A Guide to Atlin, British Columbia

Arctic & Northern Mining

Dateline: January 23, 2025.

    The short, sad story of the company, from optimistic reports in 1905 and early 1906 to being in receivership by the end of the 1906 season, to being used as an example of what can happen when the wrong equipment is chosen.

The Vancouver Daily Province (Vancouver, B.C.), Saturday, September 9, 1905

    Skagway, Sept. 6.- (Special Correspondence. - The Northern Mines Co., Limited, which was organized last spring in Vancouver and owns and operates a new steam-shovel on Spruce Creek, in the Atlin district, is meeting with wonderful success, according to people from Atlin. The shovel handles without difficulty 800 buckets of gravel a day.

    This is the first steam-shovel plant in the North or anywhere in British Columbia to be used for placer mining purposes. This company's holdings, acquired by purchase from individual miners, consist of about three-quarters of a mile of creek ground on Spruce Creek, with an average depth of gravel of about 20 feet.

    Prominently identified with the Northern Mines Co. are Messrs A. J. Kapelle, now in Atlin, A. M. Pound, and numerous professional and business men of Vancouver.

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Annual Report of the British Columbia Minister of Mines, December 31, 1905:

    The initial venture with a steam shovel in this district was undertaken this last season by the Northern Mines, Limited, which company, having some good ground on Spruce creek (individual claims), installed: thereon a "Little Giant" traction shovel, which, notwithstanding the embarrassments and losses that almost invariably attend initial and experimental ventures, worked very satisfactorily, and convinced the management that, with some additional equipment and changes in methods of operation, this style of plant can be made to pay: handsome profits and dividends on the investment. The management of this undertaking was in the hands of Messrs. A. H. Bromley and R. D. Fetherstonhaugh. The shovel was operated nearly two months, and in that time moved considerably over 10,000 cubic yards of gravel, at a net profit of over $3,500, demonstrating that the shovel could handle the gravel faster than it could be sluiced and the tailings disposed of by the water available. The ground upon which the shovel started work was very rich, there having been over $24,000 taken from a strip 100 feet by 300 feet, but the shovel operators did not get the full benefit of this, as the ground had been partially worked beforehand by their predecessors in title, but they realised about $1.50 per cubic yard. A force of from eight to twelve men was employed; but this force can be materially reduced when everything has been placed in proper position and working order.

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The steam shovel at work, probably in 1905. BC Archives photo by Alfred Cyril Hirschfeld. Click to greatly enlarge it.

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1906 Season

August 4, 1906: "The Northern Mines Co., Ltd., on Spruce, have taken out over $7000 worth of ore by hand, and the steam shovel is now operating in very good ground, from which immense profits are expected to be realized." (The World - Vancouver, B.C.)

Annual Report of the British Columbia Minister of Mines, December 31, 1906:

    The Northern Mines, Limited, under the superintendence of Mr. Henry B. Warren, P.L.S., operated with the steam shovel for a portion of the season, but although working phenomenally rich ground, the results cannot be regarded as satisfactory. A force of about 20 men was employed and about $15,000 was recovered before operations were suspended owing to financial difficulties. These difficulties were, perhaps, due to causes over which the local management had little or no control. The property is in the hands of a receiver.

1907 Season

Annual Report of the British Columbia Minister of Mines, December 31, 1907:

    The Northern Mines, Limited, allowed its steam shovel to remain unused during this season, but its ground was being worked by a crew of about 16 men, on a "lay," who had returned to the original pick and shovel methods and, I believe, realised good returns.

1908 Season

Annual Report of the British Columbia Minister of Mines, December 31, 1908:

SPRUCE CREEK

    About 125 men were operating on this creek during the season, some doing very well indeed, but the least successful having no great cause for complaint. More new ground was prospected than for several years, and those who have undertaken such development feel encouraged to continue. There does not seem to be any good reason for doubting the existence, farther up the creek, of the same rich "pay" as has been found in the portions worked during the past ten years, but, as the ground is deeper and the banks very steep and high, it is not so easily located.

    There are about 100 people on the creek this winter, of whom 75 to 80 are drifting.

    The Spruce Creek Power Company, Ltd., under the management of Mr. W. C. Hall, did not attempt any hydraulic work in the old pits, but confined its efforts to prospecting and constructing a new ditch and pipe-line from the falls up stream. Only a small force of men with two monitors was engaged upon this work, but the company has arranged for prospect work on some of its upper leases by means of drifts and tunnels, which will be carried on all winter.

    On this creek are to be seen the results of misdirected investment, by the installation of machinery unsuited for the class of ground to be encountered. In one instance the steam shovel installed by the Northern Mines, Ltd., stands idle upon what was one of the richest sections of Spruce creek, the ground being too deep for the class of shovel installed - an ordinary railway shovel - and the inadequate appliances for handling the material when dug. Individual miners, with their picks, shovels, china pumps and derricks, are operating all around it and successfully working the ground with very good results - from $15 to $30 per day to the man being commonly reported. In another place lies the body or hull of the dismantled dredge installed by the B. C. Dredging Company, Ltd., whose ground contained so many large boulders and a hard, uneven bedrock as to render dredging an impossibility, but upon whose abandoned ground we may expect to see individual miners working in considerable numbers next season.