Mineral Exploration is the official publication of the Association of Mineral Exploration British Columbia.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/428696
106 W I N T E R 2 0 1 4 RAGS TO RICHES AND BACK AGAIN Charles Gordon "Peavine" Harvey (Harvey Mountain) was born in Ohio and left for the mining camps of the American west in 1870, at the age of 16. For several happy years he followed various mining rushes before he and a partner spotted a good gold prospect in Mexico. In order to get a lease from the landowner, they had to trek to Mexico City – a 2,400-kilometre round-trip on saddle horses. After about a year of mining, they had made $15,000, a good stake in the late 1800s. Harvey spent the following winter and his money in San Francisco drinking a lot of good whiskey and smoking a lot of 25-cent cigars. "Them were good cigars, boy," he used to say. Harvey subsequently made his way up to the Boundary country and then to Hazelton where he operated a hotel and a real estate business for a few years, went into debt, and married a woman named Katherine. In 1903, they homesteaded what became the Cronin/ Chapman ranch at Glentanna. By 1905, he had claims on the moun- tain that now carries his name. He and Katherine finally developed a small farm along Driftwood Creek and he worked on his high-grade copper showings on Harvey Mountain. He shipped some good ore with the help of Tyee David and others, but the first proceeds went to repay debts incurred by his hotel business. He later optioned his claims several times, but nothing came of them. Mr. S.A.D. "Sad" Davis, rep- resenting Seattle interests, was among the optionees. Katherine was an accomplished Englishwoman who played the piano very well. She raised goats and was working on a book about farming with goats, but her typed manuscript was lost in a house fire. She also had a serious interest in politics and subscribed to Hansard, the official record of parliamentary debates. Their son, Gordon, eventually donated the best exposures of the Driftwood Creek fossil beds to the provincial government, which established the Driftwood Canyon Provincial Park on the land. PROSPECTOR'S IDYLL Donald Simpson (Simpson Creek) staked his Victory claims on the west side of Hudson Bay Mountain about 1906, and the Empire claims on the southwest side of the mountain he staked with his brother in 1908. Silver-rich ore was shipped from both proper- ties, but the Victory was the best of the two and the claims are still owned by the family. A letter written by Mrs. Simpson, now kept in the Bulkley Valley Museum, describes the Victory as "the loveliest place" with its profusion of wild flowers, berries, birds and small animals. They lived in the "wee cabin" that Simpson had built, and she brought her violin. THE OPTIMISTIC KIDS The Jennings Brothers, Duncan and Dave, known as "the optimistic kids," walked to Aldermere from Hazelton in 1910. Duncan kept a diary. They started a store/post office and road house at Lake Kathlyn, and much of their business was with the Hudson Bay Mountain Mining Company, which was working at Glacier Gulch. When war was declared in 1914, the mining company shut down, and the Jennings' business collapsed. They then turned to another type of mining – cutting ice in Lake Kathlyn for the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway Company.