My Dad (Prof. John "Blue" Evans) taught Mining and Metallurgy at UBC from 1969 to 1979 and set up the Mining Department there. He was an Aussie and had worked in Northern BC during the late 1950s as a Geologist and met my Mum up there where she was teaching at Salmo, in a one room school house. The Plant to convert the gold was called the "Mill" and was run by a Metallurgist and they had to be very careful how they handled the Cyanide. It was mixed with salt to dilute it, but the tailings were highly toxic. These days, the tailings are filtered to convert the cyanide into other substances, but in the 1960s it would most certainly harm the environment and likely contaminated the towns drinking water supply. A lot of miners would get quite sick over time. My Dad tried to set up standards with the BC Government and the Mining Companies for dealing with the tailings. Unfortunately, when these controls went into place, a lot of mines closed down because it no longer made economic sense to operate a lot of the mines due to the costs of treatments and the companies moved to other places in the 3rd World where they could mine Gold with less restrictions. BC has a huge Lumber Industry so as Gold Mining faded, Lumber took over, but then large deposits of Copper, Zinc, Lead and other ore were discovered and Mining again became a major employer in BC and Alberta, and then of course the Tar Sands in Alberta brought in the oil industry. Now, with the price of Gold being so high, mining has gained a resurgence in Western Canada and around the World.
As enjoyable as your sailing adventures are, this new sideways jaunt is fascinating! Can't wait to see more exploring and shenanigans from this beautiful piece of Canada.
Fascinating history in this old mining town! If no one else has chimed in on this topic, the mining equipment shown at 12:45 look like what are called “ball mills” for grinding minerals down into a finer particle size. The finer particles make chemical extraction more efficient when leaching out the gold from ore. Also, there are two sets of concrete support stands shown at about 12:50 when looking back to the entrance of the mine. Those are likely the structures that held the ball mills while the mills spin along their horizontal axis.
I am a sailing enthusiast but my first passion in life was gold mining and history. Great episode. Thank you for all the adventures, and for inviting me into your world. :) Keep up the good works!
My grandparents lived in that area and I believe my grandfather worked in one of those mines in the 40's. It's been nearly 30 years since I've been there. Very cool video! Happy Thanksgiving.
Cerro Gordo is fascinating, not to mention inspiring. I recently stumbled onto Brent's channel myself. Y'all are good for mentioning him - high tides lift all ships. Thanks for keepin on, friends I've never met!!
Great video! We’ve been going to bralorne for our holidays for the past 25 years and have been on every back road there is and it still amazes us what we find out in the middle of no where! Glad you guys made the move ! The history is full of stories and yes the old hospital, which is gone now had ghosts we were brave enough to venture inside on Halloween Eve but after a few strange occurrences that night we never stepped back in side !
I always love the way you guys "Bring over there to over here". You have the talent for sharing an adventure in the way that makes us feel like we've been there. Your sailing channel has always elevated to something better than a travel show. Like a Nat Geo magazine article, but with your eye view. Thank you for your art.
I freaking love this channel!! Fell in love with you crazy kids with your sailing videos & it’s only gotten better & more interesting. I especially love your senses of humor😆
Soooo crazy this youtube thing. i JUST watched a couple of Cerro Gordo videos last week. Randomly. I enjoy Nahoa every Monday morning and watching your little one grow, my little redhead Miss is probably around the same age. thanks guys!
Growing up in NZ, I read books on Canada and was obsessed with Spelunking - what a great word to start and better still, a real pastime and occupation. This is a fascinating part of your heritage and historical context for your vast nation. Thank you for sharing. Hello from the London landlubbers xx
Congrats on Bodhi! And nice shout-out to Living In A Ghost Town. Don't know how I stumbled onto that channel from the very beginning, but it's really good, even if only for the little words of wisdom and inspiration. You have them too. ♥️
Wow guys this was amazing and quite the town. So sad to see the falling down buildings. I wonder how many of the miners suffered from cyanide poisoning..not that the mine owners cared ☹️😢. Thanks for sharing another great video 👍🥰
Wow, I think you are right. That was a Cyanide pumping station. I live in an area where a lot of mining occurred and if a person wants to buy property to build on, they have the well water tested because of all the cyanide runoff. There isn't any suffering from cyanide, it's an instant death.
