Share:

Browse by category

Share:

A nickel and a prayer

Ted and Jim Szilva (Photo courtesy of Jim Szilva)

Photo: Ted and Jim Szilva (Photo courtesy of Jim Szilva)

By

Jim Szilva

MyOntario

Published Date: Feb 17, 2017

In 1963, a firefighter named Ted Szilva entered a contest organized by the Canadian Centennial Committee in Sudbury. The committee asked residents of the city to come up with a unique way to celebrate and recognize Canada’s 100th birthday in Sudbury. Sudbury was a mining town, especially known for nickel production, so Ted thought that the city should build an attraction that would celebrate Sudbury’s heritage and encourage people to visit. He envisioned a giant replica of the 1951 Canadian five-cent piece, at least 30 feet tall, sitting atop a hill, illuminated by floodlights, advertising “Sudbury – The Nickel Capital of the World.” The 1951 nickel made perfect sense as it commemorated the 200th anniversary of the isolation of the metal known as nickel.

The committee scoffed at the idea, but Szilva had a vision. As a man of immeasurable faith, he prayed for an answer. With help from some truly remarkable people, his vision became a reality on July 22, 1964. Not only did it help launch the tourism industry in Sudbury, but for over 50 years, it’s been one of Canada’s most recognizable landmarks. His inspirational journey was documented in the book The Big Nickel: The Untold Story.

RelatedStories

Interior of Assumption Church (Photo courtesy of Kevin Mannara)

What was and what will be

The term symbolkirchen can roughly be translated as a “symbol bearing church.” Such churches point to living realities beyond ourselves and hold the potential to...

On Cranberry Lake

On Cranberry Lake

Afloat at dawn and inhaling the misty rays of rising late-summer sun. Other days, it might be a sunset paddle with a Thermos of coffee...

Collegiate Institute, Owen Sound (Photo courtesy of Toronto Public Library)

Learning from the past

I’m proud to be a Canadian. I’m also proud to be an Ontarian. Going one step further, I’m proud to be a Falcon. In 2014...

Meeting the Queen in 1959 (Photo: David Onley)

Thoughts about Ontario at 150

The photo became an heirloom in our family: a picture of Her Majesty the Queen at Kew Gardens in The Beach, escorted by Toronto Maple...

A plate adorned with a scene from Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Photo courtesy of Timmins Martelle Heritage Consultants Inc. and Infrastructure Ontario)

Hopes for the future

My life as an archaeologist often consists of hour upon hour of painstaking analysis of small bits and pieces of everyday life. But last year...

Small hand-held artifact

The gift of time travel

In the summer of 1982, I was carrying out archaeological research near the shores of Hudson Bay on the Severn River. One of the sites...

McIntyre headframe – part of Doors Open Timmins

Ontario’s rich industrial history

Northern Ontario has unique structures, not familiar to many, spread out through small northern communities, reflecting its rich history and its vast wealth of precious...

Thonnakona – a Huron-Wendat sacred cultural landscape in the city of Vaughan, and resting place of the Ancestors. Photo courtesy of Melanie Vincent 2016

The heart of North America

There are many stories that we can share. Well, first of all, the word “Ontario” itself. Many people don’t know what it means. People try...

Gay Pride parade (© 2017 Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership Corporation)

Making history

At 6 p.m. on December 2, 1986, Ontario’s legislative assembly was scheduled to vote on adding “sexual orientation” to the province’s Human Rights Code. Ten...

Iconographic copper-alloy rings recovered from 17th and 18th century archaeological sites are commonly attributed to Jesuit missionary activity.

A divine intersection of history and archaeology

Suspicion, fear, and intimidation met Jesuit priests Jean de Brébeuf and Pierre-Joseph-Marie Chaumonot during their Mission of the Angels to “la Nation Neutre” between November...

Premier Kathleen Wynne, Minister Eleanor McMahon, Mayor Jim Watson and Ottawa MPPs joining Ginger Ale & The Monowhales at the Ontario150 launch party

A Place to Stand

As Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport, I’ve had the privilege to meet many proud, talented and hardworking Ontarians through my participation in a number...

Sunset over Manitoulin Island

Heaven on earth

A month before Ontario turns 150 years old, I’ll celebrate my 57th birthday. I’ve lived all but one of those years in the province of...

