Discovery Day was held at the Northern Gateway Museum in Denare Beach Sunday afternoon. Historian Les Oystryk spoke about Saskatchewan’s first gold rush mining town Beaver City which was established when gold was discovered on Amisk or Beaver Lake in 1913 with more than one thousand men coming from across Canada.  Interest in gold switched to copper for munitions in 1914 during World War One so in 1915 most people left Beaver City to enlist or for Sturgeon Landing where copper ore from the newly discovered Schist Lake Mandy Mine was hauled for storage and shipping.  Oystyk mentioned two of the most notable Canadians who spent time at Beaver City explaining one was Kathleen or Kate Rice the famous female prospector. He added she was  inducted into the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame in 2014 and very little known or least known in history also included Anahareo Grey Owl’s wife who stayed at Beaver City in the winter of 1934-35 so those are two special parts of the presentation.

Oystryk concluded Angus McDonald was the last resident of Beaver City and was hired as caretaker by business owners and he stayed onsite until 1939 when he was hired as a guard at the Island Falls hydro dam.