Goldpines

History

During the Red Lake gold rush, around 1922, a stopping place grew around a sleepy little Hudson Bay Post, situated between Lac Seul and the English River. As the rush intensified, they dragged men, provisions, equipment, and machinery across frozen lakes and fly infested swamps to get the operation off the ground. The tiny community grew rapidly as the pace of activity increased.

The services available at Goldpines were a welcome change for prospectors who fought their way across rugged, untamed land on their journey to Red Lake. Goldpines started out as a tent city in 1926. In almost no time the settlement grew to include three stores, three restaurants, an Imperial Bank of Canada branch, a hotel, law office operated by G.E. Lawson, a barbershop, pool room, and mining recorder office. Joe Kert and Kelly Chamody owned two of the stores. There were also two transportation company offices. Recreation came in the form of a well-patronized tavern. Just to keep things in line, the community also included an OPP detachment, with two constables.

Kelly Chamody, who owned one of the stores, opened the first post office in 1926. Its original name was Pine Ridge. It changed in 1928 to Goldpines to avoid confusion with another office of the same name. Most locals knew it better under its former name.

During the time men were passing through the community enroute to the Red and Woman Lake Gold Fields, the population fluctuated from 100-130 permanent residents. There were often an extra 100 transients who remained for a brief or prolonged stop.

Goldpines initial success didn’t last long. The first blow came after the Canadian National Railway (CN) bypassed Goldpines and added a rail link from Amesdale to Snake Falls. The loss of freight shipping was catastrophic for the community and by 1933 it lay empty. The situation slowly rebounded as more mines opened in the vast wilderness of the Patricia District.

Situated on Confederation Lake was one mine in particular, where a mad staking and development phase started up in 1938. As luck would have it, Gold Pines received an airstrip and boomed yet again. Over the following months the airfield became the busiest in the world shipping freight to the surrounding mining sites around the clock.

Goldpines’ second moment of glory was very brief. Following the arrival of the Second World War, the smaller mines, apart from those in the Red Lake area closed. After the government pushed a highway through to Red Lake in 1944, the village, apart from a handful of residents was deserted once again. Once the government pushed a highway through to Red Lake in 1944,

The former Goldpines buildings are now part of a campground in the Ear Falls area. Although now under different ownership, the camp continues to operate as Goldpines Camp.