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Mascot Gold Mine Photo Gallery
The Upper Similkameen valley, looking southeast. The highway leads to Keremeos.
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The Upper Similkameen valley, looking northwest. Hedley, BC, pop. 480, is on the portion of highway hidden behind the mountainside in the foreground. The highway continues on to Princeton.
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Hedley is the starting point for the Mascot Gold Mine tour. The bus departs from the red building immediately adjacent to the highway. Formerly a school, it is now the new Mascot Mine Interpretive Centre.
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Over 1000m above Hedley, the Mascot Mine buildings cling to the side of the mountain. This is now a museum.
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The tour bus climbs 1300m via the Hedley-Nickel Plate Rd. starting with this tortuous section.
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When the mine was operating in the first half of the 1900s a cable car ran from the village to this landing above the mine site.
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Tour bus passengers disembark and begin the short hike to the viewpoint above the mine site. This footpath was formerly the access road!
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Similkameen Valley comes into view. You can glimpse the metal roofs of some mine buildings, and the long stairway leading down to them.
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There are 550 steps from the viewpoint down to the mine!
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The stairs change direction frequently to closely follow the terrain. Hedley is in plain view below.
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Visitors approach the entrance to the Mascot Mine site. The addition of metal roofs was among the first repairs made to the buildings to prevent further deterioration.
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Most buildings are on the main level including the mine office. The tracks lead from the mine tunnel to various shops and the chute where the ore was dumped into the tram. (This was a tough multi-shot photo to fit together properly due to all the linear features. I opted to align the horizon at the expense of the tracks, etc.)
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Tracks exit the mine tunnel, bifurcate, and then trifurcate ....
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... with each track leading to a different building.
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A diagram showing the mine layout.
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Buildings are joined higgledy-piggledy by a collection of stairs and walkways.
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Viewed from below the buildings have more floors than is first apparent.
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The wooden buildings have dark, weathered colour. Lighter wood indicates modern repairs.
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Foundations have been shored up with modern improvements like extra wooden members, rock fill and concrete buttresses.
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Ore cars dumped their load down a chute into this car that was weighed before tipping its contents into the tram to be carried down to Hedley.
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The visit includes a walk into the mine tunnel. Tunnels run for several kilometres under Nickel Plate Mountain, but only a few hundred metres have been made safe for the tour.
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In we go!
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Some artefacts are to be found inside, including old wooden boxes used to store explosives.
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The lowermost building, not open to the public yet, is going to become a B&B.
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The train of ore cars backed onto this platform in order to advance the next full car to the chute to dump its load. The view is spectacular.
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Looking up from the main level at the other buildings including the cookhouse and bunkhouse. It's time to begin climbing back up the 550 steps.
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The bus trip down the hill is fun too ... yeehaa!!
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A topographic map showing the location of the Mascot Gold Mine site relative to Hedley. The red line shows the tour bus route from the highway to the mine. This map is an extract from Hedley, Keremeos & Mascot Gold Mine, available from Environ Geomatics.
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