Lady prospector: Caroline Maben Flower
“The lady prospectors in the Porcupine Camp were of the practical variety,” claims the Porcupine Advance, Timmins local newspaper in 1912, “and more than one of them actually staked out valuable properties”(1).
Caroline Maben Flower was one of these lady prospectors in the Porcupine Gold Rush, often out and about in her canoe, inscribed with her nickname “Lady Prospector” on the Mattagami River, where she had a home and set her opportunistic plans (2). Caroline was originally from New York City, arriving in 1909, when the camp was getting started and there were few women in the mining camp.
At first, the towns were nothing more than tent camps along the banks of Porcupine Lake, near the end of the canoe route. The three towns, Golden City (later called Porcupine), Pottsville and South Porcupine, appeared almost overnight, with a gold mining area 5 km wide and long (3). There was an administrative centre for the camp which became an important townsite featuring the post office, various banks, and the mine recorder’s office, though quickly diminishing with the mining development; and hotels such as the City Hotel operated as boarding houses for prospectors settling into the gold camp for a season (4).
By the spring of 1910, thousands of fortune seekers were pouring into the goldfields (5). After a 50km trek from the rail line through the dense forest and across meandering rivers by canoe, newcomers arrived, ready to stake their claim or find themselves a high paying mining job (6).
“The ladies are going to do real prospecting it is understood,” reads one article, referring to two lady prospectors who were heading to the Lightning Area mining field. The article goes on to identify them by their husbands status in the mining business and refers to their attire. “At any rate they were dressed for the part, being garbed in riding breeches and khaki shirts. The mosquitos and black flies will no doubt make special note of the fact that the ladies had not discarded their silk hose.”
As men dominated the mining industry, it was “The Golden Boys” who claim fame after prospectors and indigenous guides uncovered rich surface deposits under the moss near Porcupine Lake. The two brothers Noah Timmins (7) and Harry Oakes started off as owners of a general store in Mattawa, Ontario and quickly became mining millionaires purchasing claims in the Colbalt silver book, first investing in the “silver rush” of 1903 and then making their way to the promising Porcupine Gold Rush in 1909. The brothers became mine builders in the Timmins and Kirkland Lake camps (Timmins the city itself, named after Noah Timmins) (8).
It was much less common for a women to strike it rich in a similar way, as few were property owners with large investments, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t try. Many adventurous women were drawn to the Porcupine Gold Rush and the railway construction with the same dreams of prosperity! They rolled up their sleeves to cook in the stopping houses and many set up their own small businesses, legal and illegal. One woman started a stagecoach business, a horse and carriage taxi service for newcomers to get to their destination, while newspaper advertisements posted nurse positions and one couple ran a rooming house that charged $1 a day for men, entitled to full meals and their washing. And of course a few, like Caroline Maben Flower, tried their hand at prospecting (9).
Caroline Maben registered claims throughout the Porcupine district and rallied “a gang of men on her Turnbull Properties to further develop them” (10). Aside her prospecting ventures, Caroline, a graduate in music in New York, Berlin and Paris, offered piano and harmony lessons, accepting only a limited number of pupils. Those interested were to apply at the Goldfields hotel (11).
Though there is little information on Flowers, it is evident that she was hardworking and full of ambition. As seen, the photo of Caroline depicts her carrying her trusty six-shooter, a gun she was well practiced at using, bag slung around her shoulder and a small smile. One newspaper article states, “The Porcupine area has had a couple ladies at the prospecting profession, the chief one being Mrs. Flowers, who worked on her own plans and ideas, and not by following the lead of the men as the other women prospectors usually did” (12).
Like many women at the time, Caroline was dynamic and innovative. And while those of the “practical variety” were prospecting and operating businesses, most women were sweating the hard, laborious work of childcare, food preparation, cleaning as well as building community and involved in service work. Similar to today, women were only considered labour force participants if they worked outside the home; care work and service work were devalued in the economy and majority of women’s work would have gone unpaid.
In such times, often white settler women would work in low wage female occupations until they would marry and take care of the home and family, as the ‘idealized homemaker’ seen as naturally inclined to motherhood and home, respectability and duty, while men were destined to “govern, conquer and work”. The pay inequality was not simply reflective of these attitudes, but helped to reinforce this inequitable system (13).
Immigrants who were drawn to the area also faced immense prejudice and discrimination. Many worked in hazardous conditions which gives way to a number of labour rights and human rights that were violated (14). Those involved in building Porcupine were also part of the historical settler, colonial story. While great riches came forth to state and corporation with the mining operations, these events not only caused environmental degradation but the alienation and displacement to local Indigenous people from their land and resources. Though it is known that ancestors of Mattagami, Matachewan, and Flying Post First Nations were living, working, and shaping the mining area despite their supposed removal after treaty 9 in Porcupine (15); the first treaty in Canada (the 1850 Robinson Treaty) stems directly from land use conflicts between miners and Indigenous people on Lake Superior. Local people objecting to mining in their territory and writing letters of complaint to the department of Indian Affairs (16). Caroline Maben Flowers would have been involved as a settler woman at this time.
