Nipissing Hill is the site of the Nipissing Mine, the largest silver mine in the Cobalt area, ca 1905.
Today, I offer this variation on Thursday Doors.
Can you detect all the missing elements?
I don’t see a door, do you? A door frame is visible. Inside the cabin, the curtain that conceals the inner chamber has been tacked up, out of the way. That lovely floral scrap of fabric could qualify as a door, I suppose.
Is that inner chamber the master bedroom? We know it’s not the en suite. The woman on the far left looks like a grandmother. Maybe it’s the granny suite?
Too bad the “squatters” didn’t think to turn on the interior lights so that we could admire the décor. [light-bulb moment!] Aha! THAT’s why the front wall was removed! To better showcase the marble tiles and lavish stainless appliances!
OK, enough sarcasm at the expense of these intrepid pioneers: the people who lived without hydro, without potable, let alone running water, without, apparently, a front wall to their house.
Squating [sic] On Nipissing is an image that has fascinated me from the moment I saw it. Not only is an important structural feature missing from this building, but I, too, live on Nipissing Hill, clearly in far more comfort than this family did 115 years ago.
Whatever the reason for the absent architecture, I’m grateful for the glimpse into their lives.
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Inspired by Dawn and her post called Spoiled. She writes about TV reality shows that follow young couples as they tour houses and critique the missing elements. “…there’s usually someone who complains that the kitchens don’t have the latest and greatest, that they would “have to replace these counters right away,” or, about the master bedroom closet, “this is enough space for my clothes, you’ll have to use the closet in the spare room.”
Thursday Doors is a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos from around the world.
I've got to share this!
- Time Team Cobalt – The Roman Road
- Spring, and a middle-aged woman’s fancy turns to thoughts of lilacs
Categories: Canadiana
Tags: Cobalt Historical Society, historic mining town, Nipissing Mine, Thursday Doors
Maggie Wilson Author 
Wow! Today’s families are wimps compared to these people. I just don’t know how we would survive an apocalypse. But I bet this group could.
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An excellent observation, and I agree. I think about that, from time to time – do I have the constitution and the skill set to survive an apocalypse? And then I shudder and push the thought from my mind.
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I’d like to think the house is a work in progress. It’s amazing to look back to see the way people lived and struggled survive. I’m sure many people came to Cobalt in search of work. I admire their spirit and their ability to make a family life under those conditions.
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That occurred to me after I published the post – that the front wall came off in order to expand or otherwise improve the building. You are correct – many people, by the tens of thousands came to Cobalt and Coleman to improve their lives.
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Maggie–I speak fluent sarcasm, so I love this! Seriously though, these people are so much stronger than I.
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It makes you wonder what sort of deprivation or hardship that some of the pioneers were facing before they decided to settle here – for some, it was literally starvation, for others, religious persecution.
I suppose you do what you need to do to make it to the next day. But I cannot fathom that sort of life, from my perch these 100 years later. I don’t think I’d make it a week.
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Good grief – I would have a lot of difficulty watching a TV show about an endless stream of whiny spoiled things complaining about what they don’t have!! Whenever I get too full of myself I remember my mother in Nazi-occupied Holland in the last 6-7 months of WWII when they were literally starving because there was no food.
I’m willing to bet those squatters were grateful for everything they had!
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I used to watch the real estate channel on Rogers Cable, just to see interiors of other homes. This was a couple decades ago, before staging an interior was standard fare. If I watched today’s real estate shows, and that’s a BIG “if”, I’d probably have to mute the speakers.
Yes, I think for many, the early pioneers were grateful. In many cases, the people who landed here were leaving worse situations behind, which is rather difficult to comprehend, isn’t it?
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Good point. People don’t flee to uncertain conditions when things are good.
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When I complain about all my first world problems and then see a picture like this and combine it with the knowledge of just how humid and hot summers can be, and how BUGGY the bugs are…god. We have nothing to complain about, do we. This is a great, inspiring pictures.
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Hi Claudette! Yes, we all need a little perspective from time to time.
But you’ll never hear me telling you not to complain about crummy weather. I’ve stopped complaining about the snow, mostly because I got tired of hearing myself whine. But in a couple of weeks, you’ll be hearing about the black flies!
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Or the oppressive humidity. Lol 🙂
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By the looks of the surroundings perhaps they just ran out of lumber!!! Those hillsides look bare and it seems that those who came before them took what lumber there was to finish their cabins?? Lack of walls didn’t seem to stop them though…
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Could be! Perhaps there was a shortage of dressed timber… I know some people lived in shacks clad only in tar paper. Can you imagine?
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I can live without granite countertops or the latest appliances, although I do require they work as they should – but without walls? I am spoiled, I am not a pioneer. Perhaps because I have not had to be, but I do not long for the opportunity to share their experiences. They were of much sturdier stock than I.
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Same here, Carol – I’d rather have an old model appliance that is reliable than some digital version that fries its circuit board one day after the warranty expires.
Some time ago, TVO – Ontario’s version of PBS – held auditions for a reality show – looking for people to live like the pioneers in rural Manitoba. I actually toyed with the idea of applying. My god, how ridiculous I was!
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I can see why you liked this photo. It’s intriguing and asks more questions than it answers. Your Not Door Thursday Door contribution is a delight.
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Glad you think so, thank you!
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A harsh reminder of just how difficult it was back then, and just how good so many of us have it today.
Thanks for sharing his 🙂
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It is humbling to consider what little the settlers had, yet they survived. Thanks, Norm.
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It’s as if the whole front of the house has been blown away, doesn’t it? Life certainly wasn’t easy for those miners. I can see why you’re haunted by that picture.
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I’m inclined to think that the front was removed deliberately for improvements and the photographer happened by at the right moment. But still, you’ve heard me whimper about the winters here – I sure hope the front was restored before the snow fell!
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Can’t watch that sort of show, but your description is enough to be annoying. Most of us have so much, yet so many of us always want more. The art, and the accompanying joy, of contentment is an all-too-often missing part of people’s lives today.
janet
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I agree with everything you say, Janet. Seek joy and contentment, and aim to be happy with what you have. And maybe turn of the TV, while you are at it.
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Lucky you to live where history can speak to you, Maggie. And your ears are atuned …
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Thank you MR – it has been a complete revelation for me.
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So much of our history is lost on our younger generations. The real people history, not just the red letter dates.
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You know the saying, “Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it”.
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Yep. 😞
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I agree with you about the photo, Maggie. It’s one of those one could easily pass by as you look through a book or website. Yet there is so much to look at here to ponder as you have. For one thing that little girl in the jacket. My heart goes out to her. – Marty
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My heart goes out to her, too. When you examine the picture and consider the context: next to nothing in terms of creature comforts, harsh weather, noise and dust and smoke from the mines, constant threat of fire and infectious disease, no medical facilities, crowded living quarters, with the guarantee that those quarters will become more crowded because a.) no birth control, and b.) large families were de rigueur, in those days…
And yet, in many memoirs and written reports about family life, there persists the notion that the settlers were overjoyed to be part of the growing, bustling town.
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Great idea! No doors!
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Thanks, Robert – I do have a habit of bucking the trend. 🙂
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Great post! It does get the imagination going. I’m imagining it was summertime and they added walls before it got real cold. It sure does bring up some gratitude for my one bathroom and my doors. Going to check out Dawn’s post.
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Hi JoAnna – I have the same hopes that they enclosed the house before winter – minus 20 Celsius would have been daytime highs back then. Thanks for reading and commenting!
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