“A Tribute to Miners”, also known locally as the Miners’ Memorial, is a large granite structure at the west end of Kirkland Lake. This sculpture was commissioned by the Miners Memorial Foundation in 1988 and took several years for artists Rob Moir and Sally Lawrence to design and create.
It weighs 40 tonnes and is thirty-two feet high. The rock, “anorthosite” was quarried in River Valley north of Sudbury and was fabricated at Owen Sound Ledgerock Quarry.
On and around the structure are 5 life-size figures portraying actual local miners that are welded out of mild steel and fuse coated with bronze.
Three carved negative reliefs on polished rock surfaces reflect the poses of the working miners.
On July 23rd, 1994 the Miners Memorial was unveiled to celebrate Kirkland Lake’s 75th birthday.
With dignity and respect, this monument pays tribute to both the working man as a work of art and the mining industry that built Kirkland Lake.
The names of those who lost their lives in mining accidents in the region are inscribed on stone slabs, and a memorial plaque for fallen workers was added in 1998.
