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Transcript of the CBC "The Great Northwest" Interview
August 8, 2000 7:15 am Lisa Lacko, The Great Northwest LL: Coming up this hour in our program, turning an open pit mine into a tourist attraction, we're going to hear what is happening in one Northwestern Ontario community. ..... LL Coming up now, in just a moment, the tale of two mines. LL Well 20 years ago, the Steep Rock mine in Atikokan was a huge scar on the landscape, lakes had been drained and the entire Seine River system had been rerouted to make way for what was, and still is, an engineering marvel. But with the end of the iron ore came the closing of the open pit. Well, today, two decades later, the minesite has gone back to nature. Shawn Allaire is the Manager of the Atikokan Mining Attraction, she's promoting the pit as a new tourist site and she joins me now on the line. Shawn Allaire, Good morning. SJA: Good morning LL You got up very early for us this morning, Thank you. SJA: That's okay. LL Okay, now take me back to when it all began. When and how was this mine built? SJA The discovery of the iron ore, was known about even at the turn of the century. But it was 1937 when Julian Cross found out that the iron ore was under the lakebed. It had been surmised, up to that point, that the ore was actually under the lake, but at that point, it was proven by testing and drilling. So, at that point, what do you do when ore is under a lake? Well, a young mining engineer, not that long out of university, Pop Fotheringham, said well, we'll take the water out of the lake. Now this is a lake with a surface area of about five square miles. But there are steps you have to go through when you say we're going to take the water out of a lake. Because the Seine River system fed that lake, so you have to divert the river system. LL When you think about it, Shawn, it's an absolutely incredible feat, isn't it? SJA Yes, and it wouldn't be done today. It would not be allowed; there would be environmental voices raised and First Nation voices raised. At the time, at the end of the war, that the impetus for it all. The Nazis were sinking ore carriers to the US and the US was becoming increasingly anxious about where their supply of iron ore for their steel for the war effort was going to come from. Consequently, there was an enormous influx of US money but also federal and provincial monies were given to this development. In fact, I found that over $20 million was spent in various ways before the first load of ore was ever touched. LL You know, I'm still trying to get my head around diverting a river system and emptying out a lake, can you give us a sense of how huge that was? SJA Well, that's only part of it. ....Because, in order to divert the river system, they wanted to take it through a lake that was 40 feet higher than the existing lake (Marmion Lake). The other lake, Finlayson Lake, had to be lowered so a tunnel was cut through solid rock 1400 feet long, 7 feet by 8 feet, wide and high, and then the end of that tunnel was blasted out. I've seen a video of this; there was a great whoosh of water at Finlayson Lake, and then it really started draining like a bathtub. LL Amazing SJA They brought it down below the surface level of the other lake, dammed where they needed to dam, and, in fact, did divert the river system. LL Okay, so now, let's leap ahead into 1972, when the mine closed down, what did it look like then? SJA It was around 1980, when the mine closed down, and as soon as they turned the pumps off, the pit started filling with water, because the pits were below sea level; they were below the water table and in order to keep them even remotely dry, they had to have pumps going 24 hours a day. So as soon as they turned the pumps off, the pits started filling very quickly with water. And they continue to fill to this day. In one arm of the lake, there is a commercial fish farm, now. That is a miracle in itself. In an abandoned open pit operation that is filled with water, that there is now a commercial fish farm. LL And what does it look like now? SJA Quite lovely in its own way. I liken it to the awe you might feel when you go to see the pyramids. Because that is another place where concerted human activity did something very big. Well, here, concerted human activity did something very big as well. But the humans that did that are gone now, and for the past 20 years, it has pretty well just sat there and naturalizing. So there are fast growing poplar and scrub. But there is also, where they didn't cut down the old growth, you can still see white pine and stuff like this. You can see the difference between the level at which the regenerated growth took place and the old growth. It's quite lovely, quite majestic really, and I find it quite unfortunate that for a good population of Ontario anyway, that the words "abandoned open pit mine" and "Northern Ontario" are now associated with "Toronto" and "garbage". I think that's appalling. LL So how do you get the message out then? Because that's really an interesting contrast that you've got going there. Now, you think about Kirkland Lake, you think about Atikokan, how do you let people know that it's not all like that? SJA That's one of the reasons, a sort of periphery reason why I did the website. As part of my job with the Atikokan Mining Attraction, I am to raise the awareness, not only of the Attraction, but also of the mining history, and definitely, the pits are part of that mining history. I keep a website up for myself and for my daughter who is in Thailand, so I thought that this would be an interesting thing to do. I like taking pictures and I like creating webpages, so I created one for the naturalization of the Steep Rock pits. And I quite relentless in trying to get the word out. I will email or phone anybody to get the word out about this website so they can visit it and see what it looks like. LL So, now I'd like you to give us the webpage address. I know it's quite long and cumbersome, but is there a simple way of getting to it on the Internet, is there? SJA Well, I'll tell you what it is, but I will also give you my email address, so anyone who wants to see the webpage, can email me and I will send them the link. The page address is http://twosox.htmlplanet.com/steeprock/steeprockpage.html LL And we have it up here on the computer in the control room, and it is simply a remarkable webpage. SJA It is kind of neat, because there are pictures of what it used to look like, and there are pictures of what it looks like now. And, I have never been to Kirkland Lake to the Adams mine. I don't know what it looks like and I don't even know when it closed, but I thought it was important that what is going on, a quiet miracle out at the Steep Rock mine site, at least the people of Northwestern Ontario should know about. LL Absolutely, and what is your email address Shawn? SJA My email address at work is amaa@atikokan.lakeheadu.ca. So, if anyone wants to email me, I will send them that link. LL Thanks a lot for talking with us this morning Shawn SJA Well, thank you for having me. LL Shawn Allaire is the Manager of the Atikokan Mining Attraction, and her email address, again, is amaa@atikokan.lakeheadu.ca. And Shawn will certainly be glad to let you know what that's all about. |
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