Dane
History

©Jeri Danyleyko
Dane still exists today, mainly as a rural community. Along Highway 112 and the junction of Highway 650, numerous homes line the highways and dot the surrounding fields. However the Dane of yesterday lies not in here but 1.5 kilometres east of Highway 112, at the crossing of the ONR and of Highway 650.
Initially, the little parcel of land in Otto Township was first settled in 1906 when the Temiskaming & Northern Ontario Railway arrived and established a temporary construction yard for crews and equipment. With the influx of settlers canvassing the fertile land west of the line, they laid a town plot which they named Boston after a nearby township. Boston in turn received its name from an MPP who hailed from Middlesex County during the 1890’s. They attempted to name the station Jardine but instead ended up choosing the name Dane to honour Frederic Dane, a T&NO commissioner.
The little hamlet contained a few homes, a siding, a flag station and J.J. Corbeil’s general store and post office, both opened in 1906. In 1907 the Larder Lake rush was at its peak and the government decided to build a shorter tote road from the gold camp and the rail line. The following year the government completed the Dane Road, a short 12-mile (19 kilometres) bush road. A school followed that same year. Following the road construction, Dane experienced a mining boom. Freight and cartage firms established their base in Dane. Additional structures included two hotels, and numerous boarding houses to accommodate the influx of miners and prospectors. Following construction of the station in 1909, Dane’s population temporarily swelled to about 600 residents.
In the meantime, by 1910 the Larder Lake camp had waned and the mining boom subsided. Dane settled back to the more leisurely pace of a pioneer farming village of 200 residents. By the 1940’s local farmers consolidated their small plots into larger farms. Many others relocated to Kirkland Lake or Larder Lake where they could find employment at the gold mines. They removed the station in 1958. Also during the 1950s, they renamed the siding Jardine. The school closed about the same time.
In 1955 an iron deposit just a few kilometres away was rediscovered and by 1964 the Adams Mine was in full operation. The government built Highway 560 to transport workers to the mine. The new boom didn’t rejuvenate Dane and by 1964 the store, the remaining hotel, and even the post office had closed. Although a few residents remained in the townsite, there was very little left.
Construction of a number of newer homes along Highway 112 took place in the 1980. All that remains of the original Dane are nearly a dozen homes and the crumbling hotel. Only three of these homes remain occupied.