Timmins

Additionally, historians generally agree that expansion of the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway, which connected Central Ontario to Northern Ontario, was instrumental in triggering the Porcupine Gold Rush because it made the area accessible.

Settlement and company towns

A company town was founded near modern-day Gillies Lake, to house Hollinger Mines employees. Mine manager Alphonse "Al" Paré named the growing mining camp "Timmins", after his uncle, Noah Timmins, who was then the President of Hollinger Mines.

Joe Torlone noted in his dissertation that Timmins was never truly a company town. The combined mines behaved more like a "very influential industrial citizen", rather than a single company that dominated all aspects of civilian life.

Great Porcupine Fire

On July 10, 1911, unusually hot and dry temperatures caused small fires to ignite at the Porcupine settlement. These were initially described as a series of "bushfires", but strong winds spread them into the dry forest and they expanded. Evacuation efforts began on the morning of July 11, with women and children being ferried to the opposite end of Porcupine Lake.

The small fires eventually merged, and grew into a single wall of fire, estimated to be at least wide. The fire destroyed the Porcupine mining camp at around 3:30pm, and continued as far north as Cochrane. The total number of deaths remains uncertain, with the lowest estimates being 73 and the highest suggesting there were more than 200 dead. A number of people drowned after fleeing into the lake in an attempt to escape the heat and smoke; others were killed by smoke while still trapped underground in the mine.

The executives of the Dome Mine held meetings about reopening within two days of the fire. The camp was quickly rebuilt with help from various communities around Ontario, and operations soon resumed.

The fire burned the thin layers of moss and soil characteristic of a Canadian Shield landscape. This revealed previously unknown veins of gold and other minerals, which helped facilitate economic recovery efforts. Mine operators hired gun thugs, who fired on the picket line and were ordered out by the provincial government. After months without work, many men chose to leave the settlement; only 500 miners returned to work in July 1913.

A recruitment campaign for soldiers during the First World War was successful in enlisting around 600 men out of the less than 2,000 total residents at the time. The miners were coveted by the Canadian Expeditionary Force for their ability to dig trenches, and experience with handling explosives. News of the war and letters from soldiers abroad were frequently published in the town's local newspaper, The Porcupine Advance (TPA). After receiving news of armistice, major celebrations were held all around the Timmins area, as described by a journalist for TPA:

The Great Depression did not adversely affect the economy of the area, and jobs were available in mining and lumber.

During the Second World War, around a third of the city's population were enlisted into the armed forces. Timmins had its own bomber squadron known as "Porcupine Squadron No. 433", a heavy bomber unit of No. 6 group RCAF in Skipton-on-Swale, England. Timmins' economy suffered slightly during this period as women were prohibited from working in mines under the Ontario Mining Act, leaving no one to replace the enlisted miners.

Decline and recent history

In the 1950s, Mattagami 71, the reserve of the Mattagami First Nation was once again relocated, this time to its present day location, south of Mattagami Lake.

thumb|Specimen gold, probably from Pamour Mine

By the mid 1960s, the majority of the original mines had depleted their gold content and mines began to close.

thumb|[[Dome Mine "super pit", 2010]]

In 1973, 35 townships covering , including Porcupine, South Porcupine, Schumacher, and Timmins were organized into the City of Timmins.

The city's population peaked in the mid 1990s, when the city became a regional service and distribution centre for Northeastern Ontario.

The last of the original three mines to close was the Dome Mine, which was closed in 2017, after 107 years of operation, and about 17 million troy ounces of gold produced.

Climate

Timmins is near the northern periphery of the hemiboreal humid continental climate (Dfb). Timmins has cold and snowy winters, being located in Northern Ontario. Temperatures in late summer and autumn tend to be among the coolest for any non-coastal major city in Canada. During the late spring and summer, temperatures can rise considerably, sometimes accompanied by high humidity and unstable air masses. The highest temperature ever recorded in Timmins was on July 12, 1936. The coldest temperature ever recorded was on February 1, 1962.

{| class="wikitable"

! colspan="2" | 2021 Canadian census !! Population !! % of total population

| colspan="2" | European Canadian

| align="right| 38,515

| align="right| 81.46%

| rowspan="11" |Visible minority

|Métis || align=right | 3,150 || align=right | 7.66%

|First Nations || align=right | 2,640 || align=right | 6.42%

|Inuit || align=right | 55 || align=right | 0.13%

| || Indigenous responses (not included above) || align=right | 60 || align=right | 0.15%

| colspan="2" | Total Indigenous population || align=right | 5,905 || align=right | 14.35%

| colspan="2" | Total population || align="right| 41,145 || align="right| 100

Language

In Timmins, according to the 2021 census, 60.26% of the population reported English as their mother tongue (Anglophone), 34.25% reported French (Francophone) as their first language, and 5.49% reported a non-official language, neither English nor French, as their first language (Allophone). In 1917 Rabbi Yaakov Schulman arrived in the city and was in charge of religious needs, such as kosher meat. In 1925 there were 200 Jews living in the city. In that year the Jewish community was officially established. The community was not isolated and maintained good relationships with non-Jews, especially emigrants from Russia and Eastern Europe, who spoke the same languages they did. Only in the 1930s were actual community institutions built, such as a synagogue and a school.

