"The mine was entered through a portal that was just across Spud Creek from the camp. There was a drift about a half mile long to where there was an underground shaft and hoist. This level was the ‘400’, or main haulage level. That level had been worked out and all ore had to be hoisted from the two levels below. They were the ‘500’ and the ‘600’. The levels were about 100 feet apart.

"For a short time, I worked as a hand-trammer on the ‘500’. I filled a one tonne car with ore from a chute, which was about a half mile from the shaft, and pushed it to the shaft and dumped into a bucket, and then the ore was lifted to an ore pocket on the mail haulage level. I was paid 50 cents a car for this work.

"The ‘600’ level had a drift that was ¾ of a mile long and the trammer on that level got paid 75 cents a car. In an 8 hour shift I usually trammed 20 cars or so. The job was hard, dirty, and wet. I think the wet was the worst part. The pay was good for those times, but I was glad to leave it to work in the assay office for less.

"The ore was mined by the shrinkage stope method. The miner set up his stoper on the ore that had been previously blasted, and when the stope was mined out there was a vacant space left, unless waste rock was dumped there, which it often was, but not until the ore had all been extracted. The underground crew was on a two shift schedule. (8 am to 4 pm, and 8 pm to 4 am). There were usually two miners and two helpers per shift, but there must have been more when the ore was plentiful. There were also two trammers and a hoist man for each shift. The mine foreman was Bud Ditto, and there was also a steel sharpener. The drill steel for underground drilling had to be sharpened after every shift. Detachable tungsten bits, that did not have to be sharpened were just being introduced at that time and probably had replaced the drill steel by the time the mine closed in November of 1948. I only remember a few of the underground employees, Ross Glidden and Scotty Marshall.

"The mine office was a small building for the manager, Harry Hewat, the accountant, Bill McDermot, and the time keeper, Al Johnson. Other employees were the mine engineer, the assayer and the warehouseman. The engineer shared a part-time helper with the assayer. The engineer at that time was Walter Jewit. The cookhouse had one cook who fed approximately 30 men, although lunch time probably only had 15 or so. The meals were of the very best I have tasted. There was also a dishwasher, who was also the bullcook or janitor.

"The last working building was the powerhouse. All electricity was produced on-site by two large diesel generators. They seemed large to me, but maybe weren’t that big. It ran 24 hours a day and needed two operators and the master mechanic. The master mechanic was Gardner Thompson, and the operators were Merle Campbell and Pierre (I don’t remember Peirre’s last name).

"On site, there was also a recreational building with floor space for dancing, movies, and such. I don’t actually remember that we had movies when I was there. There was also a bowling alley with two lanes and a coffee shop/store. The bowling pins were set by hand and usually one of the sons of the manager or mine foreman were hired for this, at 5 cents per line.

"Ed Hall was the assayer at Privateer Gold Mine. When he left, to work on a lease at the Central Zeballos property, I took over as the assayer. I have worked in a lot of mines all across Canada and in other countries, but Privateer Gold Mines stands out for me as one of the best places to work. It may have been the family atmosphere that the mine had, or it may be that this was the mine that set me up for a lifetime of working in the mining industry. I had worked in other mines but, without this job, I might have gone into a different line of work.

The Privateer Gold Mine

"The Privateer Gold Mine produced gold from about 1938 to 1948. It was closed for a few years during the Second World War The only one I knew who worked there before the war was Eddie Hall. Ed, when I first met him, was the assayer at the Privateer, but before the war he was a teenager who worked for his uncle, C.C. Camp. C.C. Camp was a well known mill man who was the first mill superintendent at the Privateer. He was given the job of building the mill, in 1938 or 1939. While the mill was being built, high grade ore was shipped from the mine. It was hand-sorted and the best material was packed in carbide cans. This was one of Ed Hall’s jobs at that time. Carbide cans were about 15 inches in diameter and 24 inches high. Ed Hall told me that a car-bide can, when ¾ full of the best material, weighed about 200 lbs.

"In 1947, the mill was processing ore that contained 1 ounce of gold per ton. The Privateer was processing ore that was the highest grade being processed in Canada at that time.

"When the mine closed in 1948, samples of this original material were brought to the mine from the Vancouver office and melted down into a gold bar. There were 20 lbs of material and, when the gold was melted out of it, there was a bar that was worth just over $2,000. That means that the original carbide cans might have been worth as much as $20,000 each. The material from the Vancouver office might have been the very best that came from the Privateer, so the carbide cans may not have all been worth $20,000, but they would have been close to that figure. It would be interesting to know what the government archives have to say about the material shipped from the Privateer Mine in 1938 and 1939.

