Stories untold: hotelier looks to drum up interest in mining history.

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: Presidential Suites

A Haileybury hotelier and tourism promoter wants to revive the area's rich mining history and introduce it to a wider audience. Nicole Guertin, co-owner of Presidential Suites, is hosting a media familiarization tour in early May designed to spark interest in the famed Cobalt mining camp and its impact in today's Canadian mining industry.

While the Yukon has its lore of the Klondike, Guertin said the story of Cobalt and its place in Canadian history needs to be told.

"Being in the middle of this Abitibi-Timmins-Sudbury triangle, we haven't really sold the area that much for mining."

Since permanently settling in the Tem iskaming area three years ago, Guertin and her partner, Jocelyn Blais, have purchased, renovated and rent out five historical homes in Haileybury.

Their most recent acquisition is a home they've dubbed Prospectors' House, refurbished to highlight the history of the 1903 Silver Rush in Cobalt.

Interior decorator Renelle Laliberte of Toronto decorated the four-storey home with a rustic theme in keeping with local mining history, and it features several original works by local artists.

Haileybury is three kilometres north of Cobalt and became a bedroom community for many of the mine owners who built homes overlooking Lake Temiskaming in what came to be known as Millionaires' Row.

In working with local histbrians like Peter Fancy and Brian Hobbs, Guertin was drawn by the stories of the early prospectors--many of whom are in the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame--who journeyed to Cobalt during the frenzied Silver Rush, and later fanned out to discover major mining camps in Kirkland Lake, Porcupine (Timmins) and Red Lake.

"It's exciting to see how it all started tying together"

To promote the media event and her lodgings, Guertin attended the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada's (PDAC) annual conference in Toronto last March to launch a colouring book and two children's games featuring the work of local artist Laura Landers that commemorate the Cobalt Silver...