Harry Oakes

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Sir Harry Oakes, Bt. (December 23, 1874 – July 7, 1943) was a British (though American-born) gold-mine owner, philanthropist and celebrated murder victim.

Oakes was born in Sangerville, Maine and trained as a doctor, but in 1898 he made his way to Alaska at the height of the Klondike Gold Rush in hopes of making his fortune as a prospector. For the next 10 years he sought gold in California and Australia, before finally striking it at Kirkland Lake in Northern Ontario, Canada in 1912. Twenty years later, his mine was the most productive in the Western hemisphere, and it ultimately proved the largest gold mine ever found in the Americas - aside from the Homestake Mine, the basis of the Hearst fortune. By 1920, Oakes was thought to be Canada's richest individual.

He took British citizenship and for tax purposes he lived in the Bahamas from 1935. He was created a baronet in 1939 as a reward for his philanthropic endeavours there and in Britain.

On July 8, 1943 Oakes was found murdered in his mansion in Nassau. His son-in-law Count Alfred de Marigny, who had eloped with Oakes's daughter Nancy on her eighteenth birthday and was on bad terms with Oakes, was accused of the crime. Two American detectives were brought in by the islands' governor, the Duke of Windsor, to investigate the killing, but de Marigny was acquitted at trial after they were suspected of fabricating evidence against him.

Oakes's murderer was never identified. The case received worldwide press coverage at the time, and has been the subject of several books. The most recent, A Serpent in Eden by James Owen, was published in 2005. Oakes's former house at Kirkland Lake is now a museum dedicated to his life and to the region's mining history and he is an inductee of the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame.

[edit] Oakes Park

During the Great Depression, Harry Oakes donated a 16-acre parcel of land, formerly a farmer's field, in what is now the central area of Niagara Falls, Ontario at the intersection of Stanley Avenue and Morrison Street. Oakes also funded a make-work project and supplied tools ^[1] to build a park at the location. Crews worked for $1 per day, switching every five days to permit as much employment as possible.^[2]

Oakes Park officially opened on August 31, 1931. Today, it is a multi-use, municipally owned and operated recreational complex. The main facilities are a baseball stadium used by the Greater Niagara Baseball Association and other elite youth and senior baseball clubs, two smaller baseball fields for younger divisions, a soccer pitch, and athletics facilities including a 400-metre track. The main baseball diamond has outfield dimensions of 318-402-322 and is equipped with a press box, electronic scoreboard, and clubhouses.