Red Lake History

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According to one local legend, two Chippewa members were walking along the shore of a lake hunting for game. After quite some time they came upon a huge moose lazing about the waters edge. With thoughts of their hungry families in mind, the men decided to kill the beast. It took a full quiver of arrows before the huge moose was finally slain, falling into the lake. The dark colour of the mooses blood gave the lake a reddish hue. Hereafter, the Chippewas referred to the lake as "Misque Sakigon" which translates to how we know it today, Red Lake.

Archeological evidence suggest that First Nations people have inhabited the Red Lake area for at least 2,000 years. Their stories tell of being in the area since time immemorial. The original inhabitants were proud members of the mighty Cree and Sioux Nations. Approximately 200-300 years ago, members of the Ojibway Nation moved into the Red Lake area, rapidly becoming the dominant population of the region. The economics of the day was based on the vibrant trade and barter of locally harvested materials. The fresh water rivers and lakes along with the area forests provided an abundance of game, as they continue to do today.

By 1650, French fur traders had established trading camps on Lake Nipigon and the Ojibway from Red Lake began to travel to these camps to trade furs. Capitalizing on the hunting success of the Ojibway, and to undercut the French trade position, the English established a base on Hudson Bay at the mouth of the Albany River and attracted much of the Ojibway trade. The historic map illustrates the number of trade posts established to provide the waterproof beaver pelts to the European market.

In an effort to get the furs first, both the French and the English moved their trading posts further inland to be closer to their suppliers. Evidence of these posts still remain in the Red Lake area. The major posts were the North West Company post - Red Lake House, established in 1786 - and the Hudson Bay Company post, established in 1790. A number of posts were also built on Lac Seul, southeast of Red Lake, during the latter 1800's. By 1821, all the trading posts had become controlled by the Hudson's Bay Company.

Fur trading continued to be an important economic activity in the Red Lake area until approximately 1920. Like the 1700's, today the market for fur continues to ebb and flow with the tide of European fashion. Despite the current weak market, local First Nations people and others, continue to walk the trap lines of yesteryear thus keeping alive an important part of Canadas history. The sunset of the fur trade was very shortly outshone by the glitter of gold in the region.

Geologically the Red Lake area is apart of the Canadian Shield. Worn and exposed by hundreds of thousand years of erosion, the Shield provided prospectors with a glimmer of hope about the mining potential in the region. The original prospectors were seeking silver. After the 1924 release of a Canadian geological survey of the upper English River Valley, the GOLD RUSH was on. By new years day 1926, news of the gold finds had finally reached the outside world. The ensuing gold rush brought prospectors from all over to the area, including sourdoughs from the Yukons Klondike Gold Rush.

The Town of Hudson became the staging area of this gold rush. More than 3,000 men drove dog teams and rode on sleighs up the frozen Hudson River in search of their fortune. Six days and nights of blistering cold had to be endured before the prospectors arrived at the Red Lake base camp. The Red Lake gold rush spawned a number of unique northern transportation companies during this period, especially the float planes that would come to dominate the industry within 20 years. In the early days however, companies like the Red Lake Transport Company with their sixty teams of horses for winter freighting and stern wheel barges, tugs and freighter canoes for the summer months, and the more expensive motor launches of the Lac Seul Trading Company, provided a number of alternatives for the prospectors to get to their claims. Most importantly though fast transportation was needed to get their finds to the southern markets.

By the end of 1926, Red Lake was a thriving service centre for area prospectors and construction workers, many of whom were sinking a shaft and building milling facilities at the Howey Gold Mine - the area's first major mining development.

The Howey Gold Mine began mining and milling gold in 1930 and used hydro-electric power from a hydro generation plant built in Ear Falls between 1928 and 1930.

Many other mines were in the process of opening at that time. McKenzie Red Lake went into production five years after the Howey. The many others that followed include Red Lake Goldshore, Gold Eagle, Madsen Red Lake, Hasaga, Cochenour-Willans, McMarmac, Starratt Olsen, Dickenson, Placer Dome (Campbell Red Lake), H.G. Young, Buffalo, Albino and Lake Rowan. Of these mines, Placer Domes Campbell Mine, Dickenson Mine now owned by GoldCorp, along with Madsen Gold Corp. are still in production. Over $9 billion dollars of gold has been mined in the area.

Gold is not the only mineral mined in the area. In 1953 an iron ore deposit was found at Bruce Lake. The Griffith Mine site produced high grade ore for twenty years. The southern boundary of the district has world famous granite deposits. Also know as Vermillion Pink, 20-30 ton blocks are shipped to carvers and fine stone masons all over the world. Growth of the forest industry in the district coincided with development in the gold rush period. The forest industry today represents both logging and manufacturing of pulp and paper, and value added forestry products such as oriented strand board (OSB). Mechanization of the industry including the use of satellite imaging, is making companies more efficient while simultaneously working to protect sensitive ecological sites.

Gold continues to be the major industry in the Red Lake District. Nature based tourism is the second most important industry in the area. Tourism began prior to the Second World War, when a party of ardent fishermen or hunters, usually from the United States, would arrive at Hudson. After hiring a local guide the expedition would be off onto the frontier to hunt for game, including, trophy bears, moose, caribou, along with beaver and to fish for record sized walleye, northern pike and trout. Today there are over 50 tourist based businesses in the area some specializing in European tourists, others American and Canadian guests. Not all tourists are record seeking hunters or anglers, the area is a fabulous Eco-Tourism destination with the Hudson Bay outpost sites, the possibility of bear and moose sightings, along with canoe trips in Woodland Caribou Provincial Park, and views of the northern lights. With proper management and care, tourism is the industry with the most sustainable growth potential. One of the communitys summer festival tourist events is Norseman Days which is a community celebration that recognizes the importance of aviation in accessing the Canadian North.

The Noorduyn Norseman is a Canadian designed bush plane that has been the rugged workhorse of the "Great Canadian North" for over 50 years. Red Lake is a mecca for the Norseman. By 1937, at the height of the gold rush staking period, Red Lake had the busiest airport in the world. What makes this even more unique was that the Howey Bay is a float plane airport and no radios or control towers existed! The Norseman flew in everything from mail to men and goods to gold. In the 1960's over 20 Norsemen were stationed in Howey Bay servicing the north. An easily repairable plane with short take off and landing requirements, the plane is ideal for bush flying.

There are stories of pilots fixing the canvas wings with duck tape and loading pianos onto the floats for flights to northern camps. With the greatest number of surviving Norseman (5) in the world still in operation here in Red Lake, the town is know as the "Norseman Capital of the World". Today, you can view CF-DRD suspended in midair, on display in the new waterfront park on Red Lake's, Howey Bay. Visitors will be glad to know that the town is now serviced by a controlled all weather runway airport.

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