Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/170490
echoes • below: Residents enjoy the Copper Queen • right: Travellers wait on a pier at Britannia prospecting companion discovered copper deposits in the area that later became part of Britannia Mine. celebrations around a maypole circa 1928. Beach with the mine looming in the background. Until the highway was completed in 1958, Britannia was extremely isolated. as well. Ore was drilled, blasted, and hauled through a series of tunnels deep into the mountains and extracted rocks were sent down to the mill. The mining operations were originally centred around Jane Camp, but during one horrific night in 1915 a snow and rock landslide engulfed the town, killing 56 men, women, and children. It was the first major tragedy for Britannia, but there was more to come. The town was rebuilt at the lower, safer Mount Sheer "Townsite," about 610 metres below the original site. At the mill, valuable ore was separated from waste rock by a series of crushers and chemicals. Both the Townsite and the shoreline area called the "Beach" would become hubs for vibrant community life. L ife at Britannia was regimented around organizational rules, operational schedules, and social affairs. The company owned virtually everything, and determined which men lived in each bunkhouse and which family resided in each white-and-green home. Asian workers were segregated to a neighbourhood known as Jap Town. To attract workers and their families to the isolated mine, the company provided ample recreational facilities and events as well as essential services at both townsites, including a schoolhouse, hospital, and library. The 58 Britannia mines bmm11274 Britannia Mines- BMM#10917- Alexander • left:here) and a Forbes (seen three-storey general store sold necessities like groceries and shoes, along with luxuries such as soda pop. The nature of company towns is often influenced by the general manager, and Britannia was no exception. One of the first, J.W.D. Moodie, was said to be an unsmiling man who fired anyone who bought goods from anywhere other than the general store. Further, if a customer disputed their bill, Moodie would declare, "If you don't like it, pack up and get back to town." Moodie also thwarted any attempts for workers to unionize, reminding them that if they didn't like their circumstances, they could return to Vancouver. Tragedy returned in 1918 when the influenza pandemic spread rapid-fire through both communities. Despite Yip Bing's soup deliveries, the deadly virus claimed anywhere from 40 to more than 100 lives, and mining operations ceased for weeks. "Men died like flies in the bunkhouses," wrote Bruce Ramsey in Britannia: the Story of a Mine. "The best the doctor could do was to give the men plenty of whisky and hope for the best." In 1921, two disasters combined to create a devastating year for Britannia. First, a fire destroyed Mill 2 and later, a massive flood killed 37 people and razed homes on the banks B r itish C olumbia Magazine • fa ll 2013 of Britannia Creek at the Beach. By this time Moodie was replaced by Carlton P. Browning, a more personable general manager who softened the hard-headed company approach. Browning began construction of the new town and Mill 3, which still stands today. If there was a silver lining to these early tragedies and tough times, it was the citizens uniting to overcome the obstacles thrown at them. "They did have their share of disasters, but I think that helped bind them together," says Jane Iverson, research historian at the Britannia Mine Museum. "Strength through adversity." Perhaps it was that strength that also helped the community through the dark days of the Great Depression and low copper prices, extreme weather, explosions, failing equipment, and the inevitable underground deaths. Eventually, Britannia did see better days and many folks enjoyed the strong community. F lorida Ann Town [née Gray] was one of those folks. She came to Britannia from bustling Vancouver in 1939 at age seven when her father, John "Jack" Gray, landed a wartime job as the butcher in the company store. Life was safe and good for the girl. Weekdays were taken up with school, but on weekends there was time to sit around the radio