@@wayneb7100 it’s actually extremely painful if it’s a slow poisoning. If it’s in the water there is a good chance it will take a little time. Look up some of the old stories on it. Pretty scary to imagine dying that way.
@@wayneb7100That is the pumphouse for the town swimming pool & kids pool located in empty lot across the road. Girls & boys change/washrooms are still there and the kiddie pool.
@@wayneb7100 WOW @wayneb7100 ... my bad. Although there was a swimming pool across the road at that location , as pointed out earlier the town had running water. After talking with a local that was raised here , your assessment (and Ben's postulating), that this is a cyanide pump station ... is absolutely correct .
It's wonderful to have engaging parents & family, curious about the world around them and sharing their stories. Their values towards people and places are what I remember.
That was a great mining town vlog! I watch Brent's Cerro Gordo channel as well! His mining explorations are pretty scary! The house you are staying in looks really cool, and all that firewood! It looks too nice to burn. LOL. I live in an old mining town, Tombstone, Arizona. Silver mining was huge here, but the mines flooded and are all closed. Bisbee, an old copper mining town, is located South of us. Fun places to take visitors to and learn about the mining days.
The big tanks with the turntables would probably be what old timers in Australia would call puddlers a way to " stir " the contents to help the gold to separate from the material .
Incredibly fascinating place. And I bet there's some gold to be found in those tailings! You need to alert the environmental agencies about those barrels though, that's scary!
Reminds me of Sandon, BC, about halfway between Kaslo and New Denver in the Kootenays. You guys are lucky-you could do adventure travel for years and never have to leave the province!
Most sailing channels have been about maintenance , rebuilds and boat shows as well as having babies during the pandemic. Your content is very entertaining. You're showing me places that I always wanted to see . Thank you !
Ha! So Ben you won’t go in a falling down mine shaft building. Good to see you draw the line somewhere because I saw you both dive in the hold of a sunken freighter packed - packed with cases and cases of WWII ammo.
Wow, that was fun. 😊 adventure! If the walls could speak to share the life of what it was like back then. Maybe the relatives are still around. Great exploration!
Yellow and Brown paint was very fashionable in the 70's I had a painting business and it was so common that I could buy those colours in bulk. Thats NZ not Canada but I guess it was a worldwide fashion so maybe the town was really upmarket in its day.
This was fun! I follow a couple of gold miners / Prospectors on youtube as well. Both from BC. Dan Hurd Prospecting from Summerland, and Pioneer Pauly from Langford :) I am going to check out the other one you mentioned.
When you went past Pemberton you missed the Meager creek hot springs site opened up by BC Hydro crews some decades ago. The nicest part of Meager Creek is you can pick whatever water temperature you are comfortable with. Been there many times.
Brent the owner of Cerro Gordo is an amazing guy! Thank y'all for sharing your ghost town with us. I have heard something about the use of cyanide in mining. I beleive that Brent is on a mission to prevent that from happening near his property that they want to start mining at. Best wishes to you both and your little one. She will be a big sister soon. :0)
years ago I was at that town and inside that town hall ;) (long story, and a happy one) Knew some people who moved there at the time, kept expecting to see them in pictures, heh. Enjoy and take care all!
Your videos are always great and I appreciate you guys making the best of these weird times. My one ask is for Ben to take on some of Ashley’s work so she can do voiceover ;) I imagine the algorithm will take to that kindly :)
haha i love the show and what you guys are doing... but that was a moose rack :) . I live next door in alaska you guys should venture west one of these days. Good luck be safe.
I subscribe to three other sailboat family subscriptions and rate your one or two with La Vagabond your only competition. I am handicapped and retired now and following your adventures give me my weekly pick me up as I was in the past someone who explored the world. Don’t let those folks who are in the put down circuit affect your actions as they obviously have a self esteem problem. Finally I am happy to be on your Patreon list and the only thing you might expand on is to start SCUBA diving as part of the process.