On July 11, 1912 both settlers and local Indigenous people, who were working near and around the mine would have endured a great catastrophic event: The Great Porcupine Fire. Arriving on a particularly hot and dry summer (the same summer Caroline’s photo was taken), the fire swept in from a southwest wind, causing small bush fires and engulfing 36km of the dry forest in wide flames that shot 100 feet into the air. The fire took everything in its path, capturing over 494,000 acres of forest and killing at least 70 people. Many people drowned as they fled into Porcupine Lake to escape the flames, while others suffocated to death under the mines. At one point, a car of dynamite stored at the railway station exploded, lashing the lake into waves 9 feet high (17). We also know that at least one renowned lady prospector, Mrs. Wilda Brown died in the fire at her cabin in Ramone, as she had cabins at various places in the North. A woman who was known for “attracting special attention by the fact that she wore knickers all the time and strode the country like a man” (18).
The aftermath was that the mining camps and the boomtowns were destroyed. Ontario communities responded with generous aid and few left town with the important gold discoveries being made in this area. A plaque was erected at the Whitney Cemetery and the city was rebuilt in a short time (19). Caroline eventually left to her home in New York City in July 1912 to pursue further studies in mining. Later in 1922, an article in the Porcupine Advance states that “Mrs. Flower[s] has passed to the other Land of Gold, but a number of her claims she staked are being held by the estate as very valuable properties. A couple of these claims are alongside the Mattagami River near Timmins and are considered as very promising”(20).
While little else is recovered on Caroline Maben Flower, she continues to represent the sweetness of seeking opportunity outside of what gender or birthplace sets out for you, while also facing the hardships of being the first to break trail. Further, she represents the untold stories of history; her identity only retrievable in a few newspaper clippings and a single photograph.
While there are many tremendous women from Timmins who deserve to be mentioned it was these few details that were striking. Ms. Caroline Maben Flowers in her skirt and hat, her canoe and her pistol; that had us delighted to read these fine lines in the archives: “The ladies are going to do real prospecting it is understood.”
Footnotes
1."Lady Prospectors Go Into Lightning Area." Porcupine Advance, December 20, 1922. http://news.ourontario.ca/timmins/1119392/data.
2."Local Items." Porcupine Advance, December 20, 1912. http://news.ourontario.ca/timmins/1119392/data.
3.Wikipedia
4.This?, Remember. "When Grand, Wooden Hotels Welcomed Prospectors in Golden City." TimminsToday.com
5. Wikipedia
6.This?, Remember. "When Grand, Wooden Hotels Welcomed Prospectors in Golden City." TimminsToday.com.
7.Noah Timmes ran one of Canada’s legendary mines, the Hollinger (Sudol 2014)
8. The Hollinger producing 19.3 million ounces of gold over 58 years and thus building the surrounding city with hospital, sporting facilities and retailers (Sudol 2014)
9. Bachmann, "HISTORY: Women Who Gained Distinction in Early Years of Timmins." Timmins Daily Press. October 27, 2018. Accessed March 04, 2019. https://www.timminspress.com/opinion/columnists/history-women-who-gained-distinction-in-early-years-of-timmins.
10. “Local Items” Porcupine Advance, December 20, 1912, 1, p.8
11.“Local Items” Porcupine Advance, October 1, 1915, 1, p.8
12. "First Woman to Record Claim in Red Lake Area." Porcupine Advance. July 15, 1926. http://news.ourontario.ca/timmins/1119392/data.
13.Griffin, Emma."What's to Blame for the Gender Pay Gap? The Housework Myth | Emma Griffin." The Guardian. March 12, 2018. Accessed March 05, 2019. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/12/history-blame-gender-pay-gap-housework.
14. TVO. March 07, 2019. https://www.tvo.org/video/documentaries/northern-gold/ep-1-a-fortune-found
15. Jorgenson, Mica. "Mining History and Hope." NiCHE. June 22, 2017. Accessed March 05, 2019. http://niche-canada.org/2017/06/21/mining-history-and-hope-reflections-from-chess-2017/.
16.Jorgenson, Mica Amy. A Global Environmental History Of The Porcupine Gold Rush 1909-1929. Master's thesis, McMaster University, June 2018. 1-309.
17.One unexpected result of the fire was the creation of a fresh water spring where explosives had blown up (Library and Archives Canada, SOS Candian Disasters, 2006)
18."First Woman Prospector in North Died in 1916 Fire." Porcupine Advance, August 5, 1926. http://news.ourontario.ca/timmins/1119392/data.
19.Library and Archives Canada, SOS Candian Disasters, 2006 http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/sos/002028-4100-e.html
20."Lady Prospectors Go Into Lightning Area." Porcupine Advance, December 20, 1922. http://news.ourontario.ca/timmins/1119392/data.