Slocan Lake is a beautiful 40 km long lake cradled in the mountains. In the boom days of the 1890s when the Silvery Slocan was the most famous mining region in BC, its eastern shore and surrounding mountains had a variety of settlements. Of them, only three survive – New Denver, Silverton and Slocan City.
NEW DENVER
The first community founded on the lake, it dates to December 1890 when four prospectors – Long, Hunter, Evans and Henderson – arrived at the south end of Slocan Lake, rowed 20 miles (32kms) to the delta of Carpenter Creek and built a log cabin calling the place Eldorado. By April they were joined by about 500 others, most of whom headed into the mountains. The name was changed to New Denver, and businesses and six hotels were built.
Most of the prosperity was due to the Bosun Mine, 5kms down the lakeshore. A road, wharf and blacksmith shop were built here plus the waterworks and Bosun Opera House in New Denver. New Denver became a major supply centre and in 1893 even became a port when the 60-foot steamer, the William Hunter, was cut by hand on the beach and her boiler, 2 propellers and other ironware were brought by packhorse from Nakusp. She plied the lake regularly carrying freight and supplies to the various camps for the Slocan Trading and Navigation Company. She tended to be top-heavy and she rolled over if passengers crowded to one side.
In 1897, New Denver had 20 businesses – 5 hotels, 2 drugstores, 2 furniture stores, a tobacco store and an undertaker. One of its citizens was the wandering newspaperman Robert Thompson Lowery (read the Kaslo post). After going broke in Kaslo, he started the Nakusp Ledge in 1893 and the New Denver Ledge in 1894. Little escaped him. Silver-lead mines included the Mountain Chief, Alpha, California, Alamo and others.
In 1897, the CPR bought the Columbia and Kootenay Steam Navigation Company that had pioneered sternwheel service on both Arrow and Kootenay Lakes. The Slocan was constructed on the beach at Rosebery in 1897. It was a speedy vessel with excellent accommodation. That same year, the CPR completed the extension of the C&K Railway from Robson to Slocan City at the south end of the lake. The CPR also bought the William Hunter. The intention was to use Slocan Lake as an alternative to Arrow Lakes in low water and in winter when ice was a problem. Slocan Lake was now connected to the CPR mainline at Revelstoke via Nakusp and Arrowhead.
Falling ore prices caused a significant decline by 1904 when Lowry moved to Nelson. It was not until WWII that the town was revived when the Japanese arrived.
Logging remains the principal economy. With a population of 750, it is the major community on Slocan Lake. Its past lives in the Silver Slocan Museum in the Bank of Montreal building which dates from the original rush. The sign outside predicted that It would become greater than its namesake, Denver Colorado.
ROSEBERY
It was a small but active transportation centre on the Nakusp and Slocan Railway a few miles north of New Denver at the mouth of Wilson Creek. In 1917, the concentrator was acquired by the Rosebery Surprise Mining Company to treat ore from the Bosun and Surprise Mines. For some years about 100 people lived and worked here but the concentrator was unsatisfactory and the ores were shipped to Trail. The mill buildings, houses, hotel and station have all disappeared.
SILVERTON
6.5 kilometres down Slocan Lake, this camp served the rich mines on the southern face of Idaho Mountain. Named after the Colorado mining town, lots went on sale in 1890 and it soon had a population of 500, 4 hotels, 3 general stores, a druggist and newspaper, the Silvertonian (founded in 1898 by druggist RO Matheson and his brother Henry until 1904). The Alpha Mine discovered by Mike Grady began in 1894, the Emily Edith in 1899 and in 1905, its vein was traced to the nearby Standard Mine. In WWI, the mine employed 200 men, including an entire concert-touring Welsh choir who were in Silverton when their funds ran out. In the early 1900s, mining started to wane. The town was almost abandoned until just before WWII when the Mammoth Mine revived. The rest of the mines and their tramlines continued to decay.
Today it is a pleasant lakeshore community of 250. The 1904 general store remains and the Civic Park has a display of the William Hunter propellers, mining machinery and tools used for hand drilling in mine shafts.
After the turn of the century, rock drilling became a premier sport in the Slocan. particularly in Sandon on Labour Day and Silverton on July 1st. In 1912 Algot Erickson and Joe Johnson of Silverton teamed up and went on to win many events, including the world championship in double drilling/8-pound hammer.
Hand drilling rock in a mine was brutal work, done either by one man or a two-man team. A miner who worked alone used a 4-pound hammer to hit the steel rod – called single jacking. Two men working together, one holding and turning the steel rod, one using the 8-pound hammer every second, or 3,600 swings an hour, experienced men could drill through 40 inches or more of solid rock in 15 minutes.
The cemeteries throughout the Slocan and other mining regions hold the graves of scores of miners who died prematurely.
VEVEY LANDING
About 8kms above Slocan City at Twelve-Mile Creek, a hotel, store and ranch were laid out on the lakeshore. CPR lake boats called regularly. When the mining boom faded, so did Vevey Landing. The name lives on high in a fold on Mt Aylwin.
ENTERPRISE CITY & AYLWIN CITY
At the headwaters of Ten-Mile Creek, the Slocan Queen and Enterprise claims were staked in 1894. It was 13 km up a rough trail from Enterprise City on the lakeshore (store, hotel, blacksmith shop) to Aylwin City high in Enterprise Basin. Hotelman Charlie Aylwin built a boardinghouse for the 30 or so miners, a general store, a sawmill and stables. The Enterprise Mine changed hands several times, once for $750,000 in 1899.
ORO
High on the ridge at the junction of Second Fork (Crusader Creek) and Lemon Creek, a sawmill, 10-stamp mill, and 2 hotels were established. A pack trail led to Slocan City. An 8 km wagon road in summer and a 17 km sleigh road in winter provided access to Nelson. In 1900, about 50 men were mining in the vicinity but they were soon exhausted. Its cabins for many years provided shelter to hunters and fishermen hiking to mountain lakes but they were eventually flattened by winter snow.
SLOCAN CITY
Two communities, Brandon and Slocan City, were born here about one mile apart in the early 1890s. Men stood in line to buy lots and it was a typical mining community with crowded hotels and bars. Mineral claims were staked by the hundreds on Springer and Lemon Creeks. In 1897, the first train rolled into the community over an extension of the Columbia & Kootenay Railway from Nelson. It was part of the plan to make Slocan Lake an alternative route to the mainline at Revelstoke and as the southern terminus, Slocan City seemed to have a bright future.
References:
Ghost Towns and Drowned Towns of West Kootenay by Elsie Turnbull.