You should see that place in the middle of winter. Gets really spooky. Maybe the perfect place to stay once the "new terror" joins you? BC is the best playground.
I have one of those ironing boards, in a building built in the 70s. Its in fairly good shape. You said they used Cyonide. Actually, I don't think so, the actually used Mercury. Tons of it. Its still in all of the streams up there. When people use dredges half of what they get is Mercury. Well, I have a feeling they just didn't use it here. They obviously used it there. Wow. Here we had these ore crushing plants called "stamp mills" .
Great job as usual Guys. And "Happy Thanksgiving!!" This year three of you - next Thanksgiving FOUR - - (another future crew Ben!!) just one more thing to be thankful for...
The large round drums below the entrance to the mine were likely rock crushers. They would have had large metal balls (looking like cannon balls) that would do the actual crushing of the ore as the drums rotated.
I'm here for Willa! Totally !! No I'm actually here fir you guys too. You've been promoted to my favourite sailing ( NOT ) channel Along side the wildings. ( who are actually sailing right now. :)
My great grandfather is from bralorne and my great grandfather is buried there. Would love to go visit one day I am from New Zealand. Where did you find all the old photos?
Those metal drums were rod crushers used to grind the ore to the consistency of flour to soak in cyanide to devolve the gold. The town drinking water came from the mountain streams above the town not from cadwalter river.
The rabbits are hilarious... but Ben you’re wildlife identification skills could use some honing hahah. This is an elk paddle.... top tip , elk don’t have paddles!😂
My Dad (Prof. John "Blue" Evans) taught Mining and Metallurgy at UBC from 1969 to 1979 and set up the Mining Department there. He was an Aussie and had worked in Northern BC during the late 1950s as a Geologist and met my Mum up there where she was teaching at Salmo, in a one room school house. The Plant to convert the gold was called the "Mill" and was run by a Metallurgist and they had to be very careful how they handled the Cyanide. It was mixed with salt to dilute it, but the tailings were highly toxic. These days, the tailings are filtered to convert the cyanide into other substances, but in the 1960s it would most certainly harm the environment and likely contaminated the towns drinking water supply. A lot of miners would get quite sick over time. My Dad tried to set up standards with the BC Government and the Mining Companies for dealing with the tailings. Unfortunately, when these controls went into place, a lot of mines closed down because it no longer made economic sense to operate a lot of the mines due to the costs of treatments and the companies moved to other places in the 3rd World where they could mine Gold with less restrictions. BC has a huge Lumber Industry so as Gold Mining faded, Lumber took over, but then large deposits of Copper, Zinc, Lead and other ore were discovered and Mining again became a major employer in BC and Alberta, and then of course the Tar Sands in Alberta brought in the oil industry. Now, with the price of Gold being so high, mining has gained a resurgence in Western Canada and around the World.
The rabbits are hilarious! I love your sense of humor! That’s a Moose antler Ben and I’m not Canadian.
Subtility at its finest
Lol, I was going to say the same thing about the moose antler.
As enjoyable as your sailing adventures are, this new sideways jaunt is fascinating! Can't wait to see more exploring and shenanigans from this beautiful piece of Canada.
Love you guys.. the rabbits were hysterical in the intro.. lol
I will watch you on a boat, I will watch you with a goat. On land, sea, air. I will watch you anywhere! You guys keep rocking it!
Dr Seus variation! Great guy.
X2 you guys made all my dreams come true
Agree!!
Fascinating history in this old mining town! If no one else has chimed in on this topic, the mining equipment shown at 12:45 look like what are called “ball mills” for grinding minerals down into a finer particle size. The finer particles make chemical extraction more efficient when leaching out the gold from ore.
Also, there are two sets of concrete support stands shown at about 12:50 when looking back to the entrance of the mine. Those are likely the structures that held the ball mills while the mills spin along their horizontal axis.
great stuff as aways. big fan 4 eva. dont even think of stopping.
Funny guys - my home town. Born there, 1955. Lived to 1973. Thanks for the vlog. Nicely done!
EVEN THOUGH I STrted watching your channel because of the sailing content,i must say, This is a welcome break! Great job guys!!
