Shelter and Fuel
The field being thus enlarged from necessity, it may be worth enlarging it still further, if briefly, by noting how the history of the shelter and fuel of the inhabitant has been telescoped also. The memory of pioneer residents can carry them back to the tents of the railway surveyors and the log shacks of the first permanent and transient dwellers in the period 1905 to 1908. An interesting aspect of the pioneer period, however, was that shelters of wood construction for both homes and commerce paused only briefly for the log construction period. Once the T.&N.O. track reached the junction point (indeed as soon as it became possible to haul loads by team from the advancing railhead), dressed lumber as well as tarpaper and other building supplies could be brought into the new forest clearing, to supplement the locally sawn product for sale in a lumber yard  the first produce of local industry, although imported saws and gas engines were used. The roads were mud and tree stumps, or corduroy; the sidewalks, when built, plank. Builders who could afford it added a lath and plaster exterior. Builders who had to do so made do with the wood of packing cases to finish their shacks.

The almost exclusive use of wood for construction was to contribute to the series of frightful fire disasters which plagued the community in its first 20 years. Many of these fires originated in the wooden structures, the extremely low winter temperatures, as one factor, requiring hot fires. It is significant that the second by-law passed by the town council after the bad local fire of 1910 (By-law No. 21, Sept. 7, 1910) was designed to regulate chimney construction. The even more destructive fires were those which originated in the surrounding bush, and swept into the vulnerable streets of wood buildings and slash-strewn partly-cleared lots, into the lumber yard and saw mill on the town’s fringes.

As building material, concrete became second choice for more substantial buildings, and brick was imported from Southern Ontario by those who had capital for institutional structures and homes. There has been no local source of bricks, then or now. The use of galvanized iron for accessory buildings and of the modern synthesized building materials has in the past half century followed the modes of the South.

As for fuel, wood monopolized the market at first, followed by coal, which, although widely used, was costly. The extra 500 or 600 miles from the lake ports piled up transportation costs on imported grades, although Alberta coal was competitive. High cost was not the only disadvantage. In 1918 wartime scarcity of coal was so severe that the use of electricity, produced here at the time by coal-fired furnace, had to be rigidly rationed. Towards the end of World War II a different, and perhaps more surprising kind of fuel shortage threatened the community. The manpower shortage on one hand, price controls on the other, squeezed the supply of wood which was still the basic fuel for many homes. Surrounded by bush, the community suffered a severe fuelwood famine. The town council had to enter the business, buying wholesale on tender not only for its relief recipients but for many of the general public whose normal sources of supply had dried up.

Fuel oil made rapid inroads into both wood and coal once oil heating “caught on”. But the trend was halted abruptly when the Trans-Canada pipeline was routed through Northern Ontario and brought Western Canada natural gas to this and other communities. As natural gas entered into competition with electric power for domestic and industrial use, Hydro, provincially and locally, fought back by seeking a part of the domestic and commercial and institutional heating market, and the electric home is now completing on the frontier the fuel cycle which started with the wood monopoly.

Now these basic housing conditions and fuel trends had a determining effect upon the town’s utilities. The railway surveyors had chosen a site for their junction point what the Indians had called the “Little Lakes Camping Ground”. Scenic Lake Commando became the center of the townsite, and smaller lakes to the north and south justified the early Indian name. The great Abitibi and Frederickhouse rivers are eight and six miles to the east and west respectively. There is no water source at a higher level than that of the townsite, so any municipal water distribution system would have to involve pumping from springs, lakes or wells. (Although this was not recognized at first, the small lakes were limited in their capacity to meet the water demand.) Pumping required power. The distance from the rivers made their use for sewage disposal impractical, and for the first few years the sewage was left to nature to dilute in the chain of small lakes to the north. A water supply system had to be designed not only for the normal reasons of health and convenience, but to provide some slight weapon with which to meet the always imminent threat of fire.

The town’s original water supply came from the lakes for washing, from wells for drinking. There were some private wells, but by 1909 there was in use a commercially operated well on the south side of Railway street, alongside what was originally a railway office building and is now the community center. A massive padlock controlled the pump handle, and for a small fee any citizen could borrow the key and pump his drinking water, the stronger individuals or those with industrious children carrying two pails suspended from a neck yoke. At that time the well was open. Later a well house was built above it. This survives, although the well itself and others like it were capped when piped water became available. The lake water was transported, by those not content with pails, in large barrels, which were taken to the lake shore on team-hauled stone boats, filled, and taken home.

