Britannia: The Story of a Mine
Name/Title
Britannia: The Story of a MineEntry/Object ID
2022.239.01Tags
Mining History, Mining Industry, Copper Mining, Britannia Beach, British ColumbiaScope and Content
Book discussing the history of copper mining in Britannia Beach, British ColumbiaContext
Britannia Beach was a copper mining town. Copper was discovered in 1888 by Doctor Forbes. The discover led to the development of a mine and smelter, known as the Britannia Mining and Smelter Company officially forming in the early 1900s.The was extremely prosperous well into the late 1920s and early 1930s, it became the largest producer of copper in the British Commonwealth by 1929. In 1946 the Britannia mines were unionized and suffered through their first strike. Low copper prices saw the Britannia Mine Company reduced to seven employees, and in 1959 it went into liquidation. In 1963 the Anaconda Mining Company bought the property and production continued for the next eleven years, before high operating costs and taxes eventually forced the mine to close on November 1, 1974. The book is broken down into chapters discussing this history, they are as follows: 1. Prehistory and Captain Vancouver: - Geology came first - Volcanic heat and glacial cold - Early man at Boundary Bay - Captain Vancouver's Log 2. The Mine Starts from Scratch: - Britannia's cattle trail - Dr. Forbes finds Britannia copper - Claims and counter-claims - The company takes form 3. A Dictator in Camp: - Britannia M. and S. Company Limited formed, 1908 - Regime of John Wedderburn - Dunbar Moodie begins - Camp 1050 disaster 4. Fire and Flood: - Wartime and postwar years - Copper takes a dive - Loss of the concentrator - Flood disaster strikes the beach 5. Spun Yarn and Grog: - Britannia's navy, "Quadra" and "Princess Louise" - Rum running - Seven cases of whiskey to Davy Jones 6. Through Spindrift to Safe Port: - Stormy Donohue weather - Halycon days of Carleton Perkins Browning commence - Modernization, 1926 style - 1929 boom and bust - Pilot C. P. Browning saves the ship - The shadow of Hitler 7. Mine-Mill one of the Family: - Pillow-pigeons in the double-deckers - Safety sweepstakes - Wartime comes to camp and Harvey Murphy comes to the surface with Mine-Mill Local 663 - The war ends 8. Anaconda Comes Over the Rim-Rock: - Difficult times - The general strike, 1946 - C. P. Browning leaves - Zinc turns up smiling - The clouds gather - Britannia M. and S. Company wound up - Ghost town on the mountain - A strike - and a new life with Anaconda 9. Trails Afloat and Ashore: - Romance of Howe Sound travel - Captain Cates' navy - Japanese railroaders - Roads and trails - P. G. E. Railway and Vancouver highway arrive 10. Looking Both Ways: -The townsite sleeps - Beach life and times - How to win at baseball - Britco News tells all - The Poet of South Valley - Bears in the pantry - Scouts, priests, and actors - ValedictoryCollection
Mining History, Canadian History Collection (General), Britannia Mining and Smelter CompanyCataloged By
unknownCategory
Secondary Source