I’m just driving through beautiful BC. Woke up to fresh snow on the mountain tops this morning in Blue River
BEN!!! That was a MOOSE antler! Not an ELK!!! I'm sure someone else already commented on that.
I am a sailing enthusiast but my first passion in life was gold mining and history. Great episode. Thank you for all the adventures, and for inviting me into your world. :) Keep up the good works!
My grandparents lived in that area and I believe my grandfather worked in one of those mines in the 40's. It's been nearly 30 years since I've been there. Very cool video! Happy Thanksgiving.
Cerro Gordo is fascinating, not to mention inspiring. I recently stumbled onto Brent's channel myself. Y'all are good for mentioning him - high tides lift all ships. Thanks for keepin on, friends I've never met!!
Yeah, been watching Brent's channel for a while now. I cried when the old hotel burned down! He's a cool guy!
Omg those bunnies 😂😂😂 nicely done Ben and congrats on the new lil guy too!
Great video! We’ve been going to bralorne for our holidays for the past 25 years and have been on every back road there is and it still amazes us what we find out in the middle of no where! Glad you guys made the move ! The history is full of stories and yes the old hospital, which is gone now had ghosts we were brave enough to venture inside on Halloween Eve but after a few strange occurrences that night we never stepped back in side !
The flannel bump is gorgeous . Bralorne is awesome , like this video
Thoroughly enjoyed watching this episode all the way from Australia.
I always love the way you guys "Bring over there to over here". You have the talent for sharing an adventure in the way that makes us feel like we've been there.
Your sailing channel has always elevated to something better than a travel show. Like a Nat Geo magazine article, but with your eye view. Thank you for your art.
Thank goodness….now for that cup of coffee and a smile. You make me love Sunday mornings.
That looked like a moose’s antler!! Is it?? What a great trip! Thank you!!
I freaking love this channel!!
Fell in love with you crazy kids with your sailing videos & it’s only gotten better & more interesting.
I especially love your senses of humor😆
Soooo crazy this youtube thing. i JUST watched a couple of Cerro Gordo videos last week. Randomly.
I enjoy Nahoa every Monday morning and watching your little one grow, my little redhead Miss is probably around the same age. thanks guys!
So cool that Cerro Gordo and Brent were mentioned by Ben. I have been watching CC for over a year now, it's a great channel.
Growing up in NZ, I read books on Canada and was obsessed with Spelunking - what a great word to start and better still, a real pastime and occupation. This is a fascinating part of your heritage and historical context for your vast nation. Thank you for sharing. Hello from the London landlubbers xx
Brent's channel of his town in the Sierra is pretty cool. It's generating some excitement as he prepares to revive the towns hotel
While checking out Cerro Gordo give HeavyDSparks a look see too.
Congrats on Bodhi! And nice shout-out to Living In A Ghost Town. Don't know how I stumbled onto that channel from the very beginning, but it's really good, even if only for the little words of wisdom and inspiration. You have them too. ♥️
didn't know you guys following Brent of Ghost Town of Cerro Gordo..thanks for this adventure you guys are showing..
Cerro Gordo.. - Ghost Town Living.. My number 2 favorite youtube channel.. You guys are no1 :D
Wow guys this was amazing and quite the town. So sad to see the falling down buildings. I wonder how many of the miners suffered from cyanide poisoning..not that the mine owners cared ☹️😢.
Thanks for sharing another great video 👍🥰
Wow, I think you are right. That was a Cyanide pumping station. I live in an area where a lot of mining occurred and if a person wants to buy property to build on, they have the well water tested because of all the cyanide runoff. There isn't any suffering from cyanide, it's an instant death.
@@wayneb7100 it’s actually extremely painful if it’s a slow poisoning. If it’s in the water there is a good chance it will take a little time. Look up some of the old stories on it. Pretty scary to imagine dying that way.
@@wayneb7100That is the pumphouse for the town swimming pool & kids pool located in empty lot across the road. Girls & boys change/washrooms are still there and the kiddie pool.
@@wayneb7100 WOW @wayneb7100 ... my bad. Although there was a swimming pool across the road at that location , as pointed out earlier the town had running water. After talking with a local that was raised here , your assessment (and Ben's postulating), that this is a cyanide pump station ... is absolutely correct .
