THE OLD

WISCONSIN

GOLD MINE

For picture captions hold mouse cursor over picture.

A SPECTACULAR LOCATION AMIDST A SEA OF SNOW-CAPPED PEAKS

The road to the mine - the last few miles.

TRAVELLING TO THE WISCONSIN IS AN ADVENTURE IN ITSELF.

 It is still possible to reach the mine site by the original packhorse trail used by prospectors over 100 years ago - after crossing 70-mile long Kootenay Lake (the largest natural lake in British Columbia) and following Midge Creek up into the mountains for a hard slog of 15 miles or so!

While the hardy prospectors of old used this route for many years in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, carrying everything up to the mine site from supplies to feed a 16-man crew, rock drills, dynamite, and even a 50-horsepower diesel compressor – all by packhorse - there is an easier, though just as spectacular, route today. 

From the lush timberlands in the valley floor, a 40-mile long forest road winds its way into the mountains steadily climbing with numerous switchbacks up to 6,000-feet.

Here, near the top of the mountain, it is followed by a 4-wheel drive mine road (top picture), carved out of the rock face, for the last four miles - built in 1985 at huge cost and then abandoned! As the road snakes its way along the mountain ridges, precipitously poised above the valley floor far below, an endless ridge of snow-capped peaks chiselled against the bluest sky, the views are as breathtaking as you would imagine.

There are three high mountain passes to traverse - snowbound until late June. The air is crisp and clear, with a silence made more noticeable by the hushed whisper of water far below. Looking down through miles of steeply forested slopes it's hard to imagine how the early miners ever got up here all those years ago, and survived the rigors of such a harsh environment.

Above Left: Air view of the forest and Selkirk Mountains as we come in to land by helicopter at the Wisconsin.  

"Beneath us, like a bottomless crater, lay deep forested valleys – cracks in an endless sea of mountains. There was no sign of life anywhere as far as the eye could see, only a thin coil of blue smoke that drifted heavenward from our camp."

Click on location map opposite for larger version. The mine is situated 25-km as the crow flies southeast of Nelson - towards Kootenay Lake, but nearer 100-km by road.

There were dozens of communities such as the Wisconsin hidden in the valleys and mountains. Many throbbed with life, while others existed only in glowing newspaper advertisements!

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