Wells History


This section is far from complete but it hopefully will give you some interesting information.

When Fred Marshall Wells came to the Barkerville area in the early 1920s, there was nothing at the future site of this town except a sawmill and a roadhouse that had been there since the 1890s. Wells, a prospector with experience all over Canada, formed the Cariboo Gold Quartz Mining Company in 1926 with W.R. Burnett to investigate a series of claims on Cow Mountain.

Unable to raise money in Canada due to unfavourable geological reports, they found in O.H. Solibakke of Seattle a promoter who was able to sell shares in various parts of the USA, England and Europe. Work on the first adit was started with only six men employed. When good values were discovered work was stopped and the adit locked until enough money to finance the complete mine development had been raised. By June 1932 all shares had beensold. The mill began production in January 1933. Over $1.5 M was paid to shareholders over the next seven years.

Mining in the early 1930s was substantially changed from the initial Cariboo gold rush of the 1860s. Because of the capital intensive nature of the operations, a corporate structure with long term objectives was needed as well as a stable labour force. To facilitate the provision of a labour force in a remote mining camp, it was not unusual for a company to be involved in the building of the town.

The Wells Townsite Company was incorporated in 1933. Burnett, Solibakke and Wells were directors; the balance of shares was held by Cariboo Gold Quartz. The objectives were to provide the necessary services for the town by clearing, laying out, and selling lots providing water and electrical services, erecting houses for sale or lease, erecting a hospital, a school, and community hall and encouraging the construction of churches, recreational facilities, hotels, stores and other commercial establishments. It was clear from the beginning that the Townsite Company would encourage private enterprises to develop the commercial district.

The town was laid out by Ed Richardson, a newly graduated civil engineer from UBC, who later was to plan West Vancouver, British properties, and Park Royal. The driest area on the knoll was chosen for the commercial district. 'Better class' houses were constructed on Bowman Crescent with a view of the mine. Other residential areas were laid out on 'the flats' below Pooley Street. It was a small area in which to build a town that could house 4500 people. The tiny lots (33' x 100') kept the infrastructure compact and encouraged neighbourliness. By the end of 1934, 40 buildings were finished including the Sunset Theatre, the Wells Hotel, Anglican Church, a small hospital, butcher shop, garage, billiard room, stores, and restaurant. The townsite company also constructed a 3 storey hospital and a school in 1935, and a large community hall in 1937.

During the period of 1933 to 1967 1.2 M troy ounces of gold and 138 thousand troy ounces of silver were produced by the mine. However, a variety of factors combined against the viabililty of the operations. In 1942, gold mining was classified as a non-war industry and it became difficult to get supplies and labour. After the war, production was subject to rising costs while the price of gold was pegged at $US35. In 1954, Cariboo Gold Quartz purchased the Island Mountain Mine from Newmont. The No. 1 Shaft on Cow Mountain closed in 1959, but mining continued until 1967 when all operations were closed.

Since 1967 Wells has struggled to find an alternative economic base for the community. Most residents hope that a blend of tourism, mining, forestry, and perhaps light manufacturing will give the community a stable economy.

As a boom town during the Great Depression, Wells offered jobs, opportunities, and money that were not otherwise available at this time. During the late 30s, Wells had a population of about 4500 inhabitants.


Recreation in Wells

The Wells Townsite Company helped build sports and recreational facilites to attract miners and their families to the town.

At one time, Wells boasted tennis courts, a golf course, two racetracks, a curling rink and a ski slope and ski jump on Cow Mountain.

World-class ski jumpers competed here, and record Canadian jumps over 60 m were set during the 1930s. Wells hosted the Western Ski and Snowshoe Championships in 1942.

Sports clubs brought the community together. Snowshoeing, downhill and cross-country skiing, hockey and curling were popular during the winter. Hockey teams from the Cariboo Gold Quarts and Island Mountain mines competed with each other. Summer sports included softball, badminton, soccer, basketball, and even roller skating.

Fishing and hunting were also popular and the "Wells Rod and Reel Club" was quite active in the 1930s, '40s and '50s.


Cariboo Gold Quartz Mine Milling Process

The milling process consisted of three basic procedures: sorting the ore by size, crushing the rock and extracting the gold.

At the Cariboo Gold Quartz Mine, gold bearing ore was hoisted out of the mine and transported downhill to the mill. Upon arrival of the mill, rock fragments were sorted according to size in a grizzly, a device consisting of steel rails above an onward conveyer belt to a jaw crusher.

After this secondary washing, a shaker screen allowed fragments of less than 1/2 inch diameter fall into a fine ore bin. Larger ore fragments were pulverized in a cone crusher. Fine ore was fed by conveyer belt to a ball mill, a rotating steel cylinder filled with tumbling steel balls, where the rock was further crushed to a consistency of fine sand or talcum power. This powder was then fed into the thickener with a cyanide and water solution to create a sludge. The thickener was a cylindrical tub 20 feet long and 10 feet deep, inside which rotating rakes mixed the sludge to make sure that the area was saturated by the cyanide solution.

The liquid portion of the sludge was diverted into holding tanks and was called the pregnant solution because it contained 70% of the gold. The pregnant solution was drawn from holding tanks through a clarifier, a device which removed all remaining rock or clay from the solution. A de-areator tank removed bubbbles to further refine the clarified solution. Zinc, which has an affinity to gold, was added in dust form to the de-areated solution. The resulting solution was drawn under pressure through a filter press which caused gold and zinc to precipitate onto canvas filter leaves. The zinc-gold precipitate was then cleaned from the filters. Extreme heat burned off the zinc.

Water passing through the filters was chemically tested for gold residue before it was discharged into tailings ponds. Gold bearing water might be run through the filtering process several times to remove all the gold. Gold recovered from the ore through the milling process was poured into bricks that were shipped to the Royal Canadian Mint for further refinement.

The milling process can also have quite an effect on the landscape. Tailings cover much of the ground in Wells. Tailings are the non-gold bearing rocks left over mining operations. There are three types of tailings created by the mining process. Hydraulic mine tailings are rocks that are washed down the mountainside with water moniters. The second type of tailings consists of those rocks taken out of the mountainside during tunneling. The third type are called mill tailings and are those rocks left over after processing through a mill. Tailings cover many of the hillsides in Wells. They have also filled in and pushed bach swamps and parts of Jack of Clubs Lake to such an extent that an entire section of the townsite of Wells (South Wells or "The Tailings") is built on what was a marsh before gold mining occurred in the area.


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