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to make a seal. In what way he gathered
the gold and how large a seal he made –
perhaps a signet ring? – isn’t recorded.
A couple of years later, a momentous
discovery was made on Vancouver Island:
coal. The local native people around
Port Hardy, on the Island’s northeast
coast, already knew about it. They told
Dr. William Tolmie, who in 1835 was a
young surgeon working for the Hudson’s
Bay Company. (One story tells of a group
of men who were amused to see a local
blacksmith using coal imported all the
way from Wales, when they knew there
were mountains of the stuff nearby.)
Tolmie told his employers about
the coal, and HBC had its newly arrived
steamer, the Beaver, go to the site and
check out the report. It took some years
after the Beaver’s visit, but what they
found persuaded the company to begin
mining the coal. That was the small
beginning of what has been described as
“the oldest established and most important
industry of Vancouver Island.” HBC
carried on intermittent mining for several
years, and then abandoned the project.
Newly arrived Scot Robert Dunsmuir
revived mining in Nanaimo in 1851, and it
has continued ever since. The Dunsmuir
family – whose own background was in
coal mining in Scotland – would come to
dominate the industry for many years.
A little-known gold rush occurred in
the Queen Charlotte Islands in March of
1851, sparked when a Haida man brought
a 27-ounce nugget to Fort Victoria. He
got 1,500 HBC blankets for the nugget.
Perhaps he and his blankets were aboard
the Una, an HBC vessel that hurried up
to Moresby Island to examine the find. It
is said the crew of the Una found a vein
there, six-and-a-half feet wide and 80
feet long. Before long, they began blasting.
The Una’s log states that, as soon as
a blast had occurred, the Haida men
would rush in to gather the gold, grabbing
the crewmen by the legs to prevent
them from getting it. After three blasts
the rest of the gold was abandoned “to
avoid bloodshed,” and the log notes the
warring parties – the Haida men and the
Una’s crew – each took about $1,500 in
gold – roughly equivalent to $60,000
today. On her return voyage the Una was
wrecked off Neah Bay and her gold was
lost. The HBC decided not to mine in
the Queen Charlottes again.
In 1855 gold was discovered on
the Pend d’Oreille River, a tributary of
the Columbia, near present-day Trail.
Then, in 1857, it was discovered on the
Setting Possibilities in Motion
Canadian metals at the 2010 Winter Games.
No matter which national anthem played as the
athletes stepped onto the podium, Teck employees
were truly proud. That’s because we provided
the metals for each gold, silver and bronze medal
for the 2010 Winter Games. www.teck.com
Porch poise:
Barkerville Old Timers
of 1900, as portrayed
in a circa-1930s
postcard.
Photograph: AME BC Archives SUMMER 2010 35