Britannia Mines

For all of you who've ever driven the road to Whistler, you've probably wondered what the massive old mine in Britannia and the Museum of Mining is all about. I know I have. My curiosity was finally satisfied on the way back from Whistler this weekend.

From 1904 to 1974 this was a huge copper mining operation. In fact, according to our somewhat goofy guide, by 1924, it was the largest copper mine in the British Commonwealth, and one of the largest in the world. There were no roads or railways into the area until the 1950's, so the people who worked there lived in isolation in the company town. Interestingly enough, in the days before mechanical loaders, a team of two muckers (the poor bastards who shoveled the ore into miniature railway cars), were expected to load 16 tons of ore per day. It brings new meaning to Tennessee Ernie Ford's big hit. The tour consisted of a short train ride into one of the shafts where the evolution of mining equipment was on display. This mine operated operated from the days when manual labor was king to modern mechanized mining. You could easily imagine John Henry (to continue my musical theme) racing a steam drill to prove he could drill a hole faster than a machine and then dropping dead after he won. Actually, the first mechanized drills were pneumatic, and were actually worse for the workers than hammering the drill bits in by hand. They were so loud that workers were soon deafened by the noise, and within a few years they could hardly breath due to silicosis from all the dust. The life expectancy of a miner wasn't very long back then.


Things did get better for the miners over the years, but it's still hard to imagine working down there for 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. And if you ever wondered about toilet facilities down in the mine, here's the original Port-a-Pot.










The inside of the the ore concentrator building (the huge building you see from the road) is something out of an apocalyptic science fiction movie. In fact, this place has quite a filmography. Everything from episodes of McGyver to Free Willy III has been filmed here. A lot of famous stars have been there, but most of the movies appear to be solidly on the "B" list.













The legacy of the mine lives (or dies) on in the toxicity of Howe Sound. Decades of toxic sludge seeping into the Sound essentially killed most of the marine life there, with contaminated water draining through the mine shafts into the Sound long after the mine ceased operation. Today, there is a water treatment plant operating there that appears to be making great strides in cleaning up the effluent.







Maybe spending my first Fourth as a US citizen back in my mother country is a bit unpatriotic, but a good time was had by all.