"I first went up to the mines in 1956, and even at that time, had the impression that they might come back and reopen it. The dishes were all still in the cookhouse and if you went into the warehouse there were shelves and rows of different mining equipment and pipefitting. The doors had been broken, but remarkably, there was nothing missing at this time. There was an overnight explosion after the road went in and things disappeared within weeks. We would go up there summer after summer into the assay office and dig up little crucibles. I have one crucible I found that actually has little pieces of gold beads on it that they missed when they threw it out. I have a Zeballos map by H.H. Roberts B.C.L.S. of Vancouver, B.C. dated February 1938 which shows what mine or who owned which lots in town.

"The Mine Manager’s house was just below the Privateer Mine on a lovely spot on the river. It was across the river, so they built a swinging bridge that was sturdy enough to take the weight of horses. Horses were used in the mines and pastured on the Privateer Flats near the mine manager’s house. At the end of the day, the horses were sent to pasture and were trained to walk across the swinging bridge. The barns were there when I first went there but have long since disappeared.

"The New Privateer had a community hall that had a bowling alley and a pool table in it. When I first went in there, in 1956, we would hike up to the mine site and bowl in that alley. The pool table leaned a little bit to one side! I saved the chalking device from the pool table.

"The movie equipment was installed in Zeballos, because at the time of the gold mines, it was a very rich community with lots of money. The mines were giving a lot of money to the village, and they built the big Community Hall down town. They put in two Cineplex 35millimetre Carbon Art projection machines, which was equivalent to anything they had in Vancouver at the time. From 1948 until they stopped using the equipment, they could play the most up to date movies, because they could handle the 35 millimetre films. I have the original approval letter from the Fire Marshal’s office to start up the machines.

"One thing I found very interesting is that after the Zeballos gold rush there was not anything like it again, in Canada or the U.S. Many of the old prospectors who had been in Zeballos were from the Yukon. The old prospectors were a tight knit group, so after the big gold rush many of the prospectors came down to Zeballos because they knew their old cronies were there. There was not another gold rush anywhere and they had nowhere to go. So, a lot of them stayed there waiting for the big event to happen somewhere else. It did not happen so they became a part of the community and grew old there. Some of them are quite famous. Andy Morod is quite famous by Zeballos standards; there were articles written about him. Norman Ray, Vic Davies and Jack McCabe are a few more names from there. I could come up with a list of all the names of the prospectors who lived there in the fifties and sixties. I feel very fortunate to have known these old guys. They could tell some interesting stories.

"Vic Davies and some of the old fellows claim to have seen leprechauns up around White Star mine. I never talked to Vic about them but some of the old guys used to talk about it.

"There should be books written about Andy Morod because he was the last of the real prospectors to be active. He had a series of cabins, each of them - one days hike from the next. When he would come into town and get his supplies, he was very private and stayed to himself. The surprising thing about Andy was that he had the best short-wave radio around; he was more aware of world news and European events then any of us. He subscribed to a large number of papers, so when he came to town every two weeks or so, to get his mail, he would have a huge stack of newspapers from all over the area. He would get his groceries and we would drive him up to the end of the road. It was a big deal for us at the store to be able to help him get his groceries to the first cabin. Andy was a little bit crippled and on his trails there were rock outcrops and trees, but he had learned to use his arms. He would carry more weight then we did, and when he came to one of his little corners he would just put one hand down on the rock or the tree and literally swing his pack and his legs around the corner. When we got to his first cabin he would make us tea, and if we were very lucky he would dig around and show us the little samples of his gold. He would be alone for weeks at a time, and he would relay his supplies to the next cabin, stay a few days there, and then go on to the next cabin. He was a good environmentalist; if he found a piece of paper or gum wrapper on his trail after you were there, you were in big trouble. You would leave no sign when you traveled with Andy. Eleanor Witten has done quite a bit of research on Andy and has written quite a few articles on him. The Zeballos Museum would have copies of them."

Iron Mines

"Dolly was the last horse taken out of the mines and the last horse to die. She was pastured on the Zeballos River Flats. Some of the local men used to trim her hooves when they got too long, other than this contact, she was not bothered much and she seemed to prefer to be left alone. We would all check on her now and then and sometimes she would disappear for weeks, hiding in the trees, and we would think that the cougars got her, but she would eventually show up. She was there year after year. No one had to feed her; she had lots of grass and vegetation to live on.

"I did own the store for a while, but not during the time of the iron mines. My uncle, Robert Witten, owned the store at that time. He bought the store from his dad, Seth Witten and his dad bought it from Nelson Brothers Fisheries. There was no longer a need for them to be there, the pilchard fishing industry was finished, and so Seth bought the business. I moved to Campbell River in 1966 and when Robert wanted to retire, I bought the business and moved back to Zeballos. I had actually moved away from Zeballos a few times.

Mason's truck, he bought it from Laurence Giles who had it there as a taxi in the 30's boom days.
It was a 1931 Cadillac, V12, power brakes and full sweep wipers. It was made into the truck.

"Zeballos Iron Mines, when it was in operation had a small community hall. This hall held a few functions, but generally, it was too small so they used the bigger hall downtown. Zeballos was and is still BC’s smallest incorporated community and I do not know if anyone realizes that Zeballos is south of Campbell River, according to the lines of latitude and longitude.

"For a social life, the people in Zeballos did various things to fill in their spare time. There was no road, so literally, you could drive a few miles and that was it. We had to make our own entertainment and major dances were the thing at New Years, Valentines, Easter and Halloween. For the Halloween dance, we would work for weeks or months on our costumes, and we did not tell anyone what it was. The fun at the dance was to figure out who was in the various costumes. We dressed up for these dances. Corsages were flown in from Campbell River, the women were in long dresses, and the men were in suits and ties. It is not like that in Zeballos today.