Lighting was basically by candle and coal oil lamp, Cochrane skipping completely the era of manufactured gas illumination which at the turn of the century was the last word in cities for domestic and street lighting.

Many businessmen were not willing to wait for a socially-owned source of horsepower, and installed their own gasoline engines. Whatever quality of service these rendered to their owners they were not popular with the neighbours, and on September 1, 1910, the town council adopted a resolution requiring that the exhaust of gasoline engines within the town limits be muffled to make the least possible noise. The constable was instructed to notify all offenders.

The only possible source of hydro electric power nearby was in the Long Sault Rapids, on the Abitibi River, 10 miles due north of the town, which enthusiasts claimed could produce 63,000 h.p. This was long regarded as a potential asset. In December 1910 council asked Sutcliffe & Neelands of New Liskeard, who had been retained as municipal engineers, to survey the site and report. In August 1912 council instructed the town clerk to make application for the right to develop it, but nothing came of these efforts.

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Birth of Municipal Utilities
Construction of the T.&N.O. Railway north from North Bay, by a commission appointed and financed by the Ontario government, actually began in 1902. As Laurier pushed the project for building the National Transcontinental Railway, to be routed through Northern Ontario and Quebec, through Parliament in 1903, the T.&N.O. Commission was thinking of linking with it, and began exploration and location survey north from New Liskeard. By 1907 its main line had reached Matheson, and on February 28^th of that year a contract was awarded for the extension of the line to effect a junction with the N.T.R., Quebec City to Winnipeg. T.&N.O. steel reached Cochrane, and on November 26, 1908, an auction sale of lots in the new townsite was held, the first train bringing 600 sightseers, reporters and potential bidders for land. Some construction had already started to meet railway needs, and the first settlers had come in to the area ahead of the track.

The town was incorporated January 1, 1910. Municipal records (such as council minutes, the first assessment roll, and the by-law texts) are missing from that date to August 10^th, presumably destroyed in the big local fire of that summer. In these first months, however, the ratepayers had approved a by-law to borrow $25,000 to be spent in clearing streets, digging drains and building wooden sidewalks. Taxable assessment was $301,275. Water sources were Normal Lake, south of the townsite, and Commando Lake in its centre.

On November 24, 1910, the town council invited Mr. Frank B. Graff of Cobalt to attend its next meeting, and a utilities program took shape quickly. Mr. Graff represented the Cobalt Power Co. Ltd., later known as the Northern Ontario Light & Power Co. Ltd. While Sutcliffe & Neelands were asked to submit plans for a water system for the entire townsite, a proposal from A.J. Pattison for a telephone franchise was studied. By February 16, 1911, council and the general public were in agreement that $50,000 should be borrowed for waterworks and sewerage system, and a proposal from the Cobalt Power Co. was being studied by which lighting would be provided, also power for pumps for a waterworks and fire protection.

On March 2, 1911, By-law No. 28 was given first readings. It authorized a $50,000 6 per cent debenture borrowing for construction of sewers and waterworks. At the same meeting an agreement with the Cobalt Power Co. was approved for submission to the voters. This agreement granted a 10-year franchise to run from April 1, 1911, permitting the erection of poles and wires for conveyance of electricity, the company undertaking to erect and maintain a street lighting system. Rates for street lighting and maximum charges for domestic and commercial users and motors were set out. Realistically preparing for an early power shortage, it was agreed that power for motors could not be used before 6 a.m. or after 5 p.m. in November, December, January and February, or before 7 a.m. and after 6 p.m. during other months. The company was obligated to supply electricity for lights to any resident or owner whose premises were within 300 feet of any line. The franchise was to be exclusive as to street lighting, but not exclusive for other services. After 20 years the town was to have the option to buy, or offer an extension of the franchise subject to arbitration of terms, but it could also buy before the end of the 20-year period.

The company also undertook to erect a satisfactory powerhouse, and to supply, erect, maintain and operate a motor-driven pump for the purpose of supplying the Corporation with water through the town water distributing system, which was about to be constructed by the Corporation, such power house and machinery placed there to be subject to the approval of the town engineer. A second pump, to be known as a fire pump, was also to be installed, with capacity of not less than 1,000 gallons per minute. The first pump was to deliver if necessary at least 200,000 gallons of water every 24 hours, either into the mains or water tower as required. The town was to pay $200 per month for this water service.

The town undertook to supply the site for pump and power house, under a 10-year lease at nominal rental of $1.00 a year, subject to renewal along with the contract. This agreement assumed that the site would be at Spring Lake, just north of the town boundary, and the company would agree not to permit waste water to empty into Spring Lake, but to construct a pipe drain to carry off same through the outlet of the said lake. (On May 11^th, however, council changed the source of water supply from Spring Lake to Norman Lake, south of the town, with Hector Lake nearby as a reserve).