Underwater archaeology

Underwater archaeology

I’ve always had a passion about archaeology and also about water. I love being on the water and under it. So, what better way to...

Cycling in the Don Valley

Reconnecting with nature

My first visit to Ontario, from Québec, was at about age 8. I have a distinct memory of arriving by car down the Don Valley...

Deepa Mehta at the 7th Annual Canadian Filmmakers’ Party, 2012. Photo courtesy of Canadian Film Centre

Ontario’s rich diversity

When I think of Ontario, I think of inclusion, diversity and the resulting richness it brings to our province. In a world that is becoming...

Josephine Mandamin (Photo courtesy of Josephine Mandamin)

Walking with the water

When we walk with the water, we pray for the water. The water that we carry, we pray for it, and we pray to it...

Cléo Ducharme et son épouse Flore, Rosanna Généreux et Joseph Ducharme (Rosanna et Jos sont mes grands-parents). Photo courtesy of Joëlle Roy

Descendants de la Vallée du Saint-Laurent

Il est parti au chantierY avait à peine 15 ansY a moyen de s’en sortirPour ça, faut faire d’l’argentY en a en Ontario sous la...

Ellen Scheinberg giving a tour (Photo courtesy of Ellen Scheinberg)

Celebrating the history of Toronto’s Jewish cemeteries

Over the past decade, I have developed a passion for cemeteries. It started during my tenure as Director of the Ontario Jewish Archives, when I...

Group of archaeologists (Photo courtesy of Patrick Julig)

Reflections on ancient quarry sites of northern Ontario

In the 1980s-90s, I excavated at Cummins and Sheguiandah National Historic Site quarry/ workshops in northern Ontario – in addition to many neat places elsewhere...

Legislative Assembly (Photo courtesy of the Office of the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario)

The conscience of our province

Ontario’s Legislative Building, completed in 1893, is a magnificent structure filled with stories from the most significant moments in our province’s modern history. The place...

Christ Church, Her Majesty’s Chapel Royal of the Mohawk – Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory

Christ Church, Her Majesty’s Chapel Royal of the Mohawk – Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory

During the American Revolution, the Mohawks were forced to flee their homeland in upper New York State. In 1784, after spending several years in Lachine...

Ontario trains (Photo: Earl Minnis)

Ontario trains

My first views of Ontario were from a passenger train 45 years ago. In 1972, I crossed the border at Detroit and took a train...

Chinguacousy Badlands

Celebrating the Chinguacousy Badlands

The Chinguacousy (“land of the young pines”) Badlands have been visited by hundreds of thousands of Ontarians. This rapidly eroding clay-shale bedrock at the foot...

Fairbank Oil barn (Photo courtesy of Charles Oliver Fairbank III)

An enduring landscape

Each morning, I open the door of our farmhouse and step into an enduring landscape of beauty, shaped by horse and man. Sheep dot the...

David P. Silcox (Photo: Linda Intaschi)

My Ontario is …

MY ONTARIO IS: RosalieAbella, RobertAitken, AndréAlexis, LouApplebaum, MargaretAtwood, IainBaxter&, StanBevington, BillBissett, JeanBoggs, DaveBroadfoot, EdBurtynsky, JackBush, JackCostello, DavidCrombie, KikiDelaney, LouiseDennys, MichaeldePencier, RamsayDerry, RupertDuchesne, BuddFeheley, MaureenForester, DavidFrench...

North Buxton Maple Leaf Band at a tattoo hosted in North Buxton, 1960 (Photo courtesy of Adrienne Shadd)

Reflections on my hometown

In the year of the 150th birthday of Canada, I would like to pay tribute to my hometown. North Buxton started out in 1849 as...

R.C. Harris Water Filtration Plant overlooking Lake Ontario (Photo courtesy of Taylor Hazell Architects)

R.C. Harris Water Filtration Plant

Whenever I have visitors to Toronto, I take them to the Harris Filtration Plant. This beautiful complex is one of the few remaining examples of...

Métis sash {Photo courtesy of M. Margaret Froh}

The Métis sash

Métis youth leader Katelyn LaCroix was recently asked what being Métis meant to her. She replied that “like the sash, we are two cultures coming...

Indigenous artifacts (Photo courtesy of Mélanie-Rose Frappier)

On the path to reconciliation

Education is key. It will lead to healing as well as social awareness about the Indigenous culture. My ancestors spent hundreds of years fighting for...

