South Porcupine in Cochrane District, Ontario — Central Canada (North America)

The Porcupine Fire / L'incendie de Porcupine

The Porcupine Fire Marker (<i>west side • English</i>) image. Click for full size.

Photographed By Cosmos Mariner, June 5, 2022

1. The Porcupine Fire Marker (west side • English)

Inscription. Click to hear the inscription.

[English] In the summer of 1911, when the Porcupine gold rush was at its height, the weather was hot and dry. On July 11, gale-force winds from the southwest whipped individual bush fires into a 16-km sea of flames that swiftly engulfed the drought-parched forest. The fire-storm swept through mining camps, razed the towns of South Porcupine and Pottsville, and partially destroyed Golden City (Porcupine) and Porquis Junction. Many people fled into Porcupine Lake to escape the flames. The blaze laid waste to about 200,000 hectares of forest and killed at least seventy-one people. Communities throughout Ontario responded generously with aid, and in a remarkably short time the towns were rebuilt and the mines back in operation.

[Français] À l’apogée de la ruée vers l'or de Porcupine, l'été de 1911, était chaud et sec. Le 11 juillet, une tempête de vent du sud-ouest avive les divers feux de camp en une mer de flammes de 16 km qui embrasent rapidement la forêt desséchée. L’incendie dévastateur ravage le camps de mineurs, rasé les villes de South Porcupine et Pottsville et détruit en partie Golden City (Porcupine)

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et Porquis Junction. De nombreuses personnes se jettent dans le lac Porcupine pour échapper aux flammes. L'incendie détruit quelque 200 000 hectares de forêt et fait au moins soixante-et-onze victimes. Des collectivités à travers l'Ontario portent une secours généreux aux sinistrés et avant peu les villes sont reconstruites et les mines remises en opération.

Erected by Ontario Heritage Foundation / Fondation du patrimoine ontarien.

Topics and series. This historical marker is listed in this topic list: Disasters. In addition, it is included in the Canada, Ontario Heritage Foundation series list. A significant historical date for this entry is July 11, 1911.

Location. 48° 28.746′ N, 81° 12.219′ W. Marker is in South Porcupine, Ontario, in Cochrane District. Marker can be reached from Bloor Avenue, 0.2 kilometers east of Crawford Street. Marker is located near the park pavilion at White Waterfront Conservation Area, overlooking Porcupine Lake to the east. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 58 Lakeview Drive, South Porcupine ON P0N 1H0, Canada. Touch for directions.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within 11 kilometers of this marker, measured as the crow flies. Tisdale Township Municipal Building (approx. half a kilometer away); The Gold Seekers / Les chercheurs d'or (approx. half a kilometer away); Porcupine Mining Area / Région minière de Porcupine (approx. 2.9 kilometers

L'incendie de Porcupine Marker (<i>east side • Français</i>) image. Click for full size.

Photographed By Cosmos Mariner, June 5, 2022

2. L'incendie de Porcupine Marker (east side • Français)

away); Ore From the Kidd Creek Mine (approx. 7 kilometers away); "The Big Three" / Les trois principales mines (approx. 8.6 kilometers away); Gold Mining in Canada / Production de l'or au Canada (approx. 9.1 kilometers away); Shania Twain (approx. 9.1 kilometers away); The Porcupine Gold Rush / La Ruée vers l'or de Porcupine (approx. 10.4 kilometers away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in South Porcupine.

Also see . . .
1. Great Porcupine Fire.

The Great Porcupine Fire of 1911 was one of the most devastating forest fires ever to strike the Ontario northland. The blaze formed a horseshoe-shaped front over 22 miles wide with flames shooting 98 feet into the air. Many people were drowned as they fled into Porcupine Lake to escape the flames, while others suffocated to death under the mines. The exact number of dead is not known as the vast forest in the region contained an unknown number of prospectors at the time of the fire. Official counts list 73 dead, though it is estimated the actual toll could have been as high as 200. The next day, the fire swept through the nearby
Photographed By Cosmos Mariner, June 5, 2022

3. The Porcupine Fire Marker
(looking east • Porcupine Lake in background)
town of Cochrane.

(Submitted on March 11, 2023, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida.)

2. Great Porcupine Wildfire – 1911.

The inferno sucked the oxygen out of the atmosphere with such intensity that mature trees were ripped from the ground; and people sheltering like gophers in the mine shafts were asphyxiated as the wildfire stole their last breath. Others drowned when a boxcar of dynamite exploded by the shore of Porcupine Lake, lashing the surface of their refuge with waves 10 ft high. One – the owner of one of the Big Three mines, and a gold millionaire in his first year – died saving his cat. Only nature could end what it had begun. After eight days, heavy rain stopped the destruction.

(Submitted on March 11, 2023, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida.)

3. Porcupine Postcards: Intimate Networks of the Great Fire of 1911.

Panicked telegrams out of Porcupine the morning of the 10th alerted the outside world in the hours before the town was hit, and the news of the disaster spread quickly in the press. But Porcupine’s communications and transportations infrastructure burned with the rest, and for a long time after those last telegrams only silence came from the still-smoldering north. It took weeks for searchers to find the bodies, still longer for the
Photographed By Cosmos Mariner, June 5, 2022

4. L'incendie de Porcupine Marker
(looking west • White Waterfront Conservation Area in background)
lists of dead to make it out of the remote Ontario bush, and longer still for notices to make it to families – especially in cases where names were misspelled or unknown.

(Submitted on March 11, 2023, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida.)

Credits. This page was last revised on March 11, 2023. It was originally submitted on March 10, 2023, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida. This page has been viewed 107 times since then and 28 times this year. Photos: 1, 2, 3, 4. submitted on March 11, 2023, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida.