This is where silver was first discovered. The mill was named for James McKinley and Ernest Darragh who found silver on this claim in August of 1903. It was the first mill to operate in the summer of 1907. Its capacity was only 15 tons per day but was gradually enlarged to 225 tons per day by the year 1913.
It was a typical “gravity mill” built on a hillside so that crushed ore would flow downward by gravity as it passed through the plant. Crushed first by a line of pounding stamps, the pulverized ore then went to jigs, ball mills, and gravity tables.
The ore came from eight shafts on the property and from the Savage Claim at Cart Lake by means of an aerial tramway. The mill ceased operations in 1927 having recovered more than 13,000,000 ounces of silver.
The Nipissing Central Railway, a streetcar service between Cobalt, Haileybury, and New Liskeard passed right beside the mill. This privately owned railway provided economical and comfortable service in the area until it closed in the 1930s.