"By 1948, the mine was thought to be mined out. There was no more ore to be found, but some years later, other operators did go back and found a vein that had been missed by the original operators. I do not know what grade of material was found, or how much of it was mined. The owner of the mine, at that time, was Mr. Cohen and I think he lived in Calgary. The man who operated the mine for Mr. Cohen was Adolf Aichmeier

“Top of the World!”

In 1947, the mountain that stood out for all employees at the Privateer Gold Mine was called Mount Zeballos. The peak was clearly visible from the road near the Rec Hall. Its proper name may be Zeballos Peak, and it may be a part of the Rugged Range, but we were mine workers, not mountain climbers or naturalists, and we knew it as Mount Zeballos.  Some of us thought that the peak we could see just begged to be climbed.

"That spring, we got at least two months of continuous rain. Not pouring down rain, but the steady drizzle that kept up day after day. After that there was another two months or so of on-again rain, so it was well into summer before I could do anything about climbing that mountain. While I was waiting, I asked questions. How far was it? How do you get there? What else was up that way? There were more questions than answers. To get close to it the road went past the Privateer and the Central Zeballos and on to the Homeward Mine. I did get a chance to walk the road as far as the Homeward on a decent Sunday for exploring. It was about 4 or 5 miles from the Privateer. Not much there, and it was obviously too far to the right. Next week I would do better.

"The next decent Sunday (we worked 6 days a week) I went past the Central Zeballos to where I could see the river from the road. This was Nomash Creek, just before it met the Zeballos River. It was shallow enough to wade across. On the other side of the creek, there was supposed to be a blazed trail to Zeballos Lake, which was at the foot of the mountain. I found the trail then lost it, and then I got lost. It should be remembered that this was before the logging got started in that valley. By the time I found myself again, the day was shot.

"The following week I found the trail and the lake, it wasn’t easy but I didn’t get lost. The distance from the Privateer was probably about 5 miles. I had a swim, ate my lunch and headed back. Now, who was I going to talk into climbing that mountain? Even I wasn’t foolish enough to do it on my on. I didn’t know the accountant, Bill McDermot very well, he was married so he didn’t live in the bunkhouse or eat in the cookhouse. When talking about Zeballos Lake and how I got there, Bill showed a fair amount of interest, and asked if I would show him the way to the lake. I asked when? He wanted to go on the following Saturday. I couldn’t go on that Saturday. By that time, I was the assayer at the mine and my own boss, but I had work to do that had to be done. We compromised, I drew him a map and I would leave as soon as I could on Saturday afternoon, and meet him and the manager’s son, Wilf Hewat, at the lake.

"The next Saturday I started early, worked hard and was able to get away from camp just after 1 p.m. (I skipped lunch as well). I went up that road at a good clip and was on the blazed trail by about 2:30. Not far up the trail I ran into Bill and Wilf, they had gotten lost and had only just got back to the trail. They were packing a lot of stuff that I hadn’t bothered with; sleeping bags, food & utensils. I had food and a blanket (I was young and foolish in those days). We made the lake and they were beat. I went for a swim. I didn’t realize that Bill had a camera and took a few pictures of me, in the buff; the pictures showed up in camp a few weeks later! I don’t remember the other two swimming. We decided to try the climb on the Labour Day weekend, so we went back to the mine after lunch.

"Bill & I left the mine camp just after breakfast on the Sunday. Wilf backed out. We had our lunch at the lake, and then looked for a good place to start up. We found a good place and started to climb. It was not a hard climb and we took our time. I had never climbed a mountain before and Bill was out of shape. There were problems with the underbrush at first, and then it got a bit steep in places. Right near the top it was more difficult, but we made it. Wow! The view was terrific! We could look down on Zeballos Lake and I took one picture showing the shadow of the mountain on the lake. We took other pictures showing each of us with a cairn we built at the peak. We also left our names and the date in a can for somebody else to find later.

"I was surprised to find that we were not up as high as some of the peaks on the other side of the lake. That was the Rugged Range, and a couple of its peaks are about 1000 feet taller than the one we were on. We later found out that Mount Zeballos was only about 5100 ft., and the ones across the lake were over 6100 ft. None of those peaks stood out as well as the one we were on, and they looked further away as well. I think we picked the right peak to climb.

"Darkness came suddenly. There was no way we were going down that mountain in the dark. We had food but no water. Bill thought I had the water and I thought he had it; I think I was the one to make that goof. It did cool down considerably, and there was a breeze on the peak, so we dropped down below the peak. There was no flat space to lie flat and we had not brought a blanket. We were thirsty, cold and miserable. It was a long night and we were both glad to see the dawn. We went up again for another look around before the final decent. What a breathtaking sight it was, with the sun just coming up and everything below in the shadows!