Minto City
Minto, Minto Mine, Minto Mines | |
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Company town | |
Location of Minto City in British Columbia | |
Coordinates: 50°53′27″N 122°46′40″W / 50.89083°N 122.77778°W | |
Country | Canada |
Province | British Columbia |
Minto City, often called just Minto, sometimes Minto Mines, Minto Mine, Skumakum, or "land of plenty", was a gold mining town in the Bridge River Valley of British Columbia from 1930 to 1936, located at the confluence of that river with Gun Creek, one of its larger tributaries. The mine prospect was never much successful although a model townsite was built by promoter "Big Bill" Davidson, who imported soil to build a specially-built rodeo ground and baseball diamond on the rocky site. The larger mine of Bralorne was nearby. The mine shut down in 1936 due to productivity issues, but restarted in 1940. The valley has since been significantly altered when most of the vestiges of the town were inundated by the waters of the Carpenter Lake reservoir following completion of the Bridge River Power Project. In 1941, around two dozens of Japanese Canadian families were relocated to Minto Mine, and ordered to live in the empty miners' houses due to the impacts of the war.[1]
The community was originally known as Mento's Landing, after C.R. Mento, who had the sternwheel ferry Minto built in 1900. The name gradually changed to Minto Landing and then Minto.[2]: 176