Eldorado

History

Nothing much is left of Eldorado now, but in 1866 the story was quite different. When rumours of gold discoveries such as “gold the size of butternuts” began to surface, the town, not surprisingly, grew from nothing to some 80 buildings almost overnight. Prospectors and speculators arrived in droves to have their pickings of the anticipated riches.

Eldorado’s infamous history began with John Richardson, a middle-aged farmer, who had fled from Ireland almost 30 years earlier. Richardson’s land was thin and rocky and he’d been surviving on subsistence farming for years. Early census records were strange animals. Based on the 1861 information, Richardson was worth about $1000, which included his log cabin and livestock. He was fed up and tired. His one hope was that the many outcrops on his land would yield something – anything – of value. He decided to give it one last shot. In the summer of 1866 Richardson hired young Marcus (Mark) Powell, a court clerk and part-time prospector from nearby Malone, to begin explorations on his land.

There are several different legends floating around about the initial Eldorado gold discovery. The most colourful one is claims that when Mark Powell was prospecting on the Richardson farm, he fell into a cavern where he found walls covered with a metallic substance that he believed to be copper. Several weeks later, a Madoc jeweller informed him otherwise. According to another version, both Powell and an elderly prospector known as “Snider” were working together. Later on they showed their samples to one Fred Murchall who gave them the news that what they thought was copper was actually gold. A third refers to two Madoc men, Lyman Moon and Robert Gray, who grabbed two shovels full of decomposed sulphurites which they cleaned and delivered to a Madoc jeweller named D. Rawe. Rawe gave the substance a blow-pipe test and pronounced it to be gold.

Whichever version is true. Mark Powell has received the somewhat dubious credit for the initial gold find. They managed to keep the discovery under wraps until November, when the cat was out of the bag. A fierce attack of gold fever suddenly hit the area.

Digging began in 1866 but didn’t last long. Numerous disputes over ownership of the mine suddenly popped up. As it turned out, speculators had purchased options on the basis of pure hearsay. Moreover, start-up and financing problems plagued the mine from the very outset. With the first court case finally settled, digging resumed in the spring of 1867.

Meanwhile it was party time for merchants from Belleville all the way to Madoc, who cashed in by charging inflated prices for just about everything. Even the stage line owners were in their glory. They added extra lines from Belleville just to accommodate the influx. Madoc was bursting at the seams. New hotels popped up in both Eldorado and Madoc. In June 1867, Eldorado got a post office. Rumours of overnight wealth continued unabated. During those heady days, there was an estimate of some 3,000 would-be billionaires gravitating towards the area. In the spring of 1867. it was necessary to station 25 mounted policeman at the Richardson shaft in order to maintain law and order.

John Richardson reportedly sold his rights for $10,000 and Mark Powell sold his for $15,000. Both of these men were probably among the few that came out on top. Investors in the Richardson Mine had sunk a considerable amount of money into the latest and greatest machinery. Their efforts were in vain. Although the gold was supposedly extremely pure, the deposits were small, isolated and sporadic. The day of reckoning finally came at the end of the year. The returns turned out fo be a meagre $15 to the ton. The investors bailed as fast as they arrived. The mine shut down and the company eventually went into bankruptcy.

It took a couple of more years for the lustre to wear off. In 1869, despite the closure of the Richardson Mine, Eldorado still boasted four hotels, two grocery stores, a dry goods store, a lawyer and a physician. Clearly some optimism was still in the air, although the lawyer may have been the only beneficiary.

In 1871, Eldorado still had a small amount of business. Records show the Phoenix Gold Mine, employing about a half a dozen miners, was operating. There were still three stores and two taverns, however the hotels were all closed. However by the 1880s the party was over and almost everyone had left.

Eldorado was able to reinvent itself as a railway centre during the early 1880s. The construction of the Central Ontario Railway (COR), which began in 1882, offered employment to 200 men. The completion of the line took place in 1883. The Belleville and North Hastings Railway (later GTR) completed a connection to the COR in 1887. Both railways eventually became part of CN.

During the mid-1880s, Eldorado’s population stood at around 75. Gone were boisterous hotels, taverns and brothels. By then the village included three churches, Methodist, Presbyterian and the Bible Christian, just north of the village, as well as a school. One hotel continued operating along with two general stores and a butcher shop. The opening of S. Thompson’s cheese factory planted the seeds of a new industry.

The railway attracted new businesses and by the end of the decade Eldorado saw modest growth in the form of a blacksmith, Sylvanus Wright, a wagon maker, Thomas Lindsay and a second hotel, owned by Mary Vanleek. Other enterprises included a shingle mill and box factory and a new store built by E. A. Strebe around 1915. By the dawn of the 20th century, Eldorado had returned to its roots as a small railway and farm-based centre.

Although Eldorado is now a rural backwater, it showing a few small signs of rejuvenation. A few early buildings are still standing, including one of the stores store which is now a private home. A combination gas bar and general store remains open. Although the cheese factory stopped producing cheese in 1991, the retail outlet remained open until 2011. The business is for sale and has been ever since then. An historical plaque alongside the highway tells the story of Eldorado and the famous Hastings gold rush of the 1860s.