Even this was not enough for one meeting. Council at the same time authorized submission to the ratepayers of an agreement under which Wm. J. Bauldry (townsite inspector and pioneer resident since 1908) would be given a telephone franchise. This would be exclusive for 10 years, and the fee for service within half a mile of the central office was to be not more than $20 per year for homes, $30 per year for business places. The system was to be in operation within six months of execution of the agreement. The town was to get four free telephones, and to have an option to acquire the system at the expiration of the franchise period, details to be set by arbitration if necessary.

This entire three-course menu was placed before the ratepayers at a gourmet’s feast on April 4^th, and the results left no doubt that the citizens wanted services. The results were:

          By-law 28, for the borrowing of $50,000 125 for, 3 against;

          By-law 29, electric franchise and contract 124 for, 1 against;

          By-law 30, telephone franchise 117 for, 9 against.  

A week later all three by-laws were given third reading by council, and on May 11 application was made to the Ontario Railway and Municipal Board for validation of the borrowing. 

Disaster and a New Start
It was one thing to pass by-laws and sign agreements  another to survive in the teeth of calamity. On July 11, 1911, fire swept into the town from the northwest, the consequence of many small land-clearing fires in the newly opening farm area in a dry period, which were merged into a flaming wall of disaster by a high wind. In three hours that afternoon the townsite was leveled except for some of the railway properties and three buildings. The conflagration swept south and west on a 20-mile front, and in the next week burned over 864 square miles, killing 73 people and causing property damage estimated at $3 million. This was the holocaust which became known as the Porcupine Fire.

A meeting of the town council the next day was naturally devoted to the most urgent problems of keeping the town and its people in being, but two weeks later the council adopted a resolution stating that it would be in the town’s best interests that work in connection with the waterworks and sewerage be completed. Contract was authorized with the Toronto Iron Works for erection of a central feature of the system  the water tower and tank in the centre of the charred townsite.

On November 2, By-law No. 46 authorized borrowing $38,500 from the provincial government on 4 per cent debentures. This was to provide for replacement of the public school building and furnishings, a gaol and furnishings, sewer pipe and plant, and sidewalks.

So swiftly did the work of building and rebuilding move ahead that by early September the power plant was put in operation and electricity supplied for lighting and power. The service was so limited, however, that in October council had to ask the company to supply customers from dark to daylight. The plant had been brought in from Cobalt, and an interested spectator recalls that its hundreds of parts were dumped on the ground like so much rubble. Frank Graff brought order and power out of the chaos, erecting the plant in the new building on the shore of Norman Lake. Fine pea coal was burned to make coal gas, which ran the gas engines, which generated the electricity.

A description of the plant is given in a directory published as part of Central Electric Stations in Canada (1928). In it the Norman Lake plant was listed as auxiliary only, the town by that time buying its power from Abitibi, but the installation consisted of three Westinghouse gas engines (one of 200 h.p., and two of 100 h.p. each), three generators, and three exciter generators.

The power house was a frame structure with roughcast exterior and concrete floor. Its 15 or so years of active life were before the days of the automatic stoker, but processes were automated so far as possible. Coal was unloaded from the cars into a shed, or if there was a surplus supply, it was stockpiled nearby. An elevator whose shaft head was the highest part of the structure carried the fuel up, from which point it was fed into the gas generating furnace. The process did not involve coking, and the ash did not normally present a removal problem. Residents were free to help themselves from the ash pile, if they needed fill, and they did so. 

Manager Frank Graff was provided with a house near the plant, which he occupied until about 1922, when he moved uptown to a house of his own. While a large instrument panel in the powerhouse carried the controls, the manager was on 24-hour duty, alert to any change in the sound of the engines or fluctuation of power, signals which would send him running to the plant at all hours of the day or night. If there was a drop in gas pressure, it could sometimes be corrected without too much trouble, but there was no reserve gas container, and when the worst happened, pressure, and hence power production, could only be restored by a major operation which took hours, emptying the furnace and starting from scratch. 

Now and again the workers would suffer gas poisoning, and reel outside to throw themselves on the grass or snow. They worked in two 12-hour shifts, with a foreman or engineer and a fireman on each shift. In 1918 a foreman was paid $90 a month for his 12-hour shift, seven days a week. This was a princely wage; in 1911 the town foreman only earned $75 a month. 

