Sir Harry Oakes

Sir Harry Oakes

Sir Harry Oakes, prospector, mine owner (b at Sangerville, Maine 23 Dec 1874; d near Nassau, Bahamas 8 July 1943). A graduate of Bowdoin College, Oakes abandoned medical school in 1898 to prospect in the Klondike. After working in mining camps around the world, he staked the Lakeshore and Tough-Oakes properties near Swastika, Ontario, in 1911. He became immensely wealthy from the Lake Shore mine, North America's second-largest gold producer, but ill health, disappointment at not being appointed to the Senate, and rising taxes were apparently the reasons for his move to the Bahamas in 1935. There he became a member of the legislature and council and a major real-estate developer. He received a baronetcy in 1939 for his philanthropy in England. Eccentric, unpopular in Canada and exuding the manner and dress of the mining frontier, Oakes died at his home - victim of an unsolved murder. His estate in NIAGARA FALLS, Ontario, forms the basis of that city's scenic parks.