Greater Gammage had started life as Gammage’s Trading Post on a steep bluff  overlooking the Black River. Once track had been laid for the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway from North Bay to Cochrane, a ragged community of sorts began to accumulate around the post and, later, across the river.  Those who lived on the bluff called their community Greater Gammage (it being the original settlement and higher in altitude), while those residing on the opposite shore had to settle for Lesser Gammage, scorn and condescension  and a certain amount of seasonal flooding. 

Over the decades that had intervened since Verna had last been north, Greater Gammage had begun to describe itself in a hopeful, yearning way as a destination for outdoor enthusiasts, fishermen and hunters. Throughout most of its  history, however, its chief claim to fame had been its propensity to catch on fire – and this to such an extent that, in the course of not quite a century, Greater Gammage had burned down and been rebuilt a total of five times. Moreover, when Greater Gammage wasn’t burning down on its own, it burnt down in conjunction with other hamlets, as happened in 1916, when two hundred and forty four people died in a fire that swept through not only Greater Gammage, but also the villages of Beverley, Kelso, Val Gagne, Porquis Junction and Iroquois Falls. Low lying Lesser Gammage, on the other hand, not being situated on a bluff, had more immediate access to the river, not ideal during the Spring thaw, but handy when one had a raging fire to douse.

It all came to a head in 1932, when a lightning strike ignited a ground fire on the outskirts of Greater Gammage. This was in the process of boiling through town when the severely undercut bluff on which Greater Gammage was poised suddenly gave way and tumbled fifteen meters into the river, taking a good deal of the upper town with it.   Those denizens of Greater Gammage who survived the double disaster were forced to acknowledge that, despite its lowliness and soggy cellars, Lesser Gammage appeared to have something of an advantage over Greater Gammage as far as staying power went.  They relocated to Lesser Gammage, which promptly became Greater Gammage.

2009/melissahardy.com