1914 
The year of World War I started with an attempt to face up to the heavy spending of the town’s first four years. The council asked the Legislature to pass a private bill which would authorize a debenture issue to cover the floating debt which had resulted from spending in excess of amounts realized from earlier debentures for public works. An original request for $25,000 was later reduced to $22,500. The debentures were sold at 98 in May.

In April what was apparently designed as another step to remedy a past mistake was authorized. The power company was instructed to pump a reserve supply of water from Spring Lake south to Norman Lake. 

In August the heavy 15-mill water frontage rate imposed in 1912 was repeated, and the year’s tax by-law established the rate which is still effective four mills. 

Friction between the municipal council and the municipal franchise holder was a normal fact of life. An account for a mere $133 had been unpaid so long that Mr. Graff warned he would stop pumping water the next day if it were not paid. It was paid  the next day. In January 1916 council ordered withholding of part of the street lighting payment, accusing the company of not living up to its contract to maintain dark-to-daylight service. Furthermore it accused the company of discrimination regarding rates and deposits.

During the summer and fall of 1915 the need for an improvement in the water supply was apparent, and in July the standing committee of council was instructed to study the situation at Spring Lake and report. By September this had led to acceptance of a proposal by Geo. King of New Liskeard for sinking two wells at Spring Lake, and in the following month council agreed that if the second well were satisfactory, King should proceed with a third. The normal consequences followed. In December By-law 134 was passed, covering borrowing of $5,500 on 6 per cent debentures against a Department of Health certificate. This was to cover a number of small water and sewer jobs in addition to the cost of the wells. By this time the town’s net debenture debt had climbed to $181,573.

Fire Again 
World War I was having its impact upon the struggling community, reflected in various ways, although seldom in official municipal action. By midsummer of 1916, however, the stage was being set for another of those catastrophes as destructive as the war itself upon little towns caught in frontline action. On July 29^th substantially the same conditions which caused the 1911 conflagration sent a new wall of fire into Cochrane, now from the southwest, although there was fire all round. This time the emergency fire pumps at Norman Lake were ready, but the fire demon fought with all the cunning of a skilled warmaker. The volunteer firemen took their equipment to the northwest corner of the town to fight a diversionary blaze, and before they could disengage the lumber yard at the southwest corner had caught. A fire wind carried the flames into the freight sheds where gasoline and oil were stored, and when these exploded there was no stopping the onward rush until the heart had been burned out of the town. The flames had reached the new hospital when a sudden downpour saved it, the new public school and other sections not already destroyed. One of the gathering places for refugees was the pumphouse and its lake. 

This disaster did not devastate Cochrane to the same nearly-total degree as that of 1911, but its death toll in the area as a whole was much greater, and in some other respects it ranked with the earlier one. It became known as the Matheson Fire, because on the same day it struck Cochrane it wiped out Matheson and five other communities. At least 223 persons lost their lives; it burned nearly 1,000 square miles, and caused property damage estimated at $2,000,000. Even in Cochrane the cumulative effect, coming as it did only five years after the Porcupine Fire, had a worse effect upon morale and optimism.

Just before the fire, the town council had been working on a revision of the building by-law. Two days and four days after the disaster special meetings were held to rush through temporary amendments, imposing stricter controls on building practices in the reconstruction period. In May council had passed a by-law to make a special levy for patriotic purposes, but in the new circumstances it was decided charity should begin at home, and this by-law was repealed. (However, Ii October it did authorize a donation of $250 to the British Red Cross Society.)

In a series of meetings in the next few weeks there was discussion with the fire relief committee set up by the Toronto Board of Trade, temporary street lighting was arranged, Sutcliffe & Neelands were instructed to relocate and set grades for new wooden walks in the burned-out area, and the telephone company was requested to get a system operating without delay. Free gravel was offered to fire sufferers, and before the end of the year the voters were asked to decide whether half the 1916 tax levy on burned buildings should be rebated. Ratepayers were also asked to approve a new borrowing of $40,000, guaranteed by the province. This was to replace property destroyed by the fire  sidewalks and waterworks plant  and for other permanent improvements. As if by afterthought, in December, council decided to buy a new fire bell. (The fire hall was among the buildings burned, and one of the old public school buildings was acquired for fire hall.) The borrowing by-law passed 146-101, the tax rebate by-law 182-157.

In February 1917, Hydro was asked to send an engineer to report on requirements for duplicating the pumping system, and to inspect the electric system, and in the following month Hydro was further asked to estimate the cost of supplying power, due to uncertain service since the fire, and to study the excessive charges being made for power. By May the weather as well as other problems were sufficiently under control to permit going ahead with the sidewalk replacement program. 

