The Emerald mine remembered

With its open location atop Iron Mountain, the Emerald mine, near Salmo, B.C., was subject to the area’s severe weather and frequent storms.

A tramline connected the mine on the mountain with the mill in the valley of the Salmon River. This installation had been constructed by Cominco during the Second World War under the stewardship of Pat Stewart and Ernie Rhyder.

One of the main features of the mine was the cable system that carried ore in buckets down the mountain to the mill at the rate of 400 tonnes per day. The entire system was subject to the vagaries of the weather. In winter, snow, hail and fierce winds assailed the installation, resulting in frequent shutdowns. In summer, violent lightning storms erupted across the mountain, sometimes striking tramline towers and rendering the system inoperable. Soon, it became company policy to shut down the trams during such storms, which hampered production. (Years later, the tram was shut down permanently in favour of a conveyor through the mountain that delivered a continuous supply of ore to the mill.)

The key component of this tramline was three miles of three-quarter-inch steel cable. The cable, to which were attached the ore buckets, was subject to great wear and tear, but it was never allowed to disintegrate. When sections of the cable appeared to be wearing, Sonny Burgess was summoned from his home in Ymir, south of Nelson.

Based on his recommendation, a replacement cable would be ordered. Sonny would then display his talents. The old cable was removed, and the new cable strung between the towers and across the mountainside. The critical part of the operation — and Sonny’s specialty — involved splicing the two loose ends to form a continuous cable. First came the adjustment of the length and tension as the two ends were drawn together. Sonny then set to work fabricating the 58-ft. running splice, which involved separating and splicing together individual strands and the core of the cable. It required 10 to 12 hours of detailed labour by five or six men (and there was no second-best). Sonny performed masterfully, and always stayed to oversee the first run of the new cable.

Access to the mine was provided by a narrow dirt road that led from Sheep Creek Bridge. The grades were not standard for highway traffic, and severe switchbacks were set into the mountain to surmount steep slopes and gradients. The mine maintained the road. Heavy snowfall in the winter made this difficult but necessary as most of the crew lived in Salmo, not in the camp.

But deep, traffic-delaying snowfall never stopped Jimmy Grant, the mine’s courier. Jimmy and his Jeep were both veterans of the Second World War. He never failed to get through, and this was a tremendous morale-booster for the community.

The Emerald camp soon grew in size to include an abandoned camp perched farther up Iron Mountain. The old camp once served a small, high-grade lead-zinc mine working a narrow vein. As the population of the Emerald mine grew, it became necessary to provide additional homes and facilities. The old camp was reactivated for families new to the Emerald.

However, the old camp had rats, and rooting them out was left to Jim and Hilda Macgee’s dog, Paddy, who was what we called a “mouser.” The rat population was soon diminished, but not without injury to Paddy. As a result, he became a much more docile dog than he was before.

— The author, a retired mining engineer, resides in Vancouver, B.C.