Since 1928 the Jewish community has held an annual Purim ball. The ball was mixed: Jews and non-Jews, men and women. Part of the ball was a beauty pageant named malkat Ester.

The Jewish population peaked around the 1950s, when it included around 160 families.

In the early 1970s the Timmins synagogue was closed due to a decrease in the town's Jewish population.

Culture and contemporary life

Tourism

thumb|right|[[Gillies Lake board walk]]

thumb|right|Chamber of CommerceSome of the main tourist attractions within the city include: The Timmins Museum and National Exhibition Centre, Cedar Meadows Wilderness Tours, Mount Jamieson Resort (formerly known as Kamiskotia Snow Resort), Porcupine Ski Runners Cross-Country Trails and Chalet, Hollinger Golf Club, Spruce Needles Golf Club, the Sandy Falls Golf Club, the McIntyre Community Building and the Timmins Snowmobile Club. Snowmobiling impacts the Timmins economy, as tourists travel from all over North America to explore area trails.

Hollinger Park is one of the city's main recreational spaces. The park is divided in two sections, the north side being the public park area, with the south side having a regulation sized baseball diamond and two soccer fields for more organized outdoor recreational endeavours. The baseball park has been home to the Timmins Men's Baseball League since 1985. Former Timmins resident Shania Twain played a concert at Hollinger Park on July 1, 1999. An estimated 22,000 people attended the outdoor concert.

The Pioneer Museum is located northeast of the city centre in Connaught, a community of 400 people. Nearby communities include Barbers Bay, Dugwal, Finn Road, Hoyle, Ice Chest Lake, McIntosh Springs and Nighthawk. Local history in the area dates back over 300 years.

La Galeruche Art Gallery, located at 32 Mountjoy Street North (Centre Culturel La Ronde), provides local francophone artists with a venue to exhibit and sell their work.

The Porcupine Miner's Memorial tribute is a statue of the miner, head frame and tablets bearing the names of 594 miners killed in mining accidents were unveiled in 2008. The following year, the statues of a mother and two children were unveiled to commemorate those families left behind.

Government

thumb|right|Hollinger Park grandstands

thumb|right|The Timmins Daily Press building

The city's current mayor is Michelle Boileau.

Eight councillors serve with the mayor to complete the municipal government. Those eight councillors are elected to one of five areas of the city through a ward electoral system; rural parts of the city elect one councillor each, while the urban core of the city is in a multi-member ward that elects four councillors (through Plurality block voting). Councillors are elected to a four-year term.

Timmins City Council

Rock Whissell, Ward 1 Councillor
Lorne Feldman, Ward 2 Councillor
Bill Gvozcanovic, Ward 3 Councillor
John P. Curley, Ward 4 Councillor
Michelle Boileau, Ward 5 Councillor
Andrew Marks, Ward 5 Councillor
Kristin Murray, Ward 5 Councillor
Cory Robin, Ward 5 Councillor

Provincial

The city was represented in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario by MPP Gilles Bisson from 1990 until 2022, when he was defeated by Pirie.

Federal

The Member of Parliament for Kapuskasing—Timmins—Mushkegowuk is Gaétan Malette.

Education

Post secondary education

The two main Post secondary institutions in Timmins is Northern College, a College of Applied Arts and Technology and Collège Boréal, which also has a sister campus of Université de Hearst. Algoma University also offers degrees in Social Work and Community Development on the Northern College Campus in South Porcupine.

School boards

Four school boards serve the City of Timmins: Weeneebayko Area Health Authority also use TADH to transfer patients requiring more advanced care not available in their community health care centres.

The 134-bed hospital was formed in 1988 from the merger of St. Mary's General Hospital and Porcupine General Hospital, now Spruce Hill Lodge, a retirement home. The two former hospitals were replaced in 1996 and 1993, respectively, when the current site was built.

Emergency Services

The Timmins Fire Department provides fire protection, technical rescue services, hazardous materials response and first responder emergency medical assistance to the city. The department was established in 1911, after a devastating fire which destroyed the community of South Porcupine, over of land, 73 people and $3 million CAD in property. Locals gathered inside of a box car owned by the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway.

