Cool Underground Tunnel and Nanaimo's Old Mine Shafts

[Bunky]

Wow, this is a pretty cool website. I'm awful at names, but I do remember the store and the 25cents. I used to ride my little pony from cinnibar to extension as a kid. 7 years old. Those were the days. We never did much treasure hunting. But enjoyed it all the same. Remember the shed where the old Bookmobile would stop to. M&M stables. Wonder if any of those girls are around now?
Went to Extension School to. Then south wellington for one year, then chase river for 5, 6 and 7. Went to five schools growing up, and never moved once! I think I had a Mrs. Story.
Has anyone found the mine in the bottom of cinnibar? There are a few access from white rapids, and mr. torko's old farm in cinnibar, and nanaimo river rd, follow power lines.
The bluffs in there we found when we were around 13. Many years later i found them again. there is an old sawmill, old mac and blo site, and the bluffs, where i was told a war dodger lived. They did a bunch of logging a few years ago, and found a hand dug, and filled mine there. If i ever figure out how to scan pics, i'll post the pics i took.

It just dawned on me. Read about the mine in the bottom of Cinnabar.

[Bunky]

I took that last post from another thread. I thought the interesting part was about the mine in Cinabar Valley. Hopefully you follow my drift.

[GR74]

My Go-Green post of the day is a broken mining wheel photographed at Old Slope back in Summer 2011. Enjoy!

[Peter Roosen]

I,m a neighbor who has the good fortune to look out my window and see the train garden peter wherehe has so kindly restored and assembled many things from the past,, it is an asset to our neighbor hood and community, thank goodness we have proactive people who will put their nose to the grindstone and produce worthwhile things, in our minds he has all the right to do what has done on his property, as he and only he will suffer the consequences of failure due to design, or workmanship. Keep up the good work , we are behind you all the way, and have the faith that the folks who deal with the rules will have good sense and back away. I can assure you,, us and many of the other neighbors will stand by hand to hand to block any pressure in dismantling OUR GARDEN,, hahah you built it but were taking ownership!!1 keep up the good work, don,t let them steal your peace!

Thanks Doug for the support. You and Sue often heading up and down the road in horse drawn carts and carriages similarly brings forth finer aspects of our past. Cheers to keeping it alive and interesting! Thanks also Flugel Horn and no worries in regards to your earlier post.

[Peter Roosen]

Ya, well it's funny you say that because I found two things there this past Winter. I'm clueless as to what they are. I'll post one of the objects tonight and one tomorrow.

This first one appears to have been a cover of some kind, possibly hinged at one time and has a small handle on the front. It appears to have a sheared look to it and one would guess that it 'broke' off. Of what? Dunno. You see the look (3rd picture) on my cat's face right now? It's the infamous "time to get off the computer" look. He expects me to cuddle him soon.

This is what it looks like:

A furnace / firebox ash pan for the first one? Draw bar / draft gear for the other? I figure less than 10% chance of being right on either.

[gwyneth]

Hi, Peter:

If I have time whilst back on the Island next week for my monthly leave from the mines, I'll drive by; don't be overly worried if someone in a little rental car stops to take some photos from the road! (Grey-blonde hair, goofy blue wool Finnish cap, sense of humour to go with.)

Cheers,

Gwyneth

[gwyneth]

There were several prospect slopes and one attempt at 'serious' mining (Rowburn Mine) in the general Cinnabar area. Back in the day, actually around 1988 or thereabouts, I led a party of Japanese engineers into the bush to examine a few of the then-still-accessible entries on the hill between the lake and the Black Track. Somewhere in my files I have the notes of an underground survey that we ran in Rowburn, establishing that the coal was very pockety and inconsistent: much more of a 'poddy' black shale than a proper coal. As I recall, there were two main tunnels, and then a small maze of twisty little tunnels all quite different, rather like the proverbial Adventure computer-game. Anyone who cares to dig into the archives of the Vancouver Sun would eventually find a newspaper story from the Fifties about the efforts to work that coal back then.

Our Japanese friends balked at the estimated $300,000 cost of properly drilling the hill for coal; that'd be a couple of million now, what with all the prerequisite baseline studies, public consultation, and expectably-slow permitting process. For coking coal, maybe it would still be worth it, but our analyses (done back in Yokohama!) showed high-volatile, high-sulphur (over 2%), high-inherent-ash, low-calorific-value thermal coal (High Volatile 'B' bituminous coal, with an Ro value of only 0.62%). We could have sold coal like that in 1926, but not in 1988.

There is still potentially-workable coal at Nanaimo, but to the very best of my knowledge, nobody has yet done a proper '43-101'-compliant study of coal resources, let alone reserves. I have written several non-compliant reports (non-compliant mainly because they were written according to the standards of good practice in the Eighties, by no means up to modern practice). Let's just say that there are some interesting exploration targets left in the Nanaimo Coalfield, but they're best left for younger (and wealthier) coal-hunters.

[Peter Roosen]

Hi, Peter:

If I have time whilst back on the Island next week for my monthly leave from the mines, I'll drive by; don't be overly worried if someone in a little rental car stops to take some photos from the road! (Grey-blonde hair, goofy blue wool Finnish cap, sense of humour to go with.)

Cheers,

Gwyneth

You are more than welcome to visit Gwyneth. I'll still be in Arizona.

[GR74]

I recently did a job for a semi-retired couple in the South Wellington area a week or so ago and ended up involved in a half-hour long conversation about coal mining. The residence was located in the Thatcher Road-Kimball Road area of South Wellington beside the golf course and is on the outskirts of the then-South Wellington No.10 Coal Mine. The gentleman was nice enough to photocopy a map of his property which you will find attached to this post. In this map you can see how the land was divided into lots belonging to the coal miners working in the No.10 Coal Mine. You will also see a portion of the ROW that ran from the No.10 eventually ending at Boat Harbor. The map isn't much but it is still interesting to look at.

[Peter Roosen]

I recently did a job for a semi-retired couple in the South Wellington area a week or so ago and ended up involved in a half-hour long conversation about coal mining. The residence was located in the Thatcher Road-Kimball Road area of South Wellington beside the golf course and is on the outskirts of the then-South Wellington No.10 Coal Mine. The gentleman was nice enough to photocopy a map of his property which you will find attached to this post. In this map you can see how the land was divided into lots belonging to the coal miners working in the No.10 Coal Mine. You will also see a portion of the ROW that ran from the No.10 eventually ending at Boat Harbor. The map isn't much but it is still interesting to look at.

1914 survey if I read that date in the bottom right correctly. Neat! I'm assuming the PCCM railway was already gone by then with the Right of Way still officially in place at the time of the survey as it might still be today.