Hedley Mascot Mine facts for kids
| Location | |
|---|---|
 Hedley Mascot Mine
Location in British Columbia
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| Location | Hedley |
| Province | British Columbia |
| Country | Canada |
| Coordinates | 49°22′15″N 120°02′51″W / 49.370937°N 120.047562°W |
| Production | |
| Products | |
| History | |
| Opened | 1936 |
| Closed | 1949 |
The Mascot Mine of Hedley was a famous gold mine located on Nickel Plate Mountain. It was found near the town of Hedley in the southern part of British Columbia, Canada.
Contents
How the Mascot Mine Was Discovered
In 1899, a man named Duncan Woods looked at a map of Nickel Plate Mountain. He knew that gold seekers, called prospectors, usually didn't look for land on very steep slopes. He noticed a piece of land about 40 acres (16 hectares) big on the edge of a huge cliff. This cliff dropped 2,900 feet (880 meters) down to Hedley Creek. Duncan Woods decided to claim this land for himself.
A Long Wait for the Mine
Duncan Woods named his claim the Mascot. However, he could not find anyone to give him money to start digging for gold. So, all he could do was pay a yearly fee to keep his claim.
In 1904, another company called the Daly Reduction Company (DRC) wanted to dig a tunnel through part of the Mascot property. Duncan Woods said no to their offer. The DRC then had the land re-measured, and the Mascot claim became smaller, only about 17 acres (6.9 hectares).
Later, in 1909, the Hedley Gold Mining Co. (HGM) bought the DRC's operations. In 1920, HGM got permission from the government to dig a 200-foot (61-meter) tunnel through the Mascot claim. They did not have to pay Duncan Woods any money for this.
Building the Mine
After HGM closed down in 1931, Duncan Woods finally sold his Mascot claim. He sold it to a new company called Hedley Mascot Gold Mines (HMG) for $150,000. This company was owned by business people from British Columbia. As part of the deal, Duncan Woods received company shares, a spot on the company's board, and a free suite at a hotel.
In 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt was running to become president of the United States. He promised to increase the price of gold. This made gold mining look very promising! Because of this, HMG decided to raise $3 million by selling shares to develop the Mascot Mine. HMG also bought 31 other nearby land claims.
There wasn't much flat land to build all the necessary buildings. So, HMG used the old tunnel that HGM had dug in 1920. They drilled test holes from there to find the best places for gold.
The company built a special building called a concentrator near the creek. This building used electricity from West Kootenay Power. They also built an aerial tramway, which is like a cable car system. It carried three-ton buckets of ore from the mine, which was 0.5 kilometers (0.3 miles) above, along a 1-mile (1.6-kilometer) long cable. A road was also built up to the mine from further up the creek valley.
How the Mine Operated
Gold production at the Mascot Mine began in 1936. Battery-powered trains pulled ore cars along a narrow 18-inch (46-centimeter) track from the mine. The ore was dumped into large storage containers called hoppers.
When the tramway buckets were loaded from the hoppers, their weight helped power the cable as they went down the mountain. The empty buckets going up carried supplies for the mine and also transported employees when shifts changed. The concentrated gold was then trucked to the Vancouver, Victoria and Eastern Railway (VV&E) yards in Hedley. From there, the Great Northern Railway (GN) took the gold to a smelter in Tacoma.
In 1933, a company called Kelowna Exploration (KelEx) bought the neighboring HGM mine. KelEx and HMG worked together. They connected their mine shafts, which helped with air circulation and water drainage. In 1937, KelEx finished building a new access road, which HMG also used.
By 1941, the Mascot Mine could process 200 tons of ore every day. The company also processed ore from other nearby mines. Hedley Mascot Gold Mines stopped operating in 1949. KelEx stopped in 1955. However, the mines were reopened and worked together again from 1988 to 1996.
What's Left Today
By the 1990s, the old Mascot Mine buildings had been left empty for a long time. Insurance companies were worried that if visitors got hurt on the site, they could sue. People who wanted to save the buildings stopped plans to burn them down. In 1995, the Upper Similkameen Indian Band put new roofs on some buildings to help protect them.
The province of British Columbia bought the site for $740,000. Over the next few years, they worked to make the buildings safe and restore them. In 2003, they provided $300,000 to get the site ready for tourists.
The buildings are very close together and include old dormitories (where workers slept), a cookhouse, and machine sheds. In 2004, the site opened for tours, but it closed in 2017. In 2021, the Upper Similkameen Indian Band received an $800,000 grant. This money will help them reopen the site in 2023. They plan to make repairs, stabilize structures, build a new parking lot, improve their website, and make the trails and stairs better for visitors.