Transportation

Timmins Victor M. Power Airport is the main regional airport for the Timmins area. Regional ground transportation is provided by Ontario Northland Motor Coach Services operating out of the Timmins Transit Terminal.

The nearest communities with train service are more than away. They include Foleyet to the west and Gogama to the south, which are served by The Canadian, Via Rail's transcontinental passenger rail service. To the north of Timmins, Cochrane is the southern terminus of the Ontario Northland Railway's Polar Bear Express. Matheson and Porquis Junction were formerly the closest stations to the city. Local transit is provided by Timmins Transit.

Notable people

Alfred Aho, computer scientist, member of US National Academies, professor at Columbia University, Turing Award winner
Charlie Angus, musician and songwriter for the band Grievous Angels, served as the New Democratic Party Member of Parliament for Timmins-James Bay from 2004 to 2025.
Paul Bellini, comedy writer and television actor
Anthony Del Col, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer
Gilles Bisson, Ontario New Democratic Party Member of Provincial Parliament from 1990 to 2022 for the provincial riding of Timmins.
Michael Boisvert, actor
Natalie Brown, actress
Dave and Don Carroll, country / pop / folk band Sons of Maxwell
Carlo Cattarello, Order of Canada and Queen's Jubilee Medal recipient
Lina Chartrand, writer
Jamie M. Dagg, film director
Derek Edwards, comedian
John Labow, actor and television producer
Maurice LaMarche, comedian and voice actor
J. Conrad Lavigne, broadcasting pioneer
Lights (born Valerie Poxleitner), vocalist, singer-songwriter
Cec Linder, actor
Frank Mahovlich, National Hockey League (NHL) Hockey Hall of Fame player and Canadian Senator
Pete Mahovlich, NHL player
Bruce McCaffrey, Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario MPP
Derek McGrath actor
Gord Miller, former Environment Commissioner of Ontario
Alan Pope, former Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario MPP
Jim Prentice, former Premier of Alberta, former Member of Parliament from Calgary and federal cabinet minister
Myron Scholes, Nobel Prize winning economist
Philippe Tatartcheff, Swiss-born poet and songwriter notable for writing songs in French with Anna and Kate McGarrigle
Gordon Thiessen, governor of the Bank of Canada from 1994 to 2001
Roy Thomson, 1st Baron Thomson of Fleet, newspaper magnate, started his empire in the 1930s with the Timmins Daily Press
Lola Lemire Tostevin, novelist and poet
Shania Twain, musician
Bruce Watson, guitarist with Scottish rock band Big Country
Preston Pablo, musician

Notable athletes

Pete Babando, National Hockey League (NHL) hockey player
Bill Barilko, NHL hockey player and subject of the 1993 Tragically Hip song "Fifty Mission Cap"
Baz Bastien, NHL goaltender
Sharon Bruneau, female bodybuilder, fitness competitor, actress and stuntwoman
Les Costello, NHL hockey player with the Toronto Maple Leafs 1947–49. Later became a Roman Catholic priest in Timmins while continuing to play hockey for the "Flying Fathers"
Réal Chevrefils, NHL hockey player with the Boston Bruins 1951–59.
Murray Costello, Hockey Hall of Famer, president of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association
Larry Courville, NHL hockey player
Domenic DiBerardino, Eastern Hockey League hockey player
Shean Donovan, NHL hockey player
Paul Harrison, NHL hockey player
Alex Henry, NHL hockey player
Art Hodgins, Ice hockey player, inducted in the British Ice Hockey Hall of Fame
Mark Katic, NHL hockey player
Kathy Kreiner, Gold medallist, giant slalom, XIIth Olympic Winter Games, Innsbruck, Austria, February 13, 1976
Laurie Kreiner, Alpine skiing, XI Olympic Winter Games, XIIth Olympic Winter Games
Jason Gervais, Athletics discus, Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics
Denis Lapalme, amputee athlete and Paralympic medallist
Rick Lessard, NHL hockey player
T. J. Luxmore, NHL Referee
Frank Mahovlich, NHL hockey player, Canadian Senator
Pete Mahovlich, NHL hockey player
Jim Mair, NHL hockey player
Hector Marini, NHL hockey player
Bob McCord, NHL hockey player
Gus Mortson, NHL hockey player
Bob Nevin, NHL hockey player
Dave Poulin, NHL hockey player
Dean Prentice, NHL hockey player
Eric Prentice, NHL hockey player
Dale Rolfe, NHL hockey player
Steve Shields, NHL goaltender
Allan Stanley, NHL hockey player
Steve Sullivan, NHL hockey player
Walt Tkaczuk, NHL hockey player
Eric Vail, NHL hockey player