Cobalt dips into boom-town past for its economic future: nearly $4 million raised for tourism project.

If you look into the many abandoned silver mines dotted throughout Cobalt, you just might be able to catch a glimpse of the small town's past, present, and quite possibly its future.

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The fading, sepia-toned memories of the town's bonanza-fueled past may help to pave the path for its future prosperity, or so public officials hope.

"We're developing the town's history into a massive tourism project," says Doug Shearer, manager of the Historic Cobalt Mining Camp Project.

While many municipalities have spent their economic windfalls to escape or move beyond their mining past, Cobalt has done the exact opposite. In recent years, the small town has raised $550,000 through private donations, and $3.2 million through federal and provincial funding agencies.

The intent, officials say, is to create a living museum of the 12.3-square-kilometres of rich mining heritage that encompass the town's boundaries. This involves restoring the town's historical mining relics, many of which can still be found throughout Cobalt.

These already include several key features, including the existing Colonial Adit underground tour, a local mining museum, and the ongoing development of the Teck-Cominco walking tour. The Historic Cobalt project is now in its second phase, a three-year, $2 million effort to continue developing the infrastructure needed to lay out additional venues and improve upon existing ones, according to Gino Chitaroni, chair of the Historic Cobalt Corporation.

Among the great mineral rushes of the last century, Cobalt's silver discovery in 1903 was one of the biggest. In fact, Shearer points to the Cobalt camp as the "Dawson City of the East," contrasting the small Northern town as the original "silver Klondike."

In the early 1900s, the town was abuzz with old-fashioned claim staking, and anything seemed possible.

"In those days, Toronto was just seen as a place to stop over to come to Cobalt," Shearer says.

A 1906 article in the New York Times refers to Cobalt as a "New Eldorado in a Northern Ontario Wilderness," and details how bustling train rides to the town find unbridled optimism in all corners, with less scrupulous claim-holders offering shares to riders as they step off onto the station.

These days, however, the town has a distinctly different feel. The last major silver miner in the area. Agnico-Eagle Mines Limited, pulled out in the late 1980s. This crippled the town, whose population has since been reduced to 1,500.

Named a national historic site in 2003, the town has long sought to capitalize on its rich mining history for a stronger economic future. This idea has crystallized in recent years as the town has worked to recreate its glory days as a centre for tourism and education.

With the potential to draw in students through tourism's shoulder months, the educational portion stands as a particularly strong incentive. In fact, Shearer rattles off a laundry list of advancements introduced to Ontario through Cobalt's silver rush, including: the inception of Bay Street through Cobalt-area silver stocks, worker's compensation, 40-acre claim restrictions, and various major unions such as the Steelworkers, which can trace its lineage through to the Cobalt camp.

It's this bright historical spark that officials hope to harness in several plans for future venues. This includes the possible conversion of one of the remaining 10 abandoned headframes into a historical rockhouse.

Another headframe is being moved to the entrance of the town as a guidepost to travelers, pending provincial approval.

Plexiglas etchings of what a specific area may have looked like during the boom years may one day be posted near key locations, such as the Nip Hill Lookout.

There are even some discussions about installing an aerial ride across Cobalt Lake, which once featured a tramway of its own. Talks are also taking place over the potential for partnerships with other mining-focused Northern municipalities, such as Sudbury, Timmins or even Quebec's Val d'Or, to develop a sort of mineral tour.

However, the project isn't without its challenges, including the lack of sufficient accommodation space for the anticipated 15,000 to 20,000 visitors.

The town has a total of 284 beds, far too few to properly handle the expected influx of tourists, says Shearer. To this end, town officials hope to attract a new hotel chain to help increase capacity.

The historic Fraser Hotel is also undergoing a two-year, $2-million process of being overhauled to accommodate the local military history museum, a new culinary school, and capacity for a new restaurant. This will also assist with food service, as Cobalt lacks any such facilities open past 5 p.m.

www.cobalt.ca

www.historiccobalt.com

By NICK STEWART Northern Ontario Business