your holes with plenty on them

And make sure they’re all ten feet.

Cobalt, Lorrain, Gowganda,

Elk Lake, Kirkland Lake are in line.

But for real mines and miners

You got to come to Porcupine.


The newspaper also had items reprinted from the 1912 editions
of the Porcupine Advance that celebrated the very public
opening and “dropping of the stamps” at
the Dome Mine, the ordering of new stamps for
the McIntyre and the organization of a local banquet for
the departing manager of
the Vipond Mine.

http://www.timminspress.com/2013/09/07/history-gold-rush-inspired-songs

This last little item appeared, courtesy of the Porcupine Advance, under the headline “White Rat Saloon and Boarding House burned to the ground early Monday morning and everything was lost” (December 13, 1912).

“The flames were well on their way before an alarm was given and firemen reached the scene. Blaze either started by faulty stove pipe through the floor or from lighted match thrown down by one of the boarders. Loss of about $5,000 with no insurance. Place was owned by Bert Dewar.”

So personally, I need the thank the esteemed men of the 1939 CIMM Conference for this week’s inspiration.

Writer’s block has evaporated (for now), so next week should be easy (jinx!).

— Karen Bachmann is the director/curator of the Timmins Museum and a local author.

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