Cobalt Mining Times Remembered
by William Sutton

William 'Bill' Sutton was born on a farm in Temiskaming in 1927. With the exception of three years spent in western Canada (1944-1947) he has lived in Temiskaming his whole life. He started working at the Harrison-Hibbert mine pictured on the front of this book in 1949, and continued working in the Cobalt mining camp until his retirement in 1993.

The foreword by author Peter Fancy puts this time in context, but foremost, this is a collection of Bill's memories from those mining days that will inform, entertain and make you wonder how any one survived.

Table of Contents here.

ISBN: 9781894747561 | 5½" x 8½"
224 pages; 51 photographs and illustrations; trade paperback | $23.00

Table of Contents

3 Cobalt Mining Claims Map, 1922

7 Foreword by Peter Fancy

22 Acknowledgements

25 Beginnings

First Job; More Jobs; First Brush With Mining

29 Harrison-Hibbert Mine: 1949-1955

First Underground Job; Blowing Up Old Powder At Mud Mine; Breaking Into Old Flooded Mine Workings; Near Miss Blasting; First Draft Round; John Mattson And His Bootleg; Hard Hat On Fire; Methane Explosion; Old De-watering Methods; Bomber Jacket; Christmas Holiday Schedule At The Mud Mine; Peter Fancy; Trouble Between Two Brothers; Joe Brown Excuses; Cryderman Sinking Machine First Models; First Time Running Hoist; Hoist Brake At The Mud Mine; Safety On Mine Hoists And Hoisting Equipment; Late For Work; Tricks; Repairs, Every One Wants Some Repairs; Discovering The Number 11 Vein At The Mud Mine; Rory Stewart Stories; Roger Pepin's Troubles; New Way To Unblock Plugged Toilet; The Mud Mine Closure; Catching Bears

61 Cobalt Consolidated - Agnico Mines: 1955-1960

Mileage 104 Stamp Mill; Hellens Reduction Tailings Mill;Tim Cawley; Fire At Mileage 104 Stamp Mill; Removing A Ball Mill Door; Piers At The Foster Mill Site; StartingThe Remodelling Of The Foster-Penn Mill; Cobalt Air Hoists; Water Tower; Hudson Bay Mining Property; Playing Tricks Penn Mill Construction; Putting Second Ball Mill On Base Penn Mill; Spare Worker; Installing New Wear Liner On Cone Crusher; Installing Pump At The Violet Mine For Spring Run-Off; Diesel Air Compressor At The Agaunico Mine; Aggravating John Huttman; Removing Pump From Right Of Way Mine; Installing Electrical Cable At The Beaver Shaft; Freeze Up; Spring Run-Off; Flying Saucers Or What; Too Many Men With The Same Name; Putting In A New Pumping Station At The Cobalt Lode; High Grading; Opening Lunch Boxes; Grinding Wheel Explosion; Salvaging; Blasting Rock To Make Room For New Hoist Base; Around 1958 I Was Seriously Looking To Change Jobs

96 Deer Horn Mines: 1960-1970

Last Shift At Agnico Before Starting New Job At Deer Horn; Callouts For Troubles At Nights; Call Outs In The Middle Of The Night; Too Much Hurry; Repairing Battery Charger At The Deerhorn Mine; Cobalt Old Home Week 1963; Greg Ruddy The Mucker; Basil Ruddy Trapped In Cave In; Drill Doctor; Norm Sheriff -The Flying Executive; Bouncing While Landing At Cross Lake; Norm Sheriff's Plane Stuck In Slush; Johnny St. Jacques And A Bear Scare; Grass Is Greener On The Other Side Of The Street Maybe; Cementing Water Problems At The Mentor Shaft; Jinx Car; Highgrade Silver Stolen From Deerhorn Mine; Sinking Problems At The Deerhorn Mine; Joe Beach's Shaft; Flooding On Bottom Level Of Deerhorn Shaft; Hector Cole Accident At The Deer Horn; Cobalt Characters; TD 24 Bulldozer; Moving Bulldozer At Deerhorn Mine; De-watering The Genessee Shaft; Roy Miller And The Bear; The Hazard Of Feeding Wild Life; Union Stories

127 Silverfields Mine: 1963 - 1969

Start Of Silverfields Mining Property; Cleaning Out Carl Reinhart's Room; Consulting At The Silverfields Mine; Broken Hoist Shaft At Silverfields Mine; Brakes Grabbing On Electric Hoist At Silverfields; Fatality At The Silverfields Mine; Agnico Mines: 1970-1972; Pumping Problems At Nipissing 96 Shaft; Power Trouble At The Nipissing 96 Shaft; Water Problems At The Meyers Shaft; Acetylene Tank Fire Agnico Shop; Saving A Lot Of Extra And Unnecessary Work; Blasting Old Buildings To Salvage Material; Removing Top Part Of The Nipissing 407 Headframe; Keeping People Out Of The Colonial Headframe

146 Silver Centre Mine Leases: 1969-1972

Blasting Raise To Surface At Keeley Mine; Air Line Blow Up At Keeley- Frontier; Frontier Winze Falling; Trout Lake Number Two; Pump Trouble At The Trout Lake Number Two Shaft

152 Agnico-Eagle Mines: 1972

First Screw Compressor For Agnico-Eagle; Repairing Screw Compressors; Hiring Hoistman For Temiskaming Mine; Castle-Threthewey Mine Lease: 1976-1990; Hit By Lightning At Castle Mine Gowganda; Solving Electrical Leak At The Castle Shaft; Blasting Beaver Dam At The Castle Mines; Rescuing A Trapped Miner At The Castle Mine

162 Agnico-Eagle, Last Cobalt Mining Days: 1986

New Shop At Penn Mill Site; Agnico Eagle Shop Silver Division Cobalt; PCB's In Transformer Oil; Burning Pump Station; Fatality At The Beaver Mine; Cable Dressing Keystone Medium; Playing Tricks On The Watchman At Agnico; Teaching By Making A Person Reason; Old Blasting Powder Found In Buffalo Stope; Kids Stealing Bulldozer From Buffalo Property; Hellens Reduction Tailings Mill; Fencing Stopes And Open Cuts; Experts And Their Mistakes; Slow Down Mode; Heart Attack; The Cobalt Doctor, Dr. H.A. Dunning; Power Supply At The Penna Shaft; Commissioning Hoist At The Penna Shaft; The Agnico Shop Crew Near The End Of Operations; Ground Caving In Around The Mining Properties; Closure Of The Ragged Chutes Air Plant; Early X- Rays And Medical For Mining Card; Fishing Tales; Not Having Facts Can Leave Us In The Dark; Bits And Pieces; Hard Drinking Miners; Some Hot Fishing Lures; Odds And Ends; Showing Clutch And Brake Bolted Together; Hauling Blasting Powder 1950s

205 Epilogue

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207 Appendix

208 Pumping Methods Used Around The Cobalt Mines

214 Some of the Agnico Silver Division Staff

216 Cobalt Chronology

Early Producing Mines and Their Incorporation Dates

Depression Years, 1929-1939

Post War Years

220 Cobalt Mines Map