Lewis Green’s The Great Years: Gold Mining in the Bridge River Valley offers an authoritative technical, financial, and spatial history of the Bridge River gold district, which stood as the richest lode gold producer in British Columbia history. Green reconstructs the complex geological formation of the Cadwallader and Hurley river fault systems, examining the corporate development of the Bralorne and Pioneer mines from speculative frontier prospects into dividend-paying industrial giants. The volume details the logistical feats required to construct power plants, all-weather mountain roads, and company-planned residential townsites across Gold Bridge, Bralorne, Brexton, and Ogden. Green analyzes the economic resilience of the district during the Great Depression, the labor politics of the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers, and the technological innovations that enabled deep-vein mining until increasing operating costs and fixed gold prices forced eventual closure.

Bralorne (B.C.) History, Brexton (B.C.), Bridge River Valley (B.C.) History, British Columbia Bridge River, Gold Bridge (B.C.), Gold mines and mining British Columbia Bridge River Valley History, History, Mining engineering British Columbia History, Ogden (B.C.), Pioneer Mine (B.C.) History

Includes bibliographical references, geological cross-sections, and comprehensive index.

Includes bibliographical references, geological cross-sections, and comprehensive index.