First published in the Sept. 18, 1999 edition of The Citizen
Prospectors dream of picking up gold nuggets, but those finds were always rare. Most of the gold found in this area was surrendered from the earth as coarse gold, mixed with black sand from the riverbanks. River water yielded flour gold which floated to the surface. Finding mere ounces of placer gold involved moving tons of rock and sluicing river water by the thousands of gallons. With primitive equipment, it was backbreaking work.
By 1940, placer mining prospects once again held promise. More efficient and bigger equipment meant that throughput could be substantially increased and the entire process became less labour intensive. Two mining properties in this region came to prominence that year. One was just twelve miles south of Prince George; the other twelve miles from Fort St. James on Stuart Lake.
Norman Thomas managed the Tabor Creek Mining syndicate. Operating on the Fraser River bank, his operation was four miles west of the existing highway to Quesnel. He had built and maintained two miles of the road into the property, but the rest was considered part of the public highway. It was in near impassable condition and in need up upgrading and maintenance.
Thinking that more mining operations could be attracted if it were possible to get equipment to the river, Thomas approached the Prince George Board of Trade. The Board organized a trip to the mine site, taking along Mayor Patterson, bankers and merchants. Once there, the group watched a demonstration of the gold operation.
The mine owners had to construct waterworks to bring water to their sluice boxes from over a mile and a half distance from Tabor Creek. The flow was 4,500 gallons per minute. A gas-powered shovel loaded gravel onto large trucks equipped with hydraulic lifts. The plant's capacity was 350 cubic yards over eight hours, but that day the throughput was just half that owing to wet conditions in the pit from rainfall. The gold recovered that day amounted to two and a half ounces.
After demonstrating the extraction process, Thomas pointed out the potential for opening up more gold operations if the road could be improved. On the return trip, as if on cue, the double-wheeled vehicle conveying the Mayor and businessmen back to town bogged down in a mud hole in the stretch before they reached the main road. Experiencing the challenge of equipment operation on substandard roads, they vowed to "bring the requisite pressure to bear on the provincial government." They would base their argument on the development potential in attracting other operators.
The property on Stuart Lake was operated by Pioneer Gold Mines Ltd. It was then the second largest mining operation to establish in the area. The largest was that of the Consolidated Mining & Smelting Co. Their larger operation was installed in 1938 with a 50-ton per day capacity which was expected to double by the end of 1940.
Gold finds may have been easy to reach. Both of the placer operations getting under way in 1940 were within a dozen miles of settlements. Prospectors could know they were standing, literally, on a fortune. The trick was to divine a way to extract it in quantity.
If wishes were nuggets!
