Minto City

Minto City
Minto, Minto Mine, Minto Mines
Minto City Minto, Minto Mine, Minto Mines
Company town
	Minto City Location of Minto City in British Columbia
	Coordinates: 50°53′27″N122°46′40″W / 50.89083°N 122.77778°W
Country	Canada
Province	British Columbia

Last updated May 03, 2024

Minto City, often called just Minto, sometimes Minto Mines_,Minto Mine, Skumakum, or "land of plenty", was a gold mining town in the Bridge River Valley of British Columbia from 1930 to 1936, located at the confluence of that river with Gun Creek, one of its larger tributaries. The mine prospect was never much successful although a model townsite was built by promoter "Big Bill" Davidson, who imported soil to build a specially-built rodeo ground and baseball diamond on the rocky site. The larger mine of Bralorne was nearby. The mine shut down in 1936 due to productivity issues, but restarted in 1940. The valley has since been significantly altered when most of the vestiges of the town were inundated by the waters of the Carpenter Lake reservoir following completion of the Bridge River Power Project. In 1941, around two dozens of Japanese Canadian families were relocated to Minto Mine, and ordered to live in the empty miners' houses due to the impacts of the war.^[1]

Minto Mine

The Minto Mine operated from 1934 to 1940 during which over 2130 metres of underground work was done, and a total of 80,650 tonnes (88,900 tons) of ore grading 6.8 grams of gold and 19.9 grams of silver per tonne was produced, totalling 546 kilograms (19,300 ounces) of gold and 1,573 kilograms (55,500 ounces) of silver, 9,673 kilograms (341,200 ounces) of copper and 56,435 kilograms (1,990,700 ounces) of lead.^[3]^[4]

By the opening of World War II, the combination of poor mineral showings and most men going away to war brought the Minto mine to a standstill.

Japanese Canadian Internment History

Since Canada declared war on Japan, all Japanese Canadians over the age of 16 were forced to register with the B.C. Security Commission (BCSC), despite the fact that majority of them were naturalized Canadians.^[1] As of 1941, Minto was one of five locations in the Bridge River-Lillooet area which were used for Japanese-Canadian relocation centres. At Minto, the population of Japanese Canadian reached a trim 325.^[5] The internment of Japanese Canadians was initiated from fears of Japanese forces after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. In December 1941, Canada created the security zone, which entailed the removal of all Japanese Canadians within 100 miles of the west coast. Men between the ages of 18 and 45 were the first ones to relocate in order to build road camps in the interior of the province. By September 30, 1942, all Japanese Canadian were forced out of homes, and the government took away all properties previously owned by families, aside from goods they brought to the internment sites such as food, canned goods, tea, dishes, pots, and pans.^[6] Family groups who had wealth were allowed to leave the Protected Area before the deadline of April 1, 1942, to become part of the self-supporting families that could live and work in these selected internment sites.^[5] Families who moved to Minto had the opportunity to stay together by relocating. By paying for the self-supporting site, the internees could avoid restriction and punitive practices, and they could work, operate shops and businesses, and place their children in school within the camp.^[7]

During the war, approximately 25 families moved into some empty houses, while others were sold off at a low price by the government.^[5] Most families in Minto were sent from Japantown of the Downtown Eastside in Vancouver. Families lived off pre-war savings and worked in trucking, logging, and the sawmill industry. The residents' hard work and resiliency built Minto into one of the self-supporting internment locations with electricity and indoor plumbing. At this time, the Japanese-Canadian presence transformed the town, which soon had vegetable and flower gardens, with the town's crops becoming a source of produce for the larger mining towns nearby.^[7]

Notable People

Grace Eiko Thomson - Japanese Canadian curator and author

Life in Minto

The self-supporting sites had wealthier aspects in their daily lives compared to a non self-supporting site, but they still struggled in the cold winters. Everyday, people would brush their teeth with salt, and during holidays, parents could not afford to get their kids expensive gifts so they compensated with books or dolls.^[6] Although there were some establishments like hotels, post offices, and apartment buildings, there was no clinics or hospitals. During the war, when a family member got sick, doctors had to be contacted by police to travel from a neighbour town, Bralorne, and many people had no contact with the police so they would pay cash to get hold of someone with police contact.^[6]

Children went to a schools taught by university graduates and they also learned Japanese from their parents at home. At school, students would enjoy field days, where they would participate in various activities like tug-of-war, games, and prizes.^[6] Families maintained their cultures by making food from rice, miso, shoyu, and tofu. Ofuro, Japanese baths were built in some homes Grace Eiko Thomson recalls from her book Chiru Sakura.^[6] Many gold mines in BC were idled in the 1942-45 period as they were deemed non-essential to the war effort, and the miners were moved to strategic metal copper, tungsten, mercury, lead and zinc production. Several of the mines, including Minto did not survive the enforced shutdown.

Postwar History

Japanese Canadians were not allowed to relocate freely until 1949, and after the relocation to the west coast or elsewhere, the town of Minto was abandoned again.

