Bruce Mines & Its Railways

BRUCE MINES & ITS RAILWAYS LEFT & BELOW: The 4-4-0 to the left (Courtesy Mrs. R. Lilly of Bruce Mines) is Rock Lake Mining Company’s #2, their #1 being an 0-4-0T origi- nally at Rock Lake. The history of these locomotives is not well-known, but #2 is not the Grand Trunk #156, below in an undated National Archives of Canada photo (PA 194513) at Midland, ON. There are significant dif- ferences between the two engines like positioning of the domes and bell, the style of pilot and spokes or lack of them on the lead truck. It is known the former Grand Trunk locomotive did become the regular “road” engine for the Bruce Mines & Algoma Railway and is seen in the wreck photo shown later. RLM #2 was with the railway until about 1908 but its operationl history is unknown. See the photos of the “burnt” locomotive further on. Bruce Mines was named for Lord Bruce Elgin, Governor General of Canada 1847-54. Copper mining was done on Lake Huron’s north shore from the mid 1840s until almost 1870. In the late 1880s the area had its first contact with railways as Canadian Pacific built a branch line from Algoma Mills to Sault Ste. Marie and used some of the quartz tailings from past mining (locally known as skimpings) for ballasting its track. In 1898, two new copper mining concerns came to the “Bruce”, one at the town, the other at Rock Lake, ten miles north. The “town” company, Bruce Copper Mines (BCM), spent large sums of money on surface projects including an ore concentrator, coal dock and over a mile of railway line connecting mill, shafts and dock. BCM had one known locomotive, an 0-4-0 tank type built in 1897 by Baldwin. Not to be outdone, Rock Lake Mining Company also erected extensive above ground facilities, the most impressive though I was a very young child when the railway line was built, I can being a huge concentrator on the shore of Rock Lake, two remember the many ways it changed our lives. Living was naturally very miles from the mine. A standard gauge railway was built con- simple and primitive in those days, with only a wagon trail connecting the necting the two sites. Plans were to send mill production to various communities with Rydal Bank and Bruce Mines. Even this dirt road a smelter at Dollar Bay in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and had been in existence for perhaps 20 years... When the railway was built in order to reach the CPR, in 1899 the Bruce Mines & Al- there were still no modern contraptions like automobiles or telephones in goma Railway was chartered by the same people who owned the rural district. the mine. BM&A construction began in 1900 from the CPR “Imagine then the thrill experienced by the pioneer people when sud- Bruce station, two miles north of the town. Slow progress denly they could ride to town by rail, sitting in comfortable plush seats in on the railway made it necessary for the mining company to a regular passenger coach, instead of a clumsy lumber wagon, pulled by the literally drag a Baldwin 0-4-0 steam engine and ore cars over- farm’s heavy draft horses. land to the mine site so ore could be moved to the mill. Fur- “... the trains passed about a dozen feet down the bank from our front ther proof of the close relationship between the railway and door... [They] made an official stop at the point where the line crossed the the Rock Lake Mining Company came in the June 30, 1902 wagon road, quite close to our home, and this became known as Aberdeen Mortgage Deed for the BM&A showing duplicate signatures. Crossing, so named after our Township of Aberdeen... Our home became In the 21st Century it is hard to imagine what funda- a sort of way station where local farm people could await arrival of the pas- mental changes came with the building of a railway into new senger train, or take shelter there after getting off the train while waiting for territory. In 1970, the North Shore Sentinel, published in someone to pick them up.” Bruce Mines, carried memories of the coming of the BM&A, The BM&A route followed the broad valley of the Thessalon River written by a Mrs. E. L. Urquhart of Timmins. “Our pioneer which widens into Ottertail, Gordon and Rock Lakes. Side hill construc- home was located about fifteen miles from the Bruce, and tion and considerable curvature limited heay rock work while three large perhaps three or four miles from the Rock Lake Mine... Al- trestles over the Thessalon River were the railway’s major engineering works. 115 The Bruce Mines & Algoma Railway Map drawn by John Strother-Stewart 116 All photos are of the Bruce Copper Mines operations in and near the town of Bruce Mines, but no sign of a railway track can be found in any of them. Perhaps this is appropriate, given that BCM provided very little revenue for the Bruce Mines & Algoma Railway. The three photos to the left were obviously taken at different times and from different angles so specific comment is difficult. The top photo is dated specifically as August 21, 1902 In the bottom of the three, a blob on the horizon may or may not be a mine headframe, revealing the position of a shaft. The listing of points along the railway seen at the bottom of the page comes from Altitudes in Canada, edited by James White and published by the Government of Canada in 1915. Every operating and projected railway plus trial lines and water- courses in Canada at that time is listed in the book. Traces of both the railway to Rock Lake and mining activities in the town and throughout the region can still be found. A particularly useful example of this can be seen at Rock Lake where the tailings or “skimpings” from the mill have been spread out as a public beach. Top Photo courtesy the Archives of Ontario AO 2707 Other two photos courtesy Merritt Strum 117 The final mileage from Bruce station to Rock Lake was about fifteen when construction ended in the fall of 1901. Residents refused to use the railway’s official name or even its initials, instead settling on “The Nip & Tuck”, perhaps as their opinion about the success and stability of the venture. In 1902 the BM&A received a subsidy to push their line to Lake Huron from Bruce station, connecting with Bruce Copper Mines’ industrial trackage and allowing the mining company an interchange with the CPR. The agreement between the BM&A and the mining company was complicated in that it included the cost of copper ore in pillars needing to be left in place to support the railway over mineral- ized areas. BCM had not been carrying out open pit mining and had no intentions of being forced to do so by the collapse of the railway’s right of way, so the BM&A probably paid a good price for the copper ABOVE: The Rock Lake Mill is mirrored in the lake. Ore from the mine ore left under its track. Although no documentation has turned up was delivered to the top of the structure, processed to concentrate it, in support, it is thought the trackage built by Bruce Copper Mines and removed at the bottom into railway cars on the BM&A. connecting their coal dock, concentrator and mines was turned over Photo courtesy Ian West to the BM&A at least in the sense of trackage rights and possibly outright ownership, but the date is unknown. At this point the BM&A had 17 miles of track with 56 pound per yard rail and served copper mining customers on either end of the line. Movement of bulk raw materials and necessary supplies adding to the normal local freight and passenger business made for a suc- cessful operation and the owners had a right to be pleased, for the moment, at least. As it turned out, Bruce Copper Mines contributed little to railway revenues. In spite of much publicized plans and dreams, little more than token amounts of copper concentrates were ever shipped. This venture under its original and subsequent owners up to 1915 brought up large quantities of rock and accumulated considerable tailings but mainly for development purposes rather than actual mining. That is, they spent most of their time, money and efforts pumping out flooded shafts, constructing headframes, renovating concentrator plants and extending underground access to ore bod- ies. None of these activities produced much product that could be transported in bulk and sold at a profit. One company had to pump out 27,000,000 gallons of water just to discover nothing worthwhile ABOVE: Aftermath of the July 1905 head on collision between the only two locomotives the BM&A owned. The engineer on the larger in old shafts and stopes. Another company built a powerhouse only one died. to have it burn down before being put into operation. The steam National Archives of Canada PA 210221 locomotive owned by BCM was sold to a Montreal used equipment dealer in July of 1904. BM&A affairs went from bad to worse in 1903 as Rock Lake Mine closed and the railway lost its other big customer. Later reports suggested the mining company took out any easily reached ore and made little effort to prove out reserves for future production.

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