Legend has it that the first discovery was thanks to a pesky fox who was bothering the railway blacksmith, Fred Larose.

He threw his hammer at the fox, missed, but struck a nearby rock outcrop. While retrieving his hammer he noticed fragments of shiny brown minerals partially covered by greenish weathering. Fred thought he had found copper ore. He showed the fragments to his boss, Duncan McMartin, and they each decided to stake a claim. They recorded their copper find on September 15, 1903. Later that month their showing was carefully examined by the Provincial Government Geologist, Dr. Willet Green Miller, who immediately recognized the minerals smaltite, niccolite and native silver. The staking rush would soon follow. The legend of Fred Larose, his hammer and the fox, persists to this day. Regardless of the circumstances, Fred was happy to sell his interest to the Timmins brothers for the tidy sum of $30,000.00 and subsequently return to Hull, Quebec and retirement. The Larose property eventually produced 17,500,000 ounces of silver and 200,000 pounds of cobalt.