Pontiac Archives

The Pontiac region has been explored and mined since the 1890s.

Our most famous mine is the Moss Molybdenite Mine. During World War I, it was the largest molybdenite mine in the world. The Calumet Island Silver, Gold Lead and Zinc Mine, the Hilton Iron Mine, and the Portage du Fort Dolomite Mine have provided people in Pontiac County with employment for many years.

Here is a list of 11 local mines:

• Borden Mica Mine (near Ladysmith)
• Calumet Island Mine (gold, silver, lead and zinc)
• Carswell Limestone Mine (near Bryson)
• Chats Island (lead; near Bristol on the Ottawa River)
• Giroux Mine (mica, molybenite, titanite, calcite, quartz, serpentine; on Leslie Lake Road)
• Gold mine (at Pontiac Village near Quyon)
• Haley Mine (chromasco magnesium, Ontario)
• Hilton Iron Mine (Bristol)
• Moss Molydbenite Mine (near Quyon)
• Portage do Fort Dolomite Mine
• Yates Uranium Mines (at Sandy Creek on the Picanoc Road)

None of the Pontiac mines are operating any more; the last one to close was the Dolomite Mine in Portage du Fort. Uranium mine exploration is taking place at the Yates site and elsewhere in the region; uranium mining, with its health and environmental dangers, is a subject of much controversy. Diamond mining in the MRC’s non-organized territories is also a possibility.

The mines and prospects have been recorded in The Equity, the Pontiac Journal and other local papers during this time. The articles have been collected in the Archives and are now filed in binders. The summaries at the end of the collection include the names of the mines, the minerals mined, when the mines operated, the names of the companies and the names of the managers of the mines and many other facts of interest.

Portage du Fort is one of the oldest villages in the County of Pontiac. Located at the foot of rapids on the Ottawa River, it was originally a trading post. In 1847, Henry Osborne built a depot with a storehouse to supply the lumber industry further inland. Portage du Fort became the headquarters for the lumber industry.

St. James the Great Roman Catholic Church was built in 1850.

Portage du Fort became the county seat on September 19, 1855; Patrick Fox was the first mayor and warden. The council meetings were held at the stone school that had been build in 1840 and which was later used as the town jail.

Portage du Fort continued to flourish until 1914, when it was swept by fire, burning most of the wooden buildings. No one died in the fire and none of the three churches was destroyed, but after that, the village never regained its former glory. When the Canadian Northern Railway bypassed the village, this was another blow. 

Elsie Gibbons was the first female warden, from 1959-1961.

Recently, the Dolomite Mine and paper products company Consolidated-Bathurst (now Smurfit-Stone) brought industry back to the struggling village. But the closing of the Dolomite Mine in October 2004 represents one more setback to a village that has struggled for most of the past century.

A Portage du Fort binder has been compiled, with clippings from The Equity and the Pontiac Journal, photographs, historical accounts, maps and interviews.