Your child experiences a fantastic childhood with great parents, amazing nature and soon another brother or sister to play with. God bless!
It's wonderful to have engaging parents & family, curious about the world around them and sharing their stories. Their values towards people and places are what I remember.
There has to still be gold in that mine. The wood alone sold to city people would be worth more than the gold now
But ya gotta haul it outta there. That's a long hard road.
I love old ghost towns! Thanks as always for sharing your beautiful country!
I am so so excited for this. I will never get to travel so it's beautiful to see your home!! Thanks for sharing your lives with us✌🏻💗😊❣️
Wonderful to be taken on a tour with you guys! Thanks!
That was a great mining town vlog! I watch Brent's Cerro Gordo channel as well! His mining explorations are pretty scary! The house you are staying in looks really cool, and all that firewood! It looks too nice to burn. LOL. I live in an old mining town, Tombstone, Arizona. Silver mining was huge here, but the mines flooded and are all closed. Bisbee, an old copper mining town, is located South of us. Fun places to take visitors to and learn about the mining days.
The big tanks with the turntables would probably be what old timers in Australia would call puddlers a way to " stir " the contents to help the gold to separate from the material .
Incredibly fascinating place. And I bet there's some gold to be found in those tailings! You need to alert the environmental agencies about those barrels though, that's scary!
What kind of Canadian doesn’t know a moose horn when you see one?
Great video---That was a Moose antler by the way
Ah yes, very busy. The bunny visual was very helpful 😳
Loving your land explorations!!! Old Gold mines are fascinating.
I worked out in Bralorne and Goldbridge back in the80’s. Absolutely miss that area. It’s so beautiful out in that area.
The rabbits! Luv your channel...ALWAYS
Reminds me of Sandon, BC, about halfway between Kaslo and New Denver in the Kootenays. You guys are lucky-you could do adventure travel for years and never have to leave the province!
Hey you i am love with ur humare and Ashley's laughter and off course Willa's tantrums
Most sailing channels have been about maintenance , rebuilds and boat shows as well as having babies during the pandemic. Your content is very entertaining. You're showing me places that I always wanted to see . Thank you !
You can tell they're boat people because they celebrated that nothing broke on the RV after driving it. Lol 😆
I am surprised Bralone is not a tourist attraction. A lot of history….thanks for sharing. Enjoyed it!!!
So fun! Congrats on baby Bodhi as well.
Ha! So Ben you won’t go in a falling down mine shaft building. Good to see you draw the line somewhere because I saw you both dive in the hold of a sunken freighter packed - packed with cases and cases of WWII ammo.
Wow, that was fun. 😊 adventure! If the walls could speak to share the life of what it was like back then. Maybe the relatives are still around. Great exploration!
Yellow and Brown paint was very fashionable in the 70's I had a painting business and it was so common that I could buy those colours in bulk. Thats NZ not Canada but I guess it was a worldwide fashion so maybe the town was really upmarket in its day.
The videos are soooo good!! cheeks hurt from smiling
Great episode, it’s nice to see some of Canada see you next week.
This was fun! I follow a couple of gold miners / Prospectors on youtube as well. Both from BC. Dan Hurd Prospecting from Summerland, and Pioneer Pauly from Langford :) I am going to check out the other one you mentioned.
Would love to meet some of the town’s residents and hear their stories. Love hearing about stories in my own back yard of Beautiful British Columbia!
That frikin rabbits, spit my coffee, lol
Oh wow I really enjoyed this! You guys are so diligent.
When you went past Pemberton you missed the Meager creek hot springs site opened up by BC Hydro crews some decades ago. The nicest part of Meager Creek is you can pick whatever water temperature you are comfortable with. Been there many times.
Awesome!! Thanks for sharing this adventure!!
Great stuff as always. So informative. Thank you.
Seran Gordo is awesome I also watch that
I absolutely love you all. Thank you for sharing your adventures with me.
I am a gold bullion collector along with a long time subscriber, so I enjoyed this very much.
That is a great video so glad to see and beautiful photos very nice nature 🤗❤️
Omg, the rabbits. Not gonna lie, I cackled.
