|
|
 Bill Beyer and Cheryl Marusyk with the first Wall of Pride plaque, June 1999 |
 As of November 2000, we have twenty plaques with 24 names each. |
| The Miner's Wall of Pride came about as the result of a brainstorming sesion at a Board Meeting. The Mining Attraction entered into a partnership with a local small business, "Sportsgear" to produce the plaques. Each plaque contains twenty names, the years the miner worked, and a symbol for the mine s/he worked at. The mines were SR (Steep Rock), C (Caland), CAC Construction Aggregates Corp., Chlsn (Charleson), SGM (Sapawe Gold Mine, and Cldstrm (Coldstream). During the 100th Birthday of Atikokan, held in 1999, many people took out applications ($10.00) for the Wall of Pride to commemorate the working years of relatives and friends. The experience of looking at the Wall is quite emotional for many people. One older gentleman, looking at the Wall, fought back tears. A recently widowed woman came in during a visit to Atikokan from Oregon, to photograph the name of her husband who had passed away a year before. The Wall of Pride is a local fundraising idea. Currently, there are 20 plaques of 24 names each, for a total of 480 names of people who had worked at the mines. For a Wall of Pride application form, please click here. |