rl & Wad) ind a a bs “lv thy CUM | : ‘ee ee tm... at ray ENE R eenen ne 1 Se SSS ft Ff) int mall, WS a Graphic Dorothy Foster THE B.C. Museum of Mining, located in Britannia Beach, is a national historic site and a B.C. his- toric landmark development project. Artifacts peek into the past PICTURED ABOVE is a sketch I drew this summer on a trip to visit the Britannia Beach mining site. NOATH SHORE HERITAGE By Dorothy Foster Many times over the years I’ve passed this building, embedded on the side of the cliff along the Squamish Highway, but I had never stopped to go on a tour of the mine until this year. It was a wonderful experience. Tourists from all over anticipated the ride into the mine on the mine cars, as well as the tour of the museum itself; full of photographs and arti- facts of Britannia’s past. The administration building in the foreground was formerly the engi- neering building known as the Metropolitan (The Met). It was a community service building, com- plete with a jail cel}. and the upper level was used for accommodation. It was constructed of handmade timber cut on the property between 1904 and 1912, as was the mechani- cal shops complex which you can see in the back. The complex consists of a black- smiths shop, a warehouse, welding shop, pipe-fitting shop, mine office, carpentry shop. mechanical shop and an electrical shop. The whole mine site has been designated a national historic site, and the concentrator, built in 1923, was designated a building of histori- cal and architectural importance. This gravity-fed mill was highly innovative, particularly in its use of bulk flotation, and is one of the last remaining gravity-fed concentrators in North America. The tour begins with a video depicting the history of the Bzvioraia Copper Mine, and of the tow:r.ites that grew and flourisicd 35 a result of this industry. The boom-times for the mine were in the Jate '20s and early °30s; it was the largest producer of copper in the British Empire. When it ceased operation in 1974, more than 50 mil- lion tons of copper ore had been pro- duced. After taking in the museum, we all donned hard hats before boarding the train for the tour of the mine tun- nel, where the conditions and equip- ment recall the carly days of hard- rock mining. This was the exciting part. We got off the train in the tunnel! and covered our ears as the old and the new drills were demonstrated. it was a different way of life that everyone should take in when they pull off the highway for a visit to the Museum of Mining. Next Friday look forward to Part 2 on Britannia — the people (the miners and their families) and the townsites of Britannia Beach. 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