James and Laura lived in the house known as 'Ardoon' from 1876 to 1882. The house also contained a doctor's office as well as the mine offices.
James and Laura lived in the house known as 'Ardoon' from 1876 to 1882. The house also contained a doctor's office as well as the mine offices.
Last edited by GR74; 08-17-2010 at 08:14 PM. Reason: deleted word 'also'
In Old Wellington, Company houses clustered around the original Wellington Mine, known as "Old Slope" which operated from 1872 to 1888.
I was in Parksville all day today for work. I did some work for a girl in Errington at the end of my day and went to the Tiger Lily Farm around 4:30 p.m. when I was done. The reason I stopped there was to see the donkey. Why? Because these little guys were hauling coal from the mines long before the locomotives or electric trains. The farm had closed but I was allowed to go grab a quick picture and pet him. There was this lama that was in my face the entire time. Everywhere I went, this lama was there. Anyways it looks like a good place to take your kids. They have lots of farm animals and a hay ride and are open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Go check it out!
See? Right in my face! I didn't even need to zoom for this photo!
Guess where I was today boys! You remember this one don't you?
I said in a previous post months ago that I wanted to see where the water level was in this particular mine come August. I visited the site several times from late November 2009 to February 2010 and observed the water level receeding. Each visit saw the water table drop 5-10 feet.
November was a crazy wet, rainy month and this mine had water spewing in from all directions. Everything was wet down there and you were cold, wet, and muddy afterwards. I thought about the upcoming summer and wondered what the warm weather would bring.
The tunnel photos are looking 'up' (of course).
Last edited by GR74; 08-18-2010 at 07:59 PM.
When I first visited this site in November 2009 the boiler was partially submerged. During this visit the water table couldn't be seen from this location. The conditions were much more desireable with little or no water coming in. A trickle here and there. The mine easily doubled in size over the past 6 months.
Walking past the boiler about 15 feet, I took these 2 photos looking down into the abyss:
I
I went down another 50 feet or so when I noticed a brick wall with a protruding valve on my right-hand side. There was a long, narrow pipe at the bottom that had fresh water tricking out of it. Could an old mine have possibly been bricked up? Pipes were everywhere. The mine went down and there were areas where the roof had come down. Still loads of space, an additional 200+ feet of mine from the boiler down to the water table. Now that's a coal mine!