The town was mostly abandoned and derelict in the wake of a disastrous flash flood in 1949, although the town's hotel and bar remained open until the end. The Minto Hotel was moved before the 1951 inundation by Carpenter Lake to Gold Bridge, where it operated as the Gold Bridge Hotel until burning down (a newer modern building stands on the site). At the site of Minto, there is a public campground and picnic site on the alluvial fan of Gun Creek, which is on higher ground than the old townsite. At low water, Minto's old street grid and some building foundations can still be seen, as well as the roadbed of the original Bridge River Road.

Finally, in 1958, the damming of the Bridge River by BC Hydro to create Carpenter Lake wiped out the town of Minto and erased all physical history of the internment site.

"Cascadia Burn"

In recent years, the Gun Creek Campground has been the site of an art and performance festival modelled on the famous Burning Man event in Nevada. The 2013 incarnation of the event drew 60 participants, began on June 16 and ran through until the summer solstice, where the central art installation "Baboon Robot" was burned as the event's finale.^[8]

Related Research Articles

Lillooet is a district municipality in the Squamish-Lillooet region of southwestern British Columbia. The town is on the west shore of the Fraser River immediately north of the Seton River mouth. On BC Highway 99, the locality is by road about 100 kilometres (62 mi) northeast of Pemberton, 64 kilometres (40 mi) northwest of Lytton, and 172 kilometres (107 mi) west of Kamloops.

Masajiro Miyazaki, CM was a Canadian osteopathic physician who practised in Vancouver prior to World War II. During World War II, he was appointed as a coroner by the British Columbia Provincial Police in the town of Lillooet, British Columbia. In addition to coroner's duties he also served as effective general practitioner in the Lillooet area, including for the area's four wartime "self-supporting centres". Miyazaki's practice also included the Japanese Canadian internment camp at Taylor Lake. Towards the end of his life, Miyazaki was recognized for his services to the community, which included founding the local ambulance service and instigating a proper hospital for Lillooet, by being enrolled in the Order of Canada.

Shalalth and South Shalalth are unincorporated communities on the northern shore near the western end of Seton Lake in the Squamish-Lillooet region of southwestern British Columbia. The localities are by road about 63 kilometres (39 mi) northwest of Lillooet, but only 24 kilometres (15 mi) by rail.

The Bridge River is an approximately 120 kilometres (75 mi) long river in southern British Columbia. It flows south-east from the Coast Mountains. Until 1961, it was a major tributary of the Fraser River, entering that stream about six miles upstream from the town of Lillooet; its flow, however, was near-completely diverted into Seton Lake with the completion of the Bridge River Power Project, with the water now entering the Fraser just south of Lillooet as a result.

Port Douglas, sometimes referred to simply as Douglas, is a remote community in British Columbia, Canada at east of the mouth of the Lillooet River, and at the head of Harrison Lake, which is the head of river navigation from the Strait of Georgia. Port Douglas was the second major settlement of any size on the British Columbia mainland during the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush. It came into being in 1858 when Governor Douglas ordered that it be laid out.

The Chilcotin Ranges are a subdivision of the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains. They lie on the inland lea of the Pacific Ranges, abutting the Interior Plateau of British Columbia. Their northwestern end is near the head of the Klinaklini River and their southeast end is the Fraser River just north of Lillooet; their northern flank is the edge of the Plateau while their southern is the north bank of the Bridge River. In some reckonings they do not go all the way to the Fraser but end at the Yalakom River, which is the North Fork of the Bridge.

The Bendor Range is a small but once-famous subrange of the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains, about It is approximately 7,000 square kilometres (2,700 sq mi) in area and about 40 km long and about 18 km at its widest. It lies between Anderson Lake on the southeast and the Carpenter Lake Reservoir or the Bridge River Power Project on the north, with the gold-rich valley of Cadwallader Creek on its southwest.

The Shulaps Range is a subrange of the Chilcotin Ranges subset of the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains in southwest-central British Columbia. The range is 55 km NW–SE and 15 km SW–NE and 2,970 km² (1,150 sq mi) in area.

George Matheson Murray, known publicly as George Murray, was a publisher and politician in British Columbia in the first half of the 20th century. He played a role in the founding of the Boy Scouts of Canada. Murray is best known as the husband of Margaret Lally "Ma" Murray.

Gold Bridge is an unincorporated community in the Bridge River Country of British Columbia, Canada. Although numbering only around 40 inhabitants, Gold Bridge is the service and supply centre for the upper basin of the Bridge River Valley, which includes recreation-residential areas at the Gun Lakes, Tyaughton Lake, Marshall Creek, and Bralorne; and the nearby ghost towns of Brexton and Pioneer Mine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bridge River Power Project</span>

The Bridge River Power Project is a hydroelectric power development in the Canadian province of British Columbia, located in the Lillooet Country between Whistler and Lillooet. It harnesses the power of the Bridge River, a tributary of the Fraser, by diverting it through a mountainside to the separate drainage basin of Seton Lake, utilizing a system of three dams, four powerhouses and a canal.