Enjoyed the content, thank you! Rock on Nahoans!
Amazing as always 🙏 Much Love From BC!
FYI moose antlers, not elk. Loved the rabbits lol!
You are my only Patreon. Keep it up the 3 soon to be 4 of you
Brent the owner of Cerro Gordo is an amazing guy! Thank y'all for sharing your ghost town with us. I have heard something about the use of cyanide in mining. I beleive that Brent is on a mission to prevent that from happening near his property that they want to start mining at. Best wishes to you both and your little one. She will be a big sister soon. :0)
If you get a chance You should binge watch Ghost Town Living from the beginning. Great story.
Thanks for sharing! You guys make my Sunday’s!
Great info...nothing like good homework. Tks
Cinematic excellence one of your best videos yet good rabbit footage.
Nice to see u making videos
years ago I was at that town and inside that town hall ;)
(long story, and a happy one)
Knew some people who moved there at the time, kept expecting to see them in pictures, heh.
Enjoy and take care all!
Your videos are always great and I appreciate you guys making the best of these weird times. My one ask is for Ben to take on some of Ashley’s work so she can do voiceover ;) I imagine the algorithm will take to that kindly :)
I really enjoyed this❣️❣️❣️ Y'all are always fun😊👍
What a great video guys, improvisation at its best! What about bear spray? You didn’t mention them?
haha i love the show and what you guys are doing... but that was a moose rack :) . I live next door in alaska you guys should venture west one of these days. Good luck be safe.
Nice to learn more about Canada. Great video, as always.
I subscribe to three other sailboat family subscriptions and rate your one or two with La Vagabond your only competition. I am handicapped and retired now and following your adventures give me my weekly pick me up as I was in the past someone who explored the world. Don’t let those folks who are in the put down circuit affect your actions as they obviously have a self esteem problem. Finally I am happy to be on your Patreon list and the only thing you might expand on is to start SCUBA diving as part of the process.
You should see that place in the middle of winter. Gets really spooky. Maybe the perfect place to stay once the "new terror" joins you? BC is the best playground.
I have one of those ironing boards, in a building built in the 70s. Its in fairly good shape. You said they used Cyonide. Actually, I don't think so, the actually used Mercury. Tons of it. Its still in all of the streams up there. When people use dredges half of what they get is Mercury. Well, I have a feeling they just didn't use it here. They obviously used it there. Wow. Here we had these ore crushing plants called "stamp mills" .
What a cool place great video you two are never borrowing
Just about wet myself when I saw the rabbits!! You ROCK!
Our line was "no icky, don't touch, hurts the baby" Congrats on new addition we saw on Insta ... much love to you all XO
Roaming the home land before roaming the sea again with an other little human. I like every adventures of yours 👌
Hopefully that white dust covering the pump label wasn't asbestos! Great video.
Great job as usual Guys.
And "Happy Thanksgiving!!" This year three of you - next Thanksgiving FOUR - - (another future crew Ben!!) just one more thing to be thankful for...
Ad a sail to that portable bath tub and you have a mini Optimist sailboat.
The two bunny’s clip 🤣 awesome video
The large round drums below the entrance to the mine were likely rock crushers. They would have had large metal balls (looking like cannon balls) that would do the actual crushing of the ore as the drums rotated.
I'm here for Willa! Totally !!
No I'm actually here fir you guys too.
You've been promoted to my favourite sailing ( NOT ) channel
Along side the wildings. ( who are actually sailing right now.
:)
My great grandfather is from bralorne and my great grandfather is buried there. Would love to go visit one day I am from New Zealand. Where did you find all the old photos?
what a dandy episode that was.
thanks a lot!
If you have a cold get some fire cider if you feel a cold coming on take a little drink a fire cider.
Those metal drums were rod crushers used to grind the ore to the consistency of flour to soak in cyanide to devolve the gold. The town drinking water came from the mountain streams above the town not from cadwalter river.
The rabbits are hilarious... but Ben you’re wildlife identification skills could use some honing hahah. This is an elk paddle.... top tip , elk don’t have paddles!😂