UCHI LAKE

NAME: UCHI LAKE COUNTY: Na ROADS: 2WD GRID: 1 CLIMATE: Snow in Winter, Warm Summer. BEST TIME TO VISIT: Summer

COMMENTS: Completely abandoned REMAINS: Many original buildings.

Uchi Lake was a complete company town of the 20th century. A product of the northwestern Ontario gold rush of the 1920s, it was founded by the Uchi Lake Gold Mining Company. Remote and difficult to access, operations did not begin until 1938 after all the equipment arrived and had been put into place. The company expanded the town in 1942 to include several stores, a two-story hotel, a barbershop, a bank, and other amenities to serve the three hundred miners and their families. The beginning of World War II was the beginning of the end of Uchi Lake. In 1943, gold mining was considered a non-essential industry and the miners became soldiers or sailors. The mine never reopened. Despite being buffeted by weather and time, the apartments, the hotel, and a number of mine buildings still stand. Submitted by: Henry Chenoweth

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