Pioneer Mine

1934-1938

Archive: Canada 1928-1939

Moving On

It was1934 and jobs were hard to come by, but Frank Bruce needed work that would take him out of the gut of hell at Britannia Mines. He found it as purchasing agent at the highly lucrative gold operation, Pioneer Mine, near Lillooet, BC.

Origins of Pioneer Mine

Miner, prospector and amateur geologist Arthur Noel discovered the vein at Pioneer. He focused his attention on the placer finds of the Fraser Canyon at the mouth of Bridge River, tributary to the Fraser River. Placer mining had been ongoing throughout the Bridge River area since 1858. When California placer miners became disenchanted with the dwindling payloads there, they moved north to the Cariboo. Chinese miners took over and for a few more years, made a good living. Women from the Lillooet tribe were the most ingenious of miners. Letting themselves down into the waters of the creeks up to their necks, they felt around the crevices with their toes, grasping and retrieving nuggets.

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By 1918, two million dollars of placer gold had been recovered in the Bridge River area.. Noel concluded that mother lodes must exist up the creeks flowing into Bridge River. He narrowed his search to one particular Creek, Cadwallader Creek and there, discovered veins of gold which became Pioneer and nearby Bralorne Mine. By the time Frank arrived, Pioneer was a major gold producer. A BC Minister of Mines report stated that

“Two tons alone taken out (of the Pioneer Mines at Bridge River) in the last two weeks of December (1932) produced nearly $200,000 worth of gold. Another pocket taken out later produced 400 pounds of gold from 900 pounds of ore, which is probably the richest half-ton mined in the province, if not in Canada.”

In the first half of 1934, Pioneer Mine yielded well over one million dollars in profits. The nearby Golden Cache Mine, the first vein discovered by Noel, was rich as well. Arthur P. Woollacott, writer of the article from which this information was taken, states that he recalls seeing a 500-pound mass of quartz from the Golden Cache Mine in a jeweller’s window in Victoria. It was shot through with heavy stringers and masses of pure gold.

Only two miles down the road from Pioneer Mine was Bralorne Mine, then the richest mine in Canada. Ultimately, the two mines amalgamated to become Bralorne-Pioneer Mine. From those two mines, over four million ounces of gold and two million ounces of silver were extracted from eight million tons of ore.

Through the 1930s, Pioneer grew to about 600 residents. It had its own own schools, theatre, hospital and recreation facilities. Removed a bit from the townsite Frank secured a small cabin. There was a creek nearby for water, a wood stove provided heat and oil lamps were used for light. It was basic living, but nothing Frank wasn’t used to and likely preferred.

Life at Pioneer

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Proposal

Frank, I suppose, got lonely though. In 1936, he wrote to Hester Spriggs, a girl he had dated back in Baie d’Urfé when he and his brothers attended McDonald College. Frank must have made discrete inquiries as to Hester’s marital status, then, discovering she was still single, he proposed. She wrote back and said yes! Frank was 36; Hester 29.

At age 29, this was likely to be Hester’s last chance for marriage. Her parents probably held grave doubts about Frank’s prospects, but they knew the man as a person of character, English bred and Hester’s last chance.

Hester

Hester was raised in a Quaker family in England. She was born into wealth. Her father and his father before him were in manufacturing. The family had cooks, nannies, house maids and chauffeurs, a ride-on steam train in the back yard and quality boarding schools. Then in 1915, her father did an extraordinary thing. The business was sold and the family packed up, said goodbye to their Quaker family and friends, and emigrated to Nova Scotia. There they bought an apple farm in the Annapolis Valley and put in the hard, physical labour to revitalize the neglected farm and make it a success, But success was not to be. World War I had devastated the apple market and the farm went broke. The Spriggs retired to Baie d’Urfé.

Hester was only nine when the family immigrated,. Thus, she had minimal exposure to farm life, as much of her time was spent at boarding school. At Baie d’Urfé, her life of privilege continued, including an extended trip to the continent with her sister Alison. And so, when Hester climbed aboard that CPR passenger car, destined for a life in the wilderness of British Columbia, she had experienced little to nothing of the real world. That was about to change.

A New Life

Hester packed her trusso and warm clothes, said a tearful goodbye to her siblings and parents and, alone for the first time, boarded the train for the five day trip to Vancouver. From there, she caught a Union Steamship to Squamish, perhaps a two hour sail from Vancouver, then rode the E&N Railway to Seton Portage, at the base of the mountain range upon which lay Pioneer Mine. For the final leg, it was a several hours ride by motor coach up a switchbacking, rough mountain road to reach Pioneer Mine. Frank was there at the bus stop, waiting to greet her in suit and tie. Arrangements were made for Hester to hurriedly change into her wedding dress, and before the sun had set that evening, the couple were married by the Mine Superintendent to the cheers of a dozen friends.

The couple retired to the cabin. Hester’s heart dropped at the sight of her new home. Frank gave her a tour, then said he had some quick errands to run in the town. When Frank returned, he had a man with him. Frank explained that the man had just arrived in Pioneer and had no place to stay. Would Hester mind if he camped on the floor for the night? The marriage never recovered.

Source for the mining info above is from the article “Gold in Lillooet by Arthur P. Woolacott, MacLeans Magazine, 1934 https://archive.macleans.ca/article/1934/3/1/gold-in-lillooet

Documents

Docs 1930-1939-0724

Docs 1930-1939-0709

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Docs 1930-1939-0672

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