ODDS’N’SODS — Back to Bralorne

Seldom does one have the opportunity to return to places that had a special significance in one’s past, yet this is what happened to me when I recently visited the Bralorne-Pioneer mine properties in British Columbia.

The operation is situated high in the magnificent Coast Range Mountains in the scenic Bridge River Valley, and, in the old days, access was poor indeed.

The first leg of the journey, which was either by boat or car, took you to the isolated rail station of Shalalth, beside picturesque Seaton Lake. Here you boarded a bus for a wild ride up Mission Mountain, before descending into the Bridge River Valley on the notorious switch-back road.

A rugged washboard track followed beside the Bridge River to the old placer hamlet of Goldbridge. The town soon gave way to a breathtaking ascent to the isolated communities of Pioneer and Bralorne, perched high on the face of Ferguson Mountain.

I made this trip — the beginning of a marvelous journey for me — in 1949 to find employment underground at the Pioneer mine. The return of men from the war in Europe created an upbeat atmosphere in the mining towns of Pioneer and Bralorne. The discovery of new, high-grade gold structures added considerable excitement to the atmosphere. Indeed, there was plenty of work — and challenging work at that — in the drifts, raises, stopes, shafts, mills and shops.

The work was hard, but each payday there was a welcome cheque deposited in the local bank. The cookery at the Pioneer mine served excellent fare, and the lunch buckets were always filled with thick beef sandwiches and slabs of hot apple pie. To my young mind and adventurous spirit, it was a form of paradise.

The offwork hours were never idle. In summer, the baseball parks and the numerous lakes and trails kept us busy. In winter, the snow-covered slopes, the small ice arena and the aging community hall occupied every free moment.

The mines even offered small houses for newlyweds. We started our family when young Dr. Phil Ashmore delivered our first daughter, who was born in the small Bralorne Emergency Hospital.

Today, the Pioneer-Bralorne mine is undergoing a new exploration phase, and, recently, I and others were invited to return to the site. My travelling companion, Dr. Lewis Green, was assembling a detailed history of the Bridge River area, and I had just completed a short story on the good old days at the Pioneer mine. We decided to visit the mine sites on the Pemberton Meadows route.

We drove up a scenic coastal road from Vancouver to Squamish, and continued through the towering Coast Range Mountains to Whistler and on to Pemberton.

>From there, we continued to Pemberton Meadows before taking a winding, switch-back road that crossed the summit at an elevation of 4,500 ft.

We continued along the rutted old truck route beside Cadwallader Creek into the Bralorne site, where sits the village of the same name, perched proudly on the face of Ferguson Mountain. The town was a thrilling scene from the past.

To cap our modern-day adventure, Bob Roscoe, the mine manager, invited us to tour the old 800-level Bralorne tunnel to visit new discoveries. It was just like old times, with water dripping from the “backs,” old rails and worn ties, the smell of fresh powder smoke and the meandering maze of cross-tunnels.

Following an overnight rest at the Bralorne mine site, we paid a brief visit to the Pioneer Mine only to find that the buildings had crumbled under the relentless hammer of wind and snow. Only the shell of the Pioneer mill was discernible.

We returned, by way of Goldbridge, over the winding paved road to Lillooet and then to Pemberton. We travelled through some of the most pristine country in the province. The golden glow of late evening, as we drove from Squamish to Vancouver, seemed a fitting end to our journey.

— The author, a retired mining engineer and regular contributor to this column, resides in Vancouver, B.C.