Don and Brian supported Fred at the Thornhill Artisan Fair. where Fred was one of the vendors.

The lurid lure of yellow lucre.

Harold Rhenisch, poet, writer and editor, wrote a terrific review of Searching for Pitt Lake Gold, for the The Ormsby Review.

Click here 

Stuart Brown -- Letters for sale.

Thanks to Daryl who reported the following post he found on e-Bay.

Go here for a file with all the pictures etc. No new letters -- go here for these and some other Fyles letters collected by Don.  

Doubt that anyone would have paid a penny for those letters and perhaps a few newspaper cuttings. Would have liked a copy of that picture though.

What do you think that Daryl’s hat would make on e-Bay? ? 

Is a secret gold mine hidden in the B.C. mountains?

"The Doc Project is where you'll hear the story you can't stop thinking about.” That is what the “about” page of the project on the CBC Radio 1 tells us. 

One of those stories of is the one of Pitt Lake gold splendidly told by Brad Badelt using interviews with some of us "who know it all” or think so.  

Click HERE to read the write-up and click the button on top of the page to hear the story as it was broadcasted.

THE ORCA is a new independent multimedia publication for B.C. politics, business, and history. Highly-regarded and, I understand, widely-read.
Today, I am pleased to say, they published a large excerpt from Searching for Pitt Lake Gold. Click here to read it. 

Pitt Meadows Museum, Sunday, 29th September

Brian Antonson will be telling his tales at the Pitt Meadows Museum in late September. This cutting from Musings, the July newsletter of the museum!

Click on image to enlarge, 

Jackson’s valley found?

Click on image to enlarge. 

Add David Muise to the list of serious and informed explorers of the legendary gold. It seems that he recently found the location of Jackson’s valley within Golden Ears Provincial Park.
The markers pointing to the valley, he says, are all there as described in Jackson’s letter and therefore he has no doubt that Jackson and his gold are more than just a myth.
David is writing a book about his findings that he prepares for publication in October.
David is the host of the Rock Creek Recreation campground on Forest Lake Road, just before you get to Zajac. There he welcomes anyone who is interested to talk to him.
The picture shows David holding a lens he found that, he claims, could well be from Volcanic Brown's glasses.

In the News

NOTE: The "Looking Back" column of the Maple Ridge - Pitt Meadows News of today is a write-up on Searching for Pitt Lake Gold. Click here to read or download. 

Book-signing at Black Bond Books in Maple Ridge

Brian Antonson, Don Waite, and Fred Braches

Jack Mould revisited

Jack Mould, who disappeared in 2007 fetching fresh water from the Southgate River, thought that Slumach’s “glory hole” was on the Southgate Peak at Bute Inlet and not somewhere around Pitt Lake. 

Click here to read more about that. 

Suggested other reading: Elizabeth Hawkins, Jack Mould and the Curse of Gold, published by Hancock House in 1993

It seems that Judith Williams’s book Cougar Companions: Bute Inlet County and the Legendary Schnarrs, Raincoast Chronicles 24, published last month by Harbour Publishing, includes a dozen or so pages retelling this story.  

Harrison Lake -- Black Diamond Mine

Adam in the Black Diamond Mine

ADAM: Researching some  Harrison Lake mining history -- the Black Diamond Mine came up. I  thought, well we should check and see if this old mine from the mid-1890s is still there! Sure enough, given the clues that were given based on its location, we set off to find it.
We found it in a matter of minutes, but it wasn’t obvious. We pulled back the debris and growth that had enclosed its entrance, fallen trees,  vine maple entanglements, and deadfall carried down from the waterfall that it is under.
With mud and water up past my knees I trudged through to the end...it’s fascinating that it has held up this long in such a temperate environment!

Click here for a few more pictures

Following from the Annual Report of the BC Minister of Mines, 1895 (click on image to enlarge.)

The 1896 report of the Minister includes the following. The names “Discovery” and the “Black Diamond” claims seem to cover the same territory. (click on image to enlarge.)

Australian find

Click here. 

Brian Antonson commented: "That's what we need in the Upper Pitt...more metal detectors!"

Searching for Pitt Lake Gold, a smart, concise analysis of the legend of Slumach’s Gold, is now starting to sell in bookstores and on the Internet. Enjoy!
This book is not a replacement but a perfect complement of the  bestselling classic Slumach's Gold. 
Also available as a Kindle e-book on Amazon. Click here.

A taste of gold ...

Adam writes: here’s a taste of our best lead so far.... im not giving you a map for the location but it is only a twenty-minute helicopter ride away, somewhere in the middle ground between Harrison/Pitt and Stave.” 

Landscape at Gatsby’s Claim

Photo by Adam taken during filming of Curse of the Frozen Gold

Ever wondered where the Gatsby Claim is?

The Curse of the Frozen Gold includes some episodes about the explorations at Gatsby’s claim producing samples with a promising gold content but not commercially viable for development. It remains a intriguing and not fully investigated location though. Gatsby’s claim is not easily accessible. The map shows the exact area Gatsby was exploring to the southwest of Remote Peak. Click on image to enlarge. 

Vickers Creek

Came across a 1985 assessment report of the claims at Vickers Creek that may be of interest to some of us mainly those interested in history. Click here.
Click here to read what Rob Nicholson wrote about Vickers Creek back in 2002.

Searching for Pitt Lake Gold

Click on image to enlarge! 

Preorder from Black Bond Books or Chapters-Indigo.  In the US from Barnes & Noble 

Where is the gold?

From Jackson’s letter of 1904:

From the head of Pitt Lake and not more than 20 miles in a north westerly direction to the hidden treasure but there is no trail and nothing to guide you except that when you get within a few miles of the place you will see on a lower ridge three sharp peaks, each some 50 or 100 ft high as you face these the hidden treasure is below and to the right of these peaks. 

That is right within the area of Coquitlam Search and Rescue following the direction of the upper Pitt River.

Click on image to enlarge