Eldorado: Ontario's First Gold RushWhere did Ontario’s first gold rush take place? Not, as you might think, in the Kirkland Lake or Timmins areas of Northern Ontario, but in the Madoc-Eldorado area of Hastings County, less than an hour’s drive from busy Highway 401. The discovery was made in August 1866. Thousands of miners and speculators soon arrived from British Columbia, California and elsewhere. They included "Cariboo" Cameron of British Columbia mining fame. To preserve law and order the Canadian government set up a special mounted police force (two of whose members were arrested for robbery before their training was complete.) This book explores the events of the Madoc Gold Rush, explains some of its touching, humorous and tragic moments, and relates the hitherto untold story of the mounted police. |