Black Dome Mountain is the northernmost summit of the Camelsfoot Range, which lies along the west side of the Fraser River, north of Lillooet, British Columbia, Canada. It is an ancient butte-like volcano located in the formation known as the Chilcotin Group, which lie between the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains and the mid-Fraser River in British Columbia, Canada.

Bridge River was used to describe three separate towns or localities in the Lillooet Country of the Interior of British Columbia connected with the river and valley of the same name.

Cadwallader Creek is an important tributary of the Hurley River in the Bridge River Country of the British Columbia Interior, Canada, most notable for its role as the home of the Bralorne and Pioneer Mines and associated gold claims and workings. Less than twenty miles in length, the creek is joined by Noel Creek within the area of the town of Bralorne, and just below Bralorne joins the Hurley River just above Hurley Falls and that river's ten-mile canyon prior to its own confluence with the Bridge River near the town Gold Bridge. Standard Creek, a short tributary of Cadwallader Creek near its upper end, connects via McGillvray Pass to the creek of the same name and, on Anderson Lake far below, the resort townlet of McGillivray Falls. One-time plans to build a cog railway to the mines from the Pacific Great Eastern at McGillivary Falls were never fulfilled.

Bralorne is a historic Canadian gold mining community in the Bridge River District of British Columbia, some 130 km on dirt roads west of the town of Lillooet.

McGillivray, formerly McGillivray Falls, is an unincorporated recreational community on the west shore of Anderson Lake, just east of midway between the towns of Pemberton and Lillooet, British Columbia, Canada, in that province's southwest Interior.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cayoosh Creek</span> River in Canada

Cayoosh Creek is a northeast-flowing tributary of the Seton River in the Canadian province of British Columbia. The name Cayoosh Creek remains on the bridge-sign crossing the stream on BC Highway 99 and continues in use locally to refer to the final reaches of the Seton River, formerly Seton Creek, which prior to the renaming ending at the confluence with Cayoosh Creek. The creek is the namesake of Cayoosh Creek Indian Reserve No. 1, one of the main Indian reserves of the Cayoose Creek Indian Band, which lies adjacent to what was renamed the Seton River without local consultation.

Lajoie Lake, also known as Little Gun Lake, is a small lake in the Bridge River Country of the West-Central Interior of British Columbia, Canada, located three miles west of the community of Gold Bridge and just southwest of Gun Lake, which is also known as Big Gun Lake. The two lakes together are known as the Gun Lakes and both are recreational communities with a history of such settlement dating back to the 1920s. The lake is approximately 3 km² in size and is drained by Lajoie Creek, which drains into Big Gun Lake and from that lake's northeastern end into Gun Creek. The creek, lake and nearby Lajoie Dam and the adjoining small company townsite of Lajoie are named for "Lazack" Lajoie, a colourful French-Canadian prospector and promoter who tried to advance the area of the Gun Lakes both as a major potential gold mine and also the site of a future city.

The Cadwallader Range, originally named the Cadwallader Mountains, is a sub-range of the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains in the Bridge River-Lillooet Country of the South-Central Interior of British Columbia, Canada, located between the south end of Anderson Lake (E) and the Hurley River. According to the provincial basemap, the precise alpine boundaries of the range are McGilliray Pass, at its eastern extremity and beyond which is the Bendor Range, and the pass between Noel and Sockeye Creeks on its west, which is immediately north of the lower end of Birkenhead Lake. The officially unnamed range west of that has been called the Noel Range, after its main peak Mount Noel. At the foot of the range along its northeast flank is Cadwallader Creek, scene of the historic and once-rich Bralorne and Pioneer Mines and the ghost town of Bralorne.

Grace Eiko Thomson is a Japanese-Canadian internment camp survivor. She is the founder of the Nikkei National Museum and Cultural Centre in British Columbia and a memoirist.

References

1 2 "JAPANESE CANADIAN SELF-SUPPORTING INTERNMENT SITES OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR (1942–49)" (PDF). east_lillooet_self-supporting_internment_site.pdf. Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure. Retrieved 12 September 2022.
↑ Akrigg, G.P.V.; Akrigg, Helen B. (1986), British Columbia Place Names (3rd, 1997 ed.), Vancouver: UBC Press, ISBN 0-7748-0636-2
↑ InfoMine summary on Minto Mine
↑ BC Govt MINFILE report on Minto Mine
1 2 3 The Minto Japanese Canadian World War II Internment Camp Site. Lillooet.ca. Retrieved 20 August 2022.{{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
1 2 3 4 5 Thomson, Grace Eiko. Chiru Sakura: Falling Cherry Blossoms.
1 2 "Minto Mine". Canada's Historic Places. Parks Canada. Retrieved 20 August 2022.
↑ Burning Man art set ablaze at Gun Creek: Community sees potential in event, Wendy Fraser, Lillooet News, June 26 2013