Gold in Lake of the Woods, a phrase which captured the interest and capital of miners and investors alike, during the area’s great, if brief, moment of glory as one of the country’s richest gold fields. During the early 1880s gold was discovered and by the 1890s, Sultana Mine had become known as the chief mine of the Western gold fields. Lake of the Woods mines produced 55% of Ontario’s gold and by 1899 the highest production of gold was reached, chiefly from three local mines, the Regina, Mikado and Sultana.