Postcard pretty now, but Goat Island was all about industry

Men stand outside the Ramona Copper Mine in 1930. Photos courtesy of the qathet Historical Museum & Archives

BLAST FROM THE PAST

JOËLLE SÉVIGNY

Texada Island is well known for its mines, historically and in the present. However, a perhaps lesser-known island that was also mined in our region is Goat Island, located on θaʔyɛɬ (Thah yetl) / Powell Lake. This massive island measuring 67 square kilometers, was named after its local residents: Mountain Goats.

NOT JUST BECAUSE THE ISLAND IS THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME: Goat Island, in the middle of Powell Lake, is named for the mountain goats that were once populous there.

Photos courtesy of the qathet Historical Museum & Archives

Goats were heavily hunted in the Powell Lake area, by settlers in the early 20 th century. So much so that in 1929, the government of British Columbia established a Game Reserve on Goat Island. The population had thinned to a dangerous level, and the hope was to help repopulate the island and surrounding area.

The island is not only known for its goats, but for its minerals. That same year, the Romana Copper Mines Limited (which acquired Hummingbird and nine other claims) began developing mines on the north side of Goat Island. In the early 1920s, copper-showings were exposed by stripping and open-cutting on the surface. In 1929, a 183 meter tunnel was driven into the rock, under the “glory hole” where the first discovery was made.

An ore cart at the mine, photographed in 2005.

Photos courtesy of the qathet Historical Museum & Archives

The grade of chalcopyrite on Goat Island was good, and back then the Ministry of Mines estimated that it would bring about $15.00 ($260.00 today) a ton in copper values. There was also some silver and minor gold that was mined along with the copper.

Another natural resource that was exploited on Goat Island, and that continues to be harvested to this day, is timber. In the 1950s, Nicodemus “Nick” Hudemka, felled by hand, a 114-foot long tree on Goat Island. He was one of Powell Lake’s hermits, and was issued the last hand logger license in BC. Sometimes it could take him up to two weeks to get a single log down the side of a mountain to the lake.

A shingle bolt camp was also located on Goat Island, among other places on Powell Lake. The camps consisted primarily of Japanese workers. Owners of the shingle mill would buy bolts from them, often paying less than what was fair. In 1942, all Japanese workers were forcibly uprooted; some of the workers from Goat Island were sent to an internment camp in Sandon, BC.

Remnants of this history can still be found on Goat Island. Old tin lunch boxes were found at the shingle bolt camp and later donated to the Museum, and if you pass the north side of the island by boat, you can also still access some of the old mine tunnels.

Blast from the Past is written monthly by qathet Historical Museum and Archives public engagement coordinator Joëlle Sévigny.

|| jysevigny@powellrivermuseum.ca