Smile!: Century-old dentures latest mysterious find at Silver Islet Store

Finding old stuff in strange places is nothing new for the folks at Silver Islet General Store.

The historic general store was built in 1871 and is located on Lake Superior, in the community of Silver Islet, 80kilometres east of Thunder Bay in northwestern Ontario.

Store owners Jeff and Sandy Korkolarecently founda set of dentures in an old tin can in the basement of the store, complete with denture cleaning powder.

"They looked fairly clean," said Jeff Korkola. "I mean the denture base looks dark and kind of nasty, but the teeth are surprisingly white and well-formed. They look like real teeth."

Korkola said the false teeth also came with the bottom end of a well usedpipe. After doing a little research, he said the dentures are likely porcelain teeth with pins set into hardened rubber.

Korkola said judging from the vintage of the Dr. Wernet's cleaning powder box, the dentures and supplies date the find between 1910 and1920. He said there was no evidence of who the teeth might have belonged to, but he suspects it wasn't one of the labourers or miners who would have been working at the silver mine a century ago.

"I would imagine that it would have been, you know, a fairly expensive process to get that done." he said.

Acolourful history

Like the store that bears its name, Silver Islet has a colourful history.

A rich vein of pure silver was discovered on a small island near the coastal community in 1868, by the Montreal Mining Company. For a time during the late 19th century, Silver Islet was known as the world's richest silver mine.

Silver Islet's mine shaft was located beneath the cold waters of Lake Superior; a piece of information that wasnot alwaysshared with miners until they arrived.

In 1884, a shipment of coal did not arrive and the coalburning pumps holding back the waters of the lake stopped working. The islet's mine shafts, which had reached a depth of 384 metres, were flooded and that was the end of the mining.

But the community lived on.

The Saxberg family bought the Silver Islet store in 1985, but it was closed due to family health issues in 2015.

In 2020, theKorkolas took on the task of upgrading the building.

During the pastsummersthe store has been serving cottagers in the Silver Islet area.

The Silver Islet General Store is also a tourist attraction anddraws people from Thunder Bayand off the Trans-Canada Highway.

Jeff Korkola said the family has a large collection of old and odd finds from the store on display, with the old dentures just the latest. He said one of his favourite stories is a find made by the late Lorne Saxberg and his brother Bob many years ago in the store.

"Lorne and Bob were working on the second floor of the general store," said Korkola."And they found a box of condoms in the floorboards and the brand was 'Three Merry Widows', complete with an illustration of three, you know, Merry Widows."

"You never know what you will find at Silver Islet Store, that's for sure," he laughed.