Open Collections

Abstract

J.C. Harris, a young Englishman who had been living in the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island, came to the Slocan in 1896 to look for farmland. He planned to supply the mines with fresh fruit and vegetables. As no one else was interested in farming, he had his choice of land. This account, which he wrote in 1944, treats his arrival in New Denver, his search for land, his encounters with some of the valley’s most colourful characters, and his purchase of land—the Bosun Ranch—on a terrace between New Denver and Silverton. He then describes his first two years of pioneering, and the discovery, development, and decline of the Bosun Mine.