This property was originally owned by the Temiskaming & Northern Ontario Railway. In 1906 it was leased to the Cobalt Townsite Mining Company. Their Chief Engineer, W.S. Mitchell, designed this building as a ‘rockhouse’, a shaft house which included crushing and sorting facilities.
This type of structure was common to the tin mining area of Cornwall, England and the copper mines of Northern Michigan. Several structures of this type were once landmarks in the Cobalt area.
In 1914 this property was acquired by the Mining Corporation of Canada Limited. By 1922 it had produced 13,000,000 ounces of silver.
At the front of this headframe, facing the road, the ground has subsided to form a large hole. This hole leads down to the underground workings and once extended back across the highway and required extensive repairs during the early 1990’s. This subsidence was caused by early underground miners who removed too much of the ore under the overburden. When the remaining ore collapsed, the overburden sank into the underground workings forming a sinkhole.
