Bosun mine

Galena ore.  Silver, lead, and zinc.  A rich vein was discovered on the ranch by JC Harris in 1898 and immediately sold to an English company who created the Bosun Mine (named after his companion and farm helper, "the Bosun").

The vein ran from the lake, pretty much straight up the mountain.  Counting from the top, the mine had 6 tunnels into the mountain.  Nearest the lake, tunnel #6 is just off the track down to our beach from the Lovicks'.

Below the dump from Tunnel #6 - just after sunset and just before a storm

Tunnel #5 is below Harris Road just after it leaves the highway.  Tunnel #4 is just above the road to the Bosun Lake.  Tunnel #3, #2, and #1 are up the mountainside into the forest.

I thought all the tunnels were filled in by the government 20 years ago.  Certainly the lower three were, but the fillers seem to have missed the collapsed upper tunnels.  There are still openings to be found, and kept from falling into!  In the photos below, in March 2012, Cole and I were on a spring scramble up the vein from Tunnel #4 with Stephen Hornsby and Anne Knowles - discovering holes.

Tunnel #3?

Tunnel #2?

Top tunnel - #1?

Then, in about 2016, in the depths of Nancy and John's house, Ralph discovered this sagittal-section map of the diggings.  Too small to see much here, except where the six tunnels go into the mountain and the huge gaps in land underground.  There's now a copy on a cupboard door in the ranch house.  It's a wonder there's any ground left at all in parts of the hillside.  

Geological Survey of Canada, about 1930