Big Rock Candy Mine
Whenever I think of this mountain I think of Burl Ives singing his song about the Big Rock Candy Mountain!!
In July 2005 we took a safari trip to the Big Rock Candy Mountain, Grand Forks, BC.
Getting there:
We had previously booked our tickets from the Tourist Centre Grand Forks, BC., to go on a Sunday. We met at ten am outside the Omega 2 restaurant which has a lovely big car park. It was a hot day and we didn't want to get too sunburnt so we were all wearing pants (trousers to the people in the UK reading this!), shirts, hats and closed toe shoes. We had our picnic lunch with us and drinks of water and juice. At about ten past ten we set off for the Rock Candy Mountain in convoy. There were two other cars besides ours and the safari leader in his car leading the way. We went on the road leading to North Forks which led beside the Grandby River and went past the local refuse dump. We stopped to view the slag heaps on the left and were informed that the slag is used to make insulation and is also used for blasting. (We already knew this as the place that does this is just down the road from us.)
We then travelled on several miles and across the bridge over the Grandby and turned right just a little while later. We continued travelling North for several miles and then went left up a track. This track took us several miles along until we were well in the mountains. We stopped and could see the Rock Candy Mountain site that we were about to go to. We travelled a little further and parked our cars.
The next stage was a half mile hike up the mountain slope to the mine area.
The mine was discovered in 1911 and operated by Cominco Ltd until 1929. It provided flux for gold and copper smelters in Southern B.C.
In 1986 the Unversity of British Coumbia bought the mine from Cominco for teaching purposes. In 1991 they began collecting rock specimens. In 1992 teaching access and mineral collecting tours started. Visitors are not permitted unless on Tours or Safaris.
We were given Goggles to protect our eyes and hammers to search for crystals when we got to the mine site.
We were shown by our guide the sort of crystals that we would find when there and roughly where some of them were. Then we set about getting our crystals.
The crystals in the rock
Barite crystals
I found lots of these!
Green florite crystals
Purple florite crystals:
