The B.C. Prospector Magazine keeps coming and coming!

Ever since October Rob Nicholson is producing new issues of his fascinating B.C. Prospector Magazine. The December issue (No. 3) is just out and it is as an interesting read as the previous issues. I have found a place for his publications in the right-hand column of this blog. Just click on the issues to download. Issue No. 1 is free and the following issues are just US$3.25 a copy! Image credit

Saga Magazine, August 1973 Curse of Slumach's Gold Canyon

On my wish list for quite some time was the August 1973 issue of Saga Magazine, True Adventures for Men. Recently I did get hold of a copy of this manly magazine. Here is the cover and I thought you'd like to see the back page as well. The Slumach article, written by a Robert A. Davidson (about whom I know nothing yet) is posted on the Slumach Web site. Click here.
Click on the pictures to get a better look at the cover.

Sheridan Hill

The Pitt River Quarries gravel mine in the Pitt Polder hopes to expand its operation further into the rock face of Sheridan Hill allowing Lafarge Canada Inc. to continue mining at the site for another 10 to 15 years. The City of Pitt Meadows will be telling the province it doesn’t support the expansion. Sheridan Hill is one of several locations purported to be the site of Slumach’s lost gold mine. This from articles in Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows News from October 27 and October 29.

Slumach and Timbuktu at Coles in Seven Oaks

On Saturday December 12, between 1:00 and 3:00 in the afternoon, Brian and Rick Antonson will be on hand at Coles in Seven Oaks Shopping Centre in Abbotsford for a signing of their best seller Slumach's Gold, in Search of a Legend and Rick's fabulous To Timbuktu for a Haircut.

Bullshit or Fact?? Have you heard of this?

Mr. Bill Payne of Ontario sent the following e-mail:

I just checked out your web site, very interesting. I was just in BC on assignment fighting some of the wildfires around the Garibaldi Park/Pitt Lake area when I was told of this legend by a local helicopter pilot. I spent about 10 days with this pilot and we flew a few of the drainages that flow into Pitt Lake, very beautiful, rugged and impressive. My pilot was very familiar with the area as he mentioned that a few years ago he had been hired by an American to investigate the area in search for the illusive mine. It seems that the wealthy american had spent a great deal of time investigating all of the publishings, stories, etc... that pertained to this story. They spent about 4 weeks in the area searching all of the topographical features that he figured were clues and hints imbedded in some of the older stories he had dug up.After the 4 weeks he was empty handed but felt he was close to the secret mine.

The pilot I was with also made mention of a mini excavator that was slung into the area many years ago by a helicopter. The man in charge was also searching for the mine. My pilot did mention that they had found mounds of earth that they believed had been the work of the excavator.

Bullshit or Fact?? Have you heard of this?

The pilot was probably Paul Copeland of Blackcomb Aviation (see image)

In 1977, N.L (Bill Barlee) published a facsimile of a transcript of part of the “Jackson” letter. (click image to see the full page).

I've tried to find out where the original "authenticated oldest" copy of the “Jackson letter” from which this transcript was made would be today. An unexpected answer came from the transcript of a recorded telephone conversation between Barlee and Daryl Friesen quoted as follows in Friesen's Spindle Quest

-- Well the reason I am calling you is because you were the first person to ever publish a story which contained the Jackson letter. I was kind of wondering where you got it from.
-- Volcanic Brown gave it to my father.
-- Really, the old prospector who died on Stave Glacier?
-- That’s right, my father showed it to me when I was 20 and I made a copy.
-- Where is the letter now?
-- My father sold it to a collector, some rich American I believe.

That is a surprising answer from a collector of everything to do with the past. I am inclined to read in this that there never was a “Jackson letter” attributed to Volcanic Brown in the Barlee household or that an anonymous "rich American" to buy that letter ever existed.

Spindle Quest

Daryl Friesen's well-known e-book Seekers of Gold was recently recasted under the title Spindle Quest. This new incarnation focuses on the adventures of Friesen and his daredevil friends, chasing for Lost Creek gold. Some interesting new material has been added.

As the authors of Lost Creek Mine (Rob Nicholson) and Forbidden Treasures (Mike Boileau) did before him, Friesen agreed to make Spindle Quest available in its entirety on the slumach Web site.

Click here to find the digital versions of these three interesting books.