OK, so I haven’t blogged in a while. Steve Mann came up to me yesterday and told me that his wife asked what had happened to me, as I hadn’t posted any blogs recently. So here goes.
Fog and rain in Howe Sound
What to do on yet another rainy day? We were tired of walking in the rain, so we have rented a car and headed off down the highway towards Britannia Beach. When we noticed the signs for Shannon Falls, we pulled in to have a look. This is the waterfall right beside the chief Mountain. It was a beautiful falls, but you couldn’t get too close. While we were there the Czechoslovakian team came up for a look as well.
Rental car for our day off travels
Then it was back on the road for the 10 minute trip down to the small village of Britannia Beach where the British Columbia Mining Museum is. We figure that if we’re indoors we wouldn’t get too wet. I must say that it rains a bit too much for my taste here.
The Mona Lisa Ship that is anchored in the Squamish harbour to house workers
The Britannia mine is the location of the Mining Museum and was once the largest copper mine in the British Commonwealth. It operated from the early 1900s to 1974. The tour took us on a small train ride about a quarter mile inside the mountain. The tour guide was excellent and gave us a very interesting lesson in the development of mining techniques. I must say that it makes you very grateful that we don’t have to endure those type working conditions today.
Shannon Falls
This mill employee that gravity fed concentrator that extracted the copper from the pulverized ore. However the process involved intense monitoring up and down the various levels which required managers to keep an extremely close I am the workers. Eventually it was found that it was impossible to supervise properly in a technique fellow the favour. The tailings were then we processed to extract gold silver iron and other metals from it. The secondary products the mine profitable for much longer than is normally the case. We found the tour very interesting, even though it wasn’t our first choice for an activity that weekend.
The Brittania Beach Mine, now the BC Mining Museum
While we are in Britannia Beach, we could see a military plane flying up and down Howe sound, as well as a military helicopter circling around. I’m sure this was part of a stepped-up security in the opening of you picks.
The bulls eye on the mine face. The drills have evolved from from manual labour to air powered tools that save lives and backs.
Then it was back to Squamish to pick up a few groceries while we still had the car. We dropped off the car just before they closed at six and then sat down to watch the opening ceremonies for the Olympics. Not a bad weekend, but it would have been much better if the weather had cooperated. The forecast looks good for the following weekend, so I hope we have better luck then.
The inside of the Concentrator at the Brittania Mine. It was the sheer number of stairs that finally made this type of mine fall out of favour.
The Three Amigos. We needed hard hats to enter the mine.
The exit from the mine. The whistle here signaled all major events in this mining community.
Fernando paning for gold. We did get a few miniscule flackes.
235 Ton Super Mine Truck