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The Museum is open for the Summer Season 2013!
June 01st  to Oct 13th
Daily 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

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Home Mining History

Mining History

Payne Mountain:  The Original  Strike
The Story of Eli Carpenter and Jack Seaton

Like so many aspects of Sandon's history, conflicting tales and mysteries have grown up around the first discovery of the vast wealth hidden high in the Slocan Mountains. Stories have been told of ...

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J.M. Cockle and The Big Boulder, 1892
The photograph that started a stampede

Within weeks of Carpenter and Seaton's initial discovery, several hundred prospectors from the region had rushed into the Sandon area to stake as many claims as possible. The onset of winter soon forced the men ...

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Men of iron, drills of steel
Driving a tunnel through a mountain of granite rock

One of the most crucial jobs in the Slocan mines was also one of the most difficult, unhealthy and dangerous: hand-drilling holes in solid rock with a length of steel and a hammer. These holes would then be filled with explosive ...

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Slocan Treasure Vaults:
The Mines of Sandon and Area

During Sandon's heyday over 300 mines were in operation within Sandon's vicinity. It took both rail lines to handle the shipments of ore going out and supplies for the mines coming in. Entire forests were consumed ...

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Getting the Ore Down:
Sandon's Aerial and Surface Tramways

A very important component of the larger mining operations was the tramway. Generally, the mines were located high on the mountainsides, sometimes thousands of feet higher than the valley bottom. The concentrator mills ...

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The Processing Process:
The Concentrator Mills of Sandon & Area

Before the arrival of the railways, transportation costs of getting the ores to the smelters was astronomical. The smelters were all located south of the border, so only the richest ores were worth shipping. The ore had to be ...

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"Solidarity Forever" - The Western Federation of Miners
and the One Big Union

The miner's life in the 1890's was a hard one. Most travelled from job to job, carrying their bedding and few personal belongings, working wherever they could for as much as they were able to get. Many were illiterate, or foreign-born, with little or no skills ...

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