William Henry Wright

William Henry "Bill" Wright (21 April 1876 – 20 September 1951) was a Canadian prospector.

In 1911, he discovered the Kirkland Lake Break, which hosted seven gold-producing mines. He used the proceeds from his gold finds to launch a national newspaper in Canada, The Globe and Mail.

Wright was born in Sleaford, Lincolnshire, England. As a teenager, he worked as a butcher's apprentice. In 1897, he joined the British army and served both at home and in the colonies. He served through the Second Boer War and survived the siege of Ladysmith.

After the war he came into the possession of a Veteran's Lot in the Porcupine area of Ontario. As Pain points out, "The proverbial luck of the British Army was with him." This lot was later sold by Wright to the Buffalo-Ankerite Mine for reaping him a hefty profit. This in addition to his later discovery of free gold along the Main Break quartz vein in 1911, though "he knew nothing of mining or geology."

In 1907, Wright moved to Canada joining his sister, Frances Wright, and her husband, Edward Hargreaves, a master butcher in northern Ontario. The three of them went to Cobalt, Ontario in search of work. Wright and Hargreaves worked at a variety of odd jobs before attempting prospecting. They started in Cobalt, then went on to Porcupine, and finally to Kirkland Lake.

One evening in July 1911, Hargreaves became lost while hunting for rabbits. He fired a shot to attract the Wrights' attention. Wright walked towards Hargreaves and stumbled across a quartz outcrop. It was almost dusk, but he could see free gold in reddish feldspar porphyry. The next day, they staked three claims, two of which turned out to be directly on the fault line of the area. The partners staked more claims over the following weeks. This initial discovery was the first rich find that established the Kirkland Lake camp.

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