Well, we are only a few weeks into 2020, and to me it feels like we’ve been experiencing an awful lot of drama.

Disasters and tragedies seem to be the order of the day: Australian bushfires leading to the destruction of a unique ecosystem; a snowstorm that buried St John’s N.L.; an air disaster that feels like it did not have to happen.

While we’d like to think that all of that is far away from us and we are somewhat immune to large scale catastrophes, we need only look at our own to history to see that we are not.

From fires to floods to epidemics to mine accidents, you’d think we spent our communal lives reeling from one dire event to the next. They say communities grow out of challenge and people become stronger because of adversity so, judging from what this community has lived through in its one-hundred year plus history, we are a monumentally stalwart bunch. Here are but a few of the trials and tribulations we have endured as a community – and here’s hoping we won’t be adding to the list anytime soon.

Let’s start with fires. The big one of course is the Porcupine Fire of 1911. It reached the Porcupine on July 11, 1911 and burned through the mining camps and fledgling communities in the space of a few hours.

Over 70 people were killed (although the death toll was probably closer to 250). The fire left the Porcupine Goldfields completely in shreds.

However, even though everything had been completely destroyed, within a few weeks of the devastation, people were starting to rebuild and move on.

According to one pioneer who witnessed the events of that day, “It never occurred to the people not to rebuild. Far into the night you could hear the sounds of hammers and saws; Toronto and other cities and towns came generously to our aid with supplies of food and clothing and building supplies”.

Many people do not know that the camp was threatened with another forest fire in 1916; a blaze broke out on the boundary between Tisdale and Mountjoy townships (what is now McLean Drive).

Because it was away from the homes and businesses, it was believed that the fire could be fought with a shovel and bucket brigade. The high winds and dry conditions soon got the better of the fire brigades and people were quickly evacuated.

An eyewitness account describes the shores of Miller Lake (now Hollinger Park) as resembling “an immigrant landing place, with women and children seated upon trunks and bundles of clothing while cattle and horses roamed around together untethered”.

The visiting soldiers from the 228th Battalion were called in to help with the firefighting efforts, adding to the groups of men who were commandeered from local mines and businesses. Twenty homes were lost before the flames were put down. Other small fires broke out around the camp, the most spectacular being at the Jupiter Mine (on the McIntyre property).

It is only because of swift action that the gold camp was not completely destroyed; communities from Matheson to Cochrane were not so lucky.

Those towns were completely destroyed and saw over 200 deaths. And if that wasn’t enough, the Porcupine was threatened by a huge storm the day after the fire that brought a deluge of water. High winds destroyed 11 buildings and the electrical system was wrecked when lightning hit the transformer at Schumacher. The newly-arrived refugees from the Matheson-Cochrane fires must have thought the world was coming to an end – or at least the world at the end of the T&NO rail line.

Fires in the downtown core have a devastating effect not only on the business owners but on the residents as well. Some of the larger stores in the downtown like Marshall Ecclestone’s, Bucovetsky’s and Woolworth’s all suffered through major fires destroying their buildings, but all were able to start over and open up again. Many other retailers have not been so fortunate.

Floods were also common in the early years in the camp. Porcupine Lake periodically overshot its banks, flooding the town of South Porcupine on a regular basis. A major flood in 1913 surprised residents and set the stage for the development of a flood system for the town site.

In Timmins, the Mattagami River flooded many times during the course of the history of Timmins, sometimes with tragic results.

In 1960, a major flood of the river caused damage to the tune of $1.5 million. Two hundred homes were damaged and 2,000 people were forced to leave their houses for three weeks. Fortunately, no lives were lost.

In 1961, things weren’t as good. A flood caused over $2 million in damage, businesses and homes were inundated and four people died. A marker still stands near the Town Creek on Wilson Avenue in memory of the Girard family and the horrifying events of that evening.

In 1996, the river spilled over its banks again causing millions in damage but thankfully no deaths.

There are a number of other disasters we could talk about: the 1918 influenza epidemic that caused 87 deaths in the Porcupine; the Hollinger disaster of 1928 that saw the loss of 39 miners; the Paymaster Accident of 1945 which took the lives of 16 miners, many from the same family; the Dome Mill fire in 1929; the Patricia Street fire in the 1940s. We should note however that while tragic and devastating for the people of the Porcupine, all of this adversity created the strong sense of community we believe in today – and it defines what it means to be a Northerner.

Karen Bachmann is the director/curator of the Timmins Museum.