THE COBALT NORTHERN
ONTARIO
MINING MUSEUM
The starting point for
the Heritage Silver Trail is based out of the Cobalt Northern Ontario Mining
Museum, in downtown Cobalt. The
story of Cobalt is told within the seven galleries of the museum of the mining,
the social life, and the Northern Ontario firsts that made the once
booming community of over 10,000 people, famous.
And also boasted
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An Opera House.
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Its own Stock Exchange.
Although the McKinley-Darragh Mine was to become the
first in Cobalt, it certainly was not the last. Once the boom had started it
seemed as if overnight Cobalt sprang into existence to the roar of mining men
and their machines. In all, some 100 mining companies had been formed to mine
the silver wealth. Cobalt was not without it’s share of adventurers, con men
and dreamers.
 These
“characters” as they are now remembered, perhaps were, in their day,
considered more accurately as trouble, to the more settled folk of the day.
Speculation was a fever, and from Cobalt went those, who would eventually
found mining riches in the North, now known as Timmins,
Kirkland Lake,
Rouyn-Noranda, Red Lake
and others. Eventually Cobalt prospectors fanned out across the globe, founding
what has now become the corner
stones of the Canadian mining industry.
Like all such rushes, the Cobalt Camp carried with it
the seeds of its own demise. Little of the eighty million jackpot was left in Cobalt. In fact, the town was never
thought of as a permanent community at all. Those who became rich, either moved
out of the area altogether, or built mansions in nearby Haileybury. With the
decline in demand for silver and cobalt, one by one, the local mines began to
close down and Cobalt saw it’s population dwindle from 10,000 to just under
1400 in the year 2000.
Although Cobalt may not be a boom town anymore, many of
it’s residents still remember the stories of the glory days of the Cobalt rush
and are not content to allow those days to vanish into the past for ever.
 The
Cobalt Mining Museum strives to preserve as much of Cobalt’s past as possible,
and as a result boasts the worlds largest display of native silver ore as well
as an impressive display of rocks and minerals from around the world. The
Museum’s collection of artifacts, relating not only to mining, but to
cultural, and social life of the Cobalt camp, bring those early days vividly to
life.
Visitors are invited to make The Mining Museum, their
first stop when experiencing Cobalt. Information booklets of three short
historic walking tours within the town itself can collected, as well as a tour
guide of the Heritage Silver Trail. The Museum also has some unusual hand
crafted silver jewellery, fashioned from .999 pure Cobalt silver, plus many more
unique local items for sale in their Museum gift shop.
You won’t be disappointed
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