THOMPSON-LUNDMARK

NAME: Thompson-Lundmark COUNTY: - ROADS: 2WD GRID: 1 CLIMATE: Tame summer, cold winter BEST TIME TO VISIT: Summer, requires flight

COMMENTS: Only accessible by floatplane 40 kilometers east of Yellowknife, NWT. No residents, fully abandoned town, destroyed by fire 1998. REMAINS: Very few structural remains aside from burned ruins

A gold mining operation in the Yellowknife region of the NWT, the abandoned town was destroyed by forest fires in 1998. Gold was discovered in 1938 by Fred Thompson and Roy Lundmark and development was immediate due to the occuring gold boom of the NWT. Two main shafts were sunk, the Kim and Fraser. Mine and mill buildings were erected around the Fraser Shaft workings, located on the southern shore of Thompson Lake. Godl production began in 1941 through the management of Canadian mining giant Cominco Limited. Several cottages were erected for staff members and their families. These were mostly log and tarpaper buildings and were all connected to a central heating plant (wood fired boiler). Only a few families lived on site. There were on average 90 employees working on site. The Fraser shaft was inclined a length of 750' with 5 levels. Further workings went down a length of 950'. Thompson-Lundmark was a company townsite and there was no private business allowed on site. The company ran a commissary so that employees could purchase goods. Power was supplied by Comincos hydro plant at Bluefish Lake. Gold reserves were exhausted in 1949, the mine closed, the residents left, and most mining equipment sold. The unique and fairly well preserved abandoned mine remained neglected until its final demise in August 1998 when forest fires burned all but a 5 structures to the ground. Local heritage groups were looking at preserving the site as a tourist attraction at the time. Submitted by: Ryan Silke

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