Mineral Exploration

Winter 2014

Mineral Exploration is the official publication of the Association of Mineral Exploration British Columbia.

Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/428696

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What a view: Atholl Sutherland Brown overlooking the Seven Sisters and Skeena River from near the Victoria mine, Hazelton. Photograph : Government of British Columbia W I N T E R 2 0 1 4 99 W hen the Collins Over- land Telegraph crews c a m e t h r o u g h t h e Bulkley Valley in 1866, attempting to build a telegraph line to Siberia, they had just come up through the Cariboo country. The great Cariboo Gold Rush was winding down but there was still lingering excitement in the air. At least some members of the construc- tion party of more than 100 men prob- ably carried gold pans, tested the creeks and watched for interesting rocks. But they would have been disappointed because very little gold is carried by streams flowing into the Bulkley River, and occurrences of potentially economic minerals are rare close to the old tele- graph right-of-way. But the telegraph line connected with the Cariboo Road at Quesnel and provided improved access for future prospectors. In the late 1800s, a few prospectors began exploring seriously for miner- als in the Bulkley Valley and adjacent mountains, and by then they were more focused on rocks than on gold in sand and gravel. Some were heading for the Yukon goldfields but decided they had come far enough, while others came to the area after working on the new Dominion government telegraph line to the Yukon. By around 1905 to 1907, the area was overrun with prospectors, as it became clear that the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway Company would con- struct a line through the district. These were exciting times for pros- pectors and would-be miners, as they explored this geologically unknown country with its apparently endless min- eral possibilities. There was a general assumption, reinforced by continuing No poor man's country >> CAMPS OF FAME A LOOK BACK AT PROSPECTING AND MINING IN THE SMITHERS AREA By Tony L'orsa

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