Edwardian home (Photo courtesy of Carl Benn)

Edwardian home photos

I possess 16 photographs from c.1905 of my great-grandparents’ home in St. Catharines. At a personal level, I like these pictures because they record details...

View of the Rideau Waterway from Rock Dunder

Stepping back in time to Old Ontario

My Ontario is the Rideau Canal region between Smiths Falls and Kingston. Having spent many years as the planner for the Rideau Canal – and...

Lake Superior Provincial Park, Sault Ste. Marie (© 2017 Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership Corporation)

The stories that define us

Stories are powerful. They reveal our values, pleasures and memories, the rituals and rhythms of our lives, our spiritual natures, our creative selves, our triumphs...

D’Arcy Jenish

Making the voyage

Our voyage aboard the MV Algomarine began at the Port of Montreal late on a Saturday afternoon in July 2007 and ended early the following...

The Maymaygwayshi, or water sprite, painted on a cliff near the mouth of the Nipigon River

Someone has passed this way before

I’m standing on the deck of a small boat, riding the swells of the Nipigon River where it widens into Lake Superior. In front of...

The Pioneer Cabin, painted by Homer Watson (1900). Reproduction courtesy of Homer Watson House & Gallery.

Homer Watson: Ontario’s pioneer artist

Homer Watson’s paintings and drawings captured the spirit of pioneer Ontario much as, in a later generation, the work of the Group of Seven captured...

Gateway to Ontario

Gateway to Ontario

Toronto’s Chinatown East has a beautiful gateway – a Chinese architectural tradition first introduced in British Columbia in the 1880s. As a writer and Chinatown...

Algonquin Park region. © 2017 Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership Corporation

You can go home again

I first saw the Camp Ahmek waterfront on Canoe Lake in Algonquin Park in 1951. I saw it again last summer – 65 years later...

Highway 11, near Hearst, by Todd Stewart

Highway 11, near Hearst

I feel the deepest connection with a place when I’m alone in it, surrounded by silence, the rest of the world far away. The stillness...

Premier Kathleen Wynne with her family in Sherwood Park. From left to right: Jessica, Stan, Kathleen, Olivia, Hugh, Jane, Maggie, Claire and Chris. Photo courtesy of Premier Kathleen Wynne.

Honouring our past, embracing our future

Ontario is Canada’s largest and most diverse province – home to ingenuity, inclusiveness and optimism. Our province’s 150th birthday is a chance to reflect on...

Leap of Faith mural by the George Brown School of Design team at the Lucie and Thornton Blackburn Conference Centre.

Digging for the Promised Land

In 1985, the Toronto school board and Ontario’s culture ministry created the Archaeological Resource Centre. There, schoolchildren and volunteers could dig into their own city’s...

Northern lights (Photo: © 2017 Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership Corporation)

My Muskoka – Winter 1949

Every evening when I was a kid in the 1940s, I’d manoeuvre rough logs up onto a sawhorse and use a small bucksaw to cut...

Craig Campbell and Philip Pritchard, Keepers of the Cup

Ontario and the Stanley Cup

Hockey is Canada’s national sport, and there is nothing more synonymous with hockey than the Stanley Cup. The tradition, the aura and the respect it...

Afua Cooper at Emancipation Day celebrations at Uncle Tom’s Cabin Historic Site, Dresden

The Black history of Ontario inspires me and defines who I am

Peggy Pompadour haunts me. I walk through the streets of Ye Olde Towne Toronto and I feel her presence – this Black enslaved woman who...

The aunts of my family, c. 1915 (Photo courtesy of Paul Yee)

Telling the stories of Chinese Canadians

I am inspired by something intangible: the past, especially the history of Chinese Canadians. I grew up in Vancouver, knowing little about it. But once...

Wolves (Photo: Michael Runtz)

Drawn back to Algonquin

Being a lifelong naturalist whose goal has been to explore Ontario’s natural history, I’ve come to appreciate just how rich this province’s biodiversity is. The...

Janet Douglas Hall (Photo courtesy of Sam J. Steiner)

The cloud of witnesses

As a historian of Mennonites in Ontario, I have always enjoyed wandering through Mennonite and Amish cemeteries. Whether plain Old Order Amish or Old Order...

Share:
Share: