Claim Tags – Mining History

. Quesnel had staked a mining claim near Hole River Indian Reserve

(now Hollow Water) two years earlier and he informed Pelletier of the various mineralized areas

along the Manigotagan River. That fall Pelletier set out on an expedition along the Manigotagan

River with Alex Spence

. He met a local trapper by the name of Duncan Twohearts. Pelletier

showed Twohearts some samples and encouraged him to look for this kind of mineral while working

on the trap lines and traveling the land. A few days before Christmas, Twohearts and his son, Jean-

Baptiste (“The Great Wolf”), discovered some scaled off pieces of bedrock containing an unusual

mineral

. Twohearts sent the rock samples to Arthur Quesnel, who later showed them to Pelletier.

Pelletier was impressed and set out to meet Twohearts and his son near Turtle Lake. Together,

they traveled towards (Big) Rice Lake where they discovered a boulder of rusty quartz containing

pure gold. In March 1911, Pelletier staked a claim called “Gabrielle” at this location and when he

returned to Turtle Lake, Pelletier extracted several hundred pounds of samples

. As Bérard (1979)

puts it: “Claims were staked and the fuse was lit. It really banged! Hell bent from all over they came

and the ‘East Central Manitoba Gold Rush’ was on”

.

In the following years, San Antonio, Rachel, Ross Fraction, and Island Fraction claims were staked

in the area. San Antonio was the biggest and longest-living one. It produced gold from1932 into the

1960s from shafts up to 1 mile deep

. During the time of the gold rush, the Manigotagan

waterways gained new importance as transportation routes. One of the most prominent historic

remnants on the Manigotagan River, the “Alligator” is evidence of this. However, the Wanipigow

River was more important as a transport route than the Manigotagan. Ships entered from Lake

Winnipeg, where there were rapids right at the mouth

. Horses pulled the barges through these

rapids and then upstream. The river was dredged where needed and the barges continued until the

next set of rapids 12km upstream. There was a brief overland carry of a few Km to what is now

called English Brook Campground (Lower Landing). All produce or material was then again loaded

back onto water taxi and pulled further upstream and through Wanipigow Lake to Upper Curry’s

Landing. Finally the freight was loaded onto motorized trucks and transported to Bissett and Long

Lake.

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.

. Despite Harmony’s growth, the price of

gold and the mine's declining significance lead to financial problems.

Today, San Gold Corporation operate two gold mines with extensive exploration in the Rice Lake

greenstone belt area and continue to actively explore the belt, where the San Gold #3 deposit was

recently discovered

. This resulted in a strong gold resource base in Manitoba.

Besides the Alligator, claim tags are evidence of the area’s mining history and can be seen nailed to

tree stumps, like the one on this picnic site on Long Lake. – So, if you do find a pile of gold while

canoeing down the Manigotagan….

Centre for Rupert's Land Studies at the

University of Winnipeg

.

Figure 23.4: Map of Mining Operations in the Rice Lake area

Source: San Gold Corporation

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