Pontiac Archives Open House will be held Tuesday, July 3 to Friday, July 6th, 9 am - 4 pm, at 358 Main Street, Shawville, Qc. Genealogist Walter Brown, from Smiths Falls, Ontario, will be present Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, with his Library of Genealogical Data. This data will be available for family research work.
The Pontiac Archives would not be able to do its work without the generosity of our donors. We would like to take this opportunity to say a heartfelt thank you to those of you who made a donation in 2006:
Individuals: Bill Amell; Lori Anderson; Karen Aubin; Raymond Baillie; C. Boisvert; J. Bonsher; Richard Bowie; Dale Caragata; V. Crawford; C. Davis; Steve Farrell; M. Firobin; M. Green; M. Gregory; Bob Hamilton; Stan Hogg; Dr. K. W. Hodgins; J. G. Lafrenière; Ms. Ledger; S. Martin; Mark McGowan; Nancy McIntyre; Kevin Moorhead; Betty Scharff; J. & V. Smith; J. & B. Telford; J. Tracy; Ms. Vaillancourt; C. Walsh; Ron Walsh; S. Whitmore.
Organizations: Clarendon Women’s Institute; Municipality of Alleyn and Cawood; Municipality of Mansfield and Pontefract; Municipality of Sheen, Esher, Aberdeen & Malakoff; Municipality of Thorne; Municipality of Waltham; Oktoberfest Ladysmith; Ottawa Valley Heritage; Pontiac Agricultural Society, Pontiac MRC Golf Tournament; Pontiac Snowmobile Drivers; Quebec National Assembly (Charlotte L’Écuyer, MNA); Rural Heritage; Shawville Lionettes; Shawville United Church Women’s Unit 1.
A special thank-you to the municipalities of Shawville and Clarendon, which provide us with our home in the basement of the Shawville-Clarendon Library.
Our friend Eric Campbell, a vital part of heritage activities in our region and a first-class character, died last week; Robert Wills has assembled a web page in his memory.
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:
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.
The Pontiac Archives will be closed for three weeks during the holidays. Our last open day before Christmas will be Thursday, December 14; after that, we will reopen on Tuesday, January 9, 2007.
The Archives will be closed Saturdays for the remainder of July and for August. Saturday hours will return in the fall.
In the event that we’re able to open on a Saturday during the summer, we’ll announce it here.
The Archives is normally open Saturdays (from 10:00 to 2:00), but we will be closed for the next three Saturdays — June 17, June 24, and July 1. However, we will be open July 8 as part of our Summer Open House.
As for the rest of the summer, we will be announcing our Saturday openings and closings in a later post.
The Pontiac Archives is doing a project on our Armed Forces personnel. We do not have very much information. We are asking if you have any information or photos of them, with a short or a long story. Photos will be returned if requested. Help us keep their memories alive! For more information please contact us; mail and messages should be sent to the attention of Edith Letts.
This year’s open house will take place between July 3 and July 8, during which the Archives will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. As he has been in previous years, genealogist Walter Brown will be present, along with his library of genealogical data, for family research work.