Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

280 HISTORY OF THE BANKbuilding of the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railwayby the Ontario Government. The object of building thisrailway, which is now part of the route to the great clay beltof northern Ontario lying south of James Bay, was to open upnew areas for settlement, but in 1904, during its construction,silver veins of fabulous richness were uncovered which dwarfedthe original purpose for more than a decade.By 1905 the district had attracted so much attention thatthe bank decided to open a branch in what is now the town ofCobalt, though at that time only a lake-shore forest. Thebank's officials arrived on August 9, 1905, and immediatelyproceeded to pitch their tents, one to be used as a bankingroom 1 and to provide living accommodation for the staff, theother for mess arrangements and apartments for the cook,for like true pioneers they had taken the precaution of bringingwith them that indispensable accessory. The managerwrites: "The following morning we opened for business.Our office furniture consisted of a rough board counter coveredwith oilcloth, a strong iron box for our cash and a rough boardtable for the middle of the office. In our mess tent we had arough board table covered with oilcloth as our dining table,two wooden benches as seats, and a prospector's stove, and ourchina consisted of tin plates, cups and saucers. At the timewe came here, Cobalt was practically all bush. There werepossibly hah* a dozen log huts, and the rest of the inhabitants,numbering in all about three hundred, lived in tents. It wasvery interesting to see the tents scattered through the trees."Winter set in about October 1, and it was then necessarythat the town's inhabitants should get into warmer quarters.Tar-papered shacks and log cabins sprang up all over the townlike mushrooms during the night, and by January 1 therewere possibly two hundred shacks. In the meantime a fewnice buildings were being erected.In our case we imported a!See plate 44, facing page 270. This was not the first occasion on which TheCanadian Bank of Commerce had done business in a tent. One had been used atAtlin, B.C.. in 1899 (see plate 47, facing page 286), and another at Whitehorse. YukonDistrict, in 1900.