Gowganda is a dispersed rural community located on the boundary of Nichol and Milner Townships, in the western half of Timiskaming District. Situated on Highway 560 at Bankers' Bay on the northeast arm of Lake Gowganda, the townsite is 87 kilometres east of the Town of New Liskard and 130 kilometres north of the City of Sudbury. Originally, Gowganda (Ojibwa for "place of the porcupine") was an area of timber leases between two branches of the Montreal River near the Temagami Forest Reserve. Following the 1903 discovery of silver at Cobalt, Ontario, by 1906, mining exploration began expanding north and east to areas of a similar geology. Early in August of 1908, native silver was found by prospectors on the west side of Gowganda Lake but this did not become known until the claims were recorded in Elk Lake during the first week of September. Within days, an unprecedented influx of prospectors had begun inland despite the oncoming winter. Over three thousand claims were staked by the following year and many properties changed hands at exorbitant figures without the purchasers ever visiting the area. At the beginning of 1909, the future site of the Village of Gowganda was a desolate scene of snow and primeval forest. By March, the Government of Ontario had sold 130 town site lots and there were four banks, a lumber mill, several hotels, fifty stores, and a transportation company freighting goods and mining equipment into the area. Initially, Gowganda was accessible only by canoe or winter trail after an almost two week journey from the nearest railhead. In 1909, the Legislature approved $50,000 to construct an all-year access road utilizing an existing winter route from Charlton on the Timiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway to the east side of Gowganda Lake. Within three years, seven mines were in operation and the town had reached a maximum population of 5,000 people. In 1911, a forest fire destroyed most of the community and was only partly rebuilt, many residents having already moved onto the gold boom occurring around Kirkland Lake. With the last producing mine closing in 1972, Gowganda is now a hamlet of 100 people known for its fishing resorts and wilderness canoeing and camping.