Mining and Murder: One of the World’s Greatest Unsolved Crime Stories

Much has been said recently about Sir Harry Oakes Castle in Kirkland Lake.

Owned by the Ontario Heritage Trust and operated by the City of Kirkland Lake, the castle is a monument that commemorates the early days of the Northern Ontario gold rush, the prospectors who made the discoveries and the people who developed the region’s mines and communities. . Since 1983, the Northern History Museum, which originally resided in the Wright-Hargreaves mine assay office, has been housed in Sir Harry’s former residence.

The castle was built in 1929 after Sir Harry’s original Kirkland Lake home was destroyed by fire. The copper roof and craftsman and shingle design are impressive. The home also boasts a six-car garage with a walk-in basement (I guess that was crazy). The house was mainly used when Sir Harry and his family visited the town, its estates and mining interests. His permanent residence was Oak Hall, a three-story, 37-room Tudor mansion monstrosity in Niagara Falls (now serving as headquarters for the Niagara Parks Commission, since 1982).

So who was this big wig from northern Ontario and why is his story still being talked about today?

Well, for starters, Harry Oakes is recognized by the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame as “the prospector and mine finder who turned the Kirkland Lake district of Ontario into one of the most famous gold camps in the world. His outstanding achievement was the discovery and development of the Lake Shore Mine, the first significant discovery in that area.” The Lake Shore mine was the largest producer in the Kirkland Lake camp and was at one time considered one of the richest gold producers in the Western Hemisphere. Between 1918 and 1965, the mine produced approximately eight million ounces of gold.

Harry Oakes was born in Sangerville, Maine, in 1874. He was well educated, attending Foxcroft Academy, Bowdoin College, and Syracuse Medical School—but he was seduced by the lure of the Klondike in 1899, and prospecting became his passion. His search for gold took him from the Yukon to Alaska, New Zealand, Australia, the Philippines, Mexico, Africa, and back to the American West, where he heard about the silver discoveries in Cobalt and the gold discoveries in Porcupine. He hurried back to 1910, but was disappointed to find both heavily staked areas with no claims available for miles. Armed with about $2 in his pocket, Oakes headed to the Swastika area on a tip, lucky as he was, he found gold-bearing porphyry on the south shore of Kirkland Lake and platted the area.

Oakes continued his scouting work and was picked up by Tom and George Tough, which allowed him to continue hunting. By the end of 1912, the Tough-Oakes (later Toburn) mine was in operation. The money from that operation allowed Oakes to return to his original discovery and sink a shaft. The initial findings were grim, but Oakes was convinced there was something to watch. He formed the Lake Shore Mines Company to raise funds to continue the hard work of exploration. His tenacity finally paid off in 1918, when workers struck a major tab (the “main break”) and the Lake Shore Mine made Oakes a multimillionaire—and Kirkland Lake a new northern mining town.

Oakes will be recognized as a brilliant and generous man. He divided his time between Kirkland Lake and Niagara Falls, but by 1934 he had moved his family to the Bahamas to escape the crippling tax bill imposed on him by RB Bennett’s Conservative government (85% of gold mine earnings in taxes, Oakes claimed it cost him $17,500 a day in taxes to live in Canada). He used his money in his new tropical home, helping to build Nassau Airport and the Hilton Hotel. King George VI created him a baronet of the United Kingdom in 1939 in recognition of his philanthropic activities.

Enjoying his time as one of the richest men in the British Empire (and a regular dinner guest of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, then Governor of the Bahamas), Sir Harry is credited with kick-starting the Bahamas’ sluggish economy with investments that would boost the burgeoning tourism trade in the Caribbean.

But it all ended on July 7, 1943, when Sir Harry Oakes was brutally murdered in his bed at his Nassau estate. Discovered by Harold Christie, a family friend who happened to be staying at the mansion overnight, Sir Harry had been stabbed (or shot, depending on whose testimony you believe) and then set on fire while he slept. Christie claimed he did not hear or see anything.

The bizarre murder method, the botched investigation, the arrest of his son-in-law (and his subsequent acquittal), the fact that Christie was never a suspect, the Duke of Windsor’s manipulation of the trial and the failure to find the person. or the people responsible for the death of the richest man in the Bahamas has created one of the world’s best unsolved crime stories. And to think it all started right here in the north.