"There were two shows a week which were very well attended, especially Elvis Presley and Westerns. All the miners and loggers would come in and none of them would admit that they liked Elvis. Nevertheless, when the Elvis movies were on – the place was packed! Even during the sixties, when the iron mines were in their heyday, radio reception was very poor, there was no television, and there was no road access. By the time you got a newspaper it was several days old. By then, the news did not upset you at all. Newsreels were always looked forward to. After the movies were over, the rush was on to get across the street to Joe’s café; it was still open at that time. They did not have an awful lot of seating, but if you got in early, you got a seat, had coffee and pie and a visit with friends.

"The Nootka Mission Hospital provided our medical coverage. The doctor who attended the hospital was Dr. McLean. He came on the boat once a week, no matter how bad the weather was. The doctor always kept his appointments and we never doubted he would be there. He came from Esperanza, from the Nootka Mission Hospital. In Zeballos we also had BC Airlines, a Canadian Fisheries officer, a Marine officer and an RCMP detachment. There was a small holding cell in the building and whenever the police had someone locked up, and were not there to look after him, they would get one of us, whoever was available, to baby sit in case there was a fire or something.

"Perhaps one of the most valuable cargos that were brought in by boat with our weekly supplies was the beer, wine, and hard liquor for the liquor store. The quantity always looked huge. It was always amazing, for such a small community, so much booze would come off the boat. The reason for this was that Tahsis did not have a liquor store, so their liquor had to come into the Zeballos store. The Tahsis order would be delivered on the vessel Merry Mead, which was skippered by Red Wilson and Slim Beale.

"Zeballos general store always held surprises for new customers. They were always surprised by the variety of goods that were available: complete lines of hardware, galvanized pipe cut to size, copper pipe, window glass for house or boats, fire clay, tar paper, paint, rolls of linoleum, nails, screws, guns, ammunition, fishing gear, sports and commercial, and the list goes on. There was fresh meat, fresh fruits, dairy, baby wear, men’s and women’s wear, caulk boots, dynamite, blasting caps, hard hats, core-blasting caps, and pharmacy items, including blue ointment and contraceptives and anything that was allowed by law. The store could not carry some items. The backroom at the store held items that had not been used in years. The owners of the store were packrats, including myself. Robert Witten, Seth’s dad, never threw anything out; it was just stacked in the back. If you needed a part to fix something old, you went to the store because you were pretty sure they could root around in the back and find it. If they could not find it they would order it, and it would be in on the next boat. That was a popular phrase in Zeballos: ‘It will be in on the next boat.’ I think it is important to note that the increased population from the iron mines allowed the store to carry the variety of goods that it did.

Ghosts of Zeballos

"The original ghost in Zeballos is supposedly in the Hotel. I do not know if you have heard about Suzy, but she resides upstairs on the south end of the hotel. She has been there for years and does not show her presence very often. When she does she is not very visible, it is just sounds and noises. I talked to one fellow who went to work for the hotel and was told that he would have a room upstairs to stay in. After one night up there, he came down and there was no way he would go upstairs again. Nothing actually happened to him but it was the noises and the feeling of a presence. That is the Zeballos hotel, which is there now.

"There was a fellow at the mine named Henry Viher who was killed in an accident there. My understanding is that the officials at the mine could not find any relatives, kin, or anything, and the guys who Henry worked with said ‘let’s bury him here, and when we go by the cemetery to work we can wave at him on the way.’ So Henry was buried in Zeballos. It was about a year later that a woman contacted the mine and it turned out she was Henry’s sister. He had been in contact with her but they did not find any copies of the communications, so they did not know she existed. She came to Canada because she wanted to visit the place where he was buried. When she got to Zeballos, it was one of those cold miserable rainy days. The cemetery is up in the trees, and it was not a pleasant place to visit. She did not want her brother buried in a place like that; he had been raised in a large European city and just was not used to that lifestyle. So she actually managed to get permission to have his body exhumed and taken to Campbell River for burial. They went in to dig up the coffin, which was by a creek. It is a very damp area, and the coffin disintegrated a bit. She could see that he had been buried in just a shroud and was not happy with that either. She arranged with the undertaker from Campbell River to have him put in a suit and buried properly. Her wishes were complied with and Henry was buried in Campbell River. She made arrangements to have flowers delivered to his grave every couple of weeks and headed back to Germany.

"It was not too long after that people began to come into town and say ‘The funniest thing happened. I was coming down the road past the cemetery and I thought I should give someone a ride, because it was a rainy nasty day. I stopped but there was no one there.’ It happened a few times. People began to question a little bit more and they described this large fellow dressed in dark clothes who was standing on the southwest corner of the cemetery grounds. I do not know if you have seen the Zeballos cemetery, but it is a bit unusual. The headstones do not all lay in the same direction; they lay at different angles and in different directions. Apparently, this does not create harmony within a cemetery. People began to put two and two together and the only thing that they could figure is that this ‘person’ was Henry. The theory of those who believe in that sort of thing is that Henry Viher’s spirit was wandering or traveling when they came in and dug up the physical body and took it away. He does not have a place to go. So, he is waiting patiently in the corner of the cemetery to find his way. Some say that Henry has been seen sitting on the fence.

Mason currently lives in Campbell River with his wife Anna and is retired. Many people bring their memorabilia from Zeballos to him and he makes sure that it is well taken care of. His retirement is just as busy as his workdays. Mason’s time is filled with travel and spectacular views of Discovery Passage from his home.