A documentary history of the short-lived uranium mining town of Gunnar, located on the shores of Lake Athabasca in northern Saskatchewan. Drawing on archival research, photographs, and firsthand recollections, Patricia Sandberg traces the town’s rise during the early Cold War, when Canada became a key supplier of uranium for the nuclear age. The narrative situates Gunnar within the broader history of uranium exploration in Canada, from early discoveries through the expansion of mining operations driven by government policy and international demand.
Sandberg combines a chronological account of the development and operation of Gunnar Gold Mines Limited with a social history of the community that formed around it, including the experiences of immigrant workers and their families, as well as the town’s relationship to the surrounding northern landscape. The book also follows the mine’s closure and dismantling, concluding with an examination of site reclamation and the lasting environmental consequences of uranium mining in the region.
