Large Scale Central

Calling all mining experts

Prototypes
#1

OK so this is a mine in British Columbia on Kootenay Lake Between Nelson and Kaslo near Ainsworth Hot Springs. I can’ not seem to get an information on it other than it sits behind this little restaurant that I don’t think is even open anymore. But I want to model this mine. I love the building and it is a great little mine for the indoor. But I am trying to figure out what its purpose is. They type of mine and what the actual structure is for. I believe it is where the Kaslo-Slocun RR went and this probably was a siding and the building is the ore bin were ore was brought out of the mountain and dumped in here and then dumped into gondolas or some other such car. The long covered thing going into the mountain I believe is the tram. There are tram buckets there. Also a chute is seen toward the bottom. I don’t believe this is a vertical shaft mine but rather a horizontal deal. there is no evidence of any hoist mechanism. Any ideas on this. either way I will make it what I want but I am curious if people, by looking at it, can determine what is happening.

I am trying to track down info on it. Wish i would have thought about this for the MIK challenge

#2

Sweet structure!

I don’t see the ore bin large enough to fill cars. Remember though back then higher grades of ore were bagged and that chute might be for that. The lower building could have been used to store bagged ore between trains.

Just a thought as I wonder why you are dawdling? Woulda shoulda coulda!

Have you seen my electric culverts? Get yours today!

John

#3

That’s a 3 story out house.

#4

Devon Sinsley said:

“Wish i would have thought about this for the MIK challenge”

I’m glad you didn’t. That build would have kicked my Yankee Girl Mine’s butt in the voting!

#5

John Passaro said:

Devon Sinsley said:

“Wish i would have thought about this for the MIK challenge”

I’m glad you didn’t. That build would have kicked my Yankee Girl Mine’s butt in the voting!

Thant Yankee Girl is a nice building. I think it will stand up well. This is just a cool little mine building though and will be fun to build.

#6

Yeah, really interesting structure, and very home-made. Almost hard to tell if Steve is joking or not!

Lots of things missing. Like, the “track” protruding in front: there would have to be a reason, i.e., to dump waste. But no waste trestle or pile. The side door from the “track” leads to something not there. And to John’s point, the ore bin would be beneath the “track,” but the structure beneath looks more like an enclosed staircase.

Can’t quite see where a RR siding would go?

The covered track to the hillside is plausible, to allow year-round operation.

I suspect that this was a project created by the restaurant owner, to show off mining hardware and perhaps charge an entry fee. Might have began with or even relocated a building or two, but the plywood siding and octagonal dormer over the track seem like artistic license.

Of course, I’m no expert, and I could be TOTALLY wrong!

Any more pics?

Cliff

#7

I’m going with Cliff on this. My first impression was that the entire structure is very fanciful with a lot of interesting parts with no apparent functions or at least no evidence of actual use. I didn’t want to say anything because I don’t know much about mine structures, but what Cliff is saying jives with my original impression. Still, it would be a great build…if you can reasonably assign functions to the forms. Nice.

edit: I agree that the dormer is particularly suspicious. Like I said, I don’t know much about mine structures, but one thing seems to run across the board: the miners had no time or patience for anything remotely frivolous!

#8

Cliff,

you may very well be right but there are a few things you can’t see from these photos. There is a mine opening that is gated where the long covered track is. You get just a glimpse of it from the side. There is also a very small chute that you can’t see because of bushes. there are tram way buckets so I think that the covered area is not track but a tram way. I am guessing though. Another thing is the restaurant is not much more than a shack and on that pole by the building is three phase power. I don’t think anything in that restaurant would need three phase power. And I have been here several times (no one is ever around to ask any questions) and It appears to never be open to visitors. and nothing is really what I would call on display. I will try to get some better photos of it. I have them at home. RR tracks long gone would be easy to see how they came in and the highway is likely the old RR road bed.

I wouldn’t rule it out as not being real but I think it is.

#9

With those 3 transformers nearby, perhaps it’s for ventilation.

#10

Here is the google street view of it. I agree with cliff there is no discernible tailing pile from this mine either. But all over N Idaho I can take you to little mines like this on where there isn’t much of a tailing pile. This area may have been built up on the tailing pile. I don’t know. I have a few feelers out I am hoping someone can shed light on it.

#11

Well if there is a gated mine opening, that would say mine structure. Maybe the structure’s been embellished for some reason. The big outdoor light is certainly modern and certainly added on.

#12

Devon, put your Sherlock Holmes hat on, get your meerschaum pipe out, and be sure and let us know what you find out.

#13

I will post other pictures. I mean I agree it is a crazy weird seemingly strange building (thats why I like it) but there are strange clues for and against it being real. Every time I see it which is about 5 times now I wonder if it is real or for show. Thing is there is never anyone there which is weird also. The restraints face book page seems to have gone dormant in 2013. I have been going up here since I was about 17. Never ever seems to be anything happening tourist or miner wise. Its a mystery that’s for sure.

#14

I may have to make a day trip up there. Long drive maybe make a weekend out of it there are nice hot springs just down the road.

#15

Devon, around here coal was mined in what they call drift mines, as well as shaft mines. A drift mine goes horizontally, or nearly so, into the hillside, where an outcropping of coal was observed. Then the mine follows the coal seam until it plays out. Because it starts with an outcropping, and follows the coal seam, there is little to no tailing to pile up. So if this was a drift mine, that would explain the lack of tailings.

Agree that mines were usually very utilitarian affairs, and so the dormer makes it a bit suspect, but oft time folks used what they got their hands on. What if they repurposed a small shanty or house as the mine head, then it would have whatever details it came with.

So I can go either way, real or fantasy, but either way its cool.

#16

OK here is what the lady at the resort across the street responded in a message on face book.

“it is an old silver mine that is closed to the public at this time. There are some old shafts up the logging road but aren’t the safest.”

#17

They could have bagged galena, which is lead/silver. It’s said smelters used lead, so they liked getting galena. They didn’t always send their waste out past the loading dock. My favorite old mine had several side drifts for dumping away from the runs to the ore bin.

John

#18

See I was thinking drift mine (forgot the name of it) instead of a vertical shaft mine. And if the lady is right and there are other shafts that would make sense as well they could be ventilation shafts or drifts further up the vein. If this was the original drift then ore could likely still have been taken out this shaft.

I agree whether whimsy or or real its cool and Sinsley Logging and Mining Company will likely copy the design.

#19

John this is almost certainly a galena mine if it truly is silver. The area north of here all the way south through my region of the world all produced galena. The Silver Valley which is the Coeur d’Alene Mining District where I am writing about and modeling should be called Lead Valley. Far more money was made of lead than silver. Just not as romantic.

#20

OK I got the answer from a nearby mining museum. It is a real mine location and a real mine entrance but the buildings are not original structures and were put there for a mining museum that never emerged. So the building itself is not real but whimsy.