By the beginning of 1918 the town was compelled to stop worrying about the effects of fire in order to keep the home fires burning. The shortage of coal was extreme, and there was no relief in sight. The mayor was authorized to issue a circular to power users; in order that the power plant might be kept running, a householder was not to be permitted to use more than two lights, and the power company was authorized to discontinue all service to any families using more. The rationing was to apply to every evening except Saturdays, and all street lights were cut except on Saturday evenings. Council was proved right in not expecting an improvement in the situation. By the end of August it was asking all coal users to notify the clerk of their estimated needs, and when Cochrane was given an allocation of 540 tons of anthracite, this was criticized as insufficient. To make matters worse even the allotted quantity was not being delivered, and winter was ahead. A resolution was forwarded to the fuel administrator, and by way of insurance the clerk was authorized in October to purchase up to 100 cords of fuel wood. 

Ending the war did not immediately remove the threat of fuel famine, and in April, 1919, the new council authorized ordering coal at once for the next winter. There was another worry. Fire hazard south of the town near the power house was considered dangerous, and all offenders in town were warned that if they didn’t clean up, the town would do so. 

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The P.U.C. 1921
As the end of the first 10 years of the franchise period approached, decisions about the future had to be made. In September 1920 a series of by-laws was adopted, submitting to the ratepayers proposals that the property of the Northern Ontario Light and Power Co. be purchased for $65,000, and that the property of its subsidiary, the Cochrane Telephone Co., be purchased for $32,000, debentures to be issued and sold to finance the purchase. Following approval council acted swiftly to take over. It appointed Frank Graff to be superintendent of all services, light, power, telephone and water; and ordered three cars of coal to keep the power plant going. (For nearly 20 years operation of the utilities was not departmentized by function.)

These actions merely emphasized a point which was becoming increasingly apparent. Even with a private company operating some of the services, the municipal council has been constantly involved in operational details, and in running the water and sewer systems it was passing almost as many by-laws for appointing pumpmen, fixing their salaries, and authorizing extension of services, as it was passing for all the traditional operating fields of municipal government. In December 1920 the ratepayers were asked to approve the establishment of a public utilities commission, to consist of the mayor and two elected commissioners. They approved by a vote of 377 to 33. Messrs Jos. Bradette and J.E. Desloges were elected commissioners, and they, with F.C. Ivy, newly elected mayor, formed the first commission. Third reading of the PUC by-law (No. 257) was given January 21st, 1921.

The council couldn’t wash its hands of utility matters altogether. In February it had to borrow $5,000 to give the new commission working capital, and in April it revived the question of developing the Long Sault Rapids by writing to the Department of Lands and Forests about the requirements. In May it had to authorize a special levy of $8,456 to assist in paying utilities debentures. It transferred the waterworks to the PUC (but not the sewers) for a paper price of $50,000, and in the next month initiated proceedings to borrow $28,000 to pay for improvements to the telephone and electric light systems.

The new commission averaged weekly meetings for the first couple of months, starting with a preliminary organization meeting on January 12, 1921. The mayor was first chairman, and by lot Mr. Desloges received the two-year term, with Mr. Bradette, later to become an M.P. and still later a Senator, drawing the one-year term.

Mr. Graff was confirmed as manager at a salary of $250 a month, while staff was put on a three-shift basis with rates ranging for $80 to $160 per month. The phone operators were given an increase of $10 a month. Consumer rates were reviewed and new schedules adopted. Although water rates were increased by 25 per cent, those using street taps couldn’t complains of their levies by modern standards  they were required to pay only $1.00 per quarter.

Simply changing ownership didn’t solve the problem of inadequate power supply as winter approached again. The east, west and central sections of the town were each scheduled to receive service two days per week, Sunday being reserved for churches. A petition of business men in November for more lighting was rejected, with the explanation that the commission wanted to deal fairly with all users. The best they could get was a request by the PUC to the town council to suspend enforcement of the early closing by-law so that stores could transact business on nights when they had electricity for lighting. Full service was not restored until the middle of 1922.

Behind the scenes in the commission’s second year things did not move smoothly at all. J.W. Russell was the new mayor and chairman, while J.G. Yates replaced Mr. Bradette as the third member. (Mr. Bradette had been elected to council.) Mr. Graff was asked for his resignation and his request for an investigation was refused, whereupon all four of the employees resigned. Two years and four managers later (January 1924) Mr. Graff was back in his old job at a higher salary, and the old staff was working again. 

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