Six years after the Cariboo Gold Rush begins miners head for the Big Bend on the Columbia River via Shuswap Lake. A year later, the Columbia Gold Rush is officially a bust and miners are bitter. They call it the Big Bend Bilk.
But not everyone gives up. In 1866, 80 die-hard miners winter over at Scotch Creek on Shuswap Lake. They have seen the coarse pellets and nuggets found 10 miles from the creek’s mouth. So begins the story of mining fever in the Shuswap. . .
This exhibit explores the history of placer and hard rock mining in the Shuswap.
Artefacts from “Jolly” Jack Thornton’s Sunset Mine Claim on Mt. Ida, a miner’s pump, rocker and assaying equipment from other claims accompany stories in photos captured over the last century. Thanks to a partnership with Jim Cooperman, author of Everything Shuswap, and the North Shuswap Historical Society, a mining timeline lays out their quest.
As Salmon Arm Board Member Mary Lou Tapson-Jones was fond of saying, “There are traces of gold throughout the Shuswap but no one has found the mother lode yet. . .”
Catch a fever and learn to pan for gold outside the Montebello Museum.
Click here for access to a summary of the Scotch Creek Gold Rush by Jim Cooperman author of Everything Shuswap.
photo credit: Rex Lingford, circa 1909-1914 Jack Thornton's mine - one of the Sunset Group of Claims on Mt. Ida
on a tour of what remains of Scotch Creek's mining history:
Video Courtesy of environmental activist and author Jim Cooperman,
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