Supplementary Report Bedwell River Area

BRITISH COLUMBIA DEPARTMENT OF MINES Hon. W. I. ASSELSTINE. Minister JOHN F. WALKER, D.zputy Minister ~ BULL,ETIN No. 13 ~ Supplementary Report on Bedwell River Area Vancouver Island British Columbia bY H. SARGENT 1941 THECWfRNMENTOF THEPRWlNCEOFBRlTlSH(OlUM0I~ TABLE 'OF CONTENTS Page . INTRODUCTION Limits of Map-Area I 1 History ..................................................................... 2 Access .......................................................................................................................... 5 GeneralCharacter of theArea ............................................................................................................ 6 Field-Workand Acknowledgements ................................................................................................. 8 References ~ . ............... 9 Bibliography 10 GEENERAL GEOLOGY II.:LUSTRATI@FS Facing Page. Figure 1. BedwellRiver - DrinkwaterCreek Area ................ 15 Figure 2. Plan of Workings, Musketeer Mines Ltd .............. 31 Figure 3. Plan of Workings, Buccaneer Mines Ltd ............ 47 Figure4. Sketch Showing Cirque,Big Interior Mountain 63 Figure5. plan of Workings,Della Property ..................................... 79 Figure 6. Planof Worklngs, Sherwood Property .......................... 87 Plate I. BigInterior Mountain lookingsouth- easterly from Mount Tom Taylor 7 (CourtesyDepartment of Lands.) Plate 11. Panorama lookingnortherly into cirque - Big Interior Mountain ................................................ 25 (Courtesy Department of Lands .) Plate 111. Mount NinePeaks viewed ,looking north- erly across the valley of Leader Lake and McBride Creek. .......................................................................................................... 55 (Courtesy Department of Lands.) i Plate IV A. Slidein which Sherwood VeinOutcrops .................. 91 Plate IV B. Tatterhorns Peak ...................................................................... :............................................. 91 (ii) INTRODUCTION " Field-work in 1939and 1940, followed by office work in- eluding microscopicstudies, is the basis for thi.s bulletin, which deals with an area in the Alberni and ClaycNquot Min'ing Divisions, Vancouver Island,British Columbia. llhe geology of the area, as far as mapped in the two seasons, is re- presented on (Fig. l), scale 1 inchto the mile, with topography in the northern part indicated by contours at 200 foot intervals. The topography is taken from part of Map No. 92 F/5, released in 1939 by the British ColumbiaDepartment of Lads, scale 2 inches to themile, contour interval 100 feet. The base for thes'outhern part of (Fig. 1) is the drainage pattern, prepared by the writer from airplanephotographs borrowedfrom the Department of Lands. The accuracy of this part of thebase map is therefore not of the same order as the part to the north. Some generalinformation which appeared in the Prelim- inary Report on the Bedwell River Area, Bulletin No. 8, British ColumbiaDepartment of Mines, 1940, is reproduced in thepresent bulletin. Mining propertiesare indicated by reference numbers on (Fig. 1); the same numbershave been used in this bulletin for those that appeared in Bulletin No. 8. Mineraldeposits on properties examined in 1940 are de- scribedunder "Properties and Mineral Deposits", in the order of thereference numbers.These includethe Nusk:eteerand Buccaneerpropertie's, described in Bulletin No. E,, on which a great deal of workhad been done since the 193S1 examinations. A good deal of work hasalso been done on the Avon, Noble, " I_ Trophyand some other properties which it was not. possible to examine in 1940. For descriptions of propertiesinaicated on (Fig. 1) butnot described in this bulletin th.e reader is referred to Bulletin No. 8. The reports on propertiesinclude details concerning generalgeology, mineral associations and history. Some of this material is summarized in the general part of the bulletin. Annual 3eports:Minis.ter of Mines, British Columbia, from1898 to 1933 arethe sources for most ofthe historical information. Limitsof Map-area "_ .- The irre'gular outlines of the area mapped geologically lie within a rectangularmap-area (Fig. l), about 10 miles fromnorth to south and a little less than 14 miles from east to west, of which thenorthern boundary is less than quarter of a mile north of 49 degrees 30 minutes north latitude, and -1- theeastern boundary is 126 degrees 30 minutes west longitude The southernboundary of Strathc.ona Park crosses the area a little more than 6 miles from the northern boundary of the map-area. The greaterpart of thearea is drained by Bedwell River,which discharges into t'ne head of BedwellSound. This stream is referred to in old reports 'as "BearRiver" and that name is still usedfrequently. The easternpart is drained by Drinkwater Creek which enters Great Central Lake near the westernend, about 5 1/2 milessouth-easterly from the point wherethe creek reaches the eastern boundary of themap-area. Moyeha River flows westerly to a point beyond the western boundary of themap-area, then turns south-westerly and discharges.into the head of Herbert Inlet, some 7 miles north- weste'rly from the head of Bedwell Sound. The part of the area drained byDrinkwater Creek is in the Klberni Mining Division,the remaining and much larger part is in the Clayo- quot Mining Division. Histo2 " For many years deposits of copper,gold and iron have been known on the west coast of Vancouver Island and there hasbeen some production of copperand gold ores. Copper was shipped from Sydney Inlet principally in 1907,1908 and 1909,concentrates were produced at Sydney Inlet principally in1923. From then until 1937production on thewest coast consisted of occasionalsmall shipments of gold-bearingore.. Between 1936 and1938 it became apparent that therewere gord- bearingveins of exceptional interest in the Zeballos camp. Spectaculargold ore was shipped fron the Privateer in 1937, othe'r properties in that camp also became shippers and in 1938 three properties were equipped with mills. The suocess- ful developments inthe Zeballos oamp stimulated prospecting 'along the west coast, and particularly in the country trib- utary to BedwellRiver, some 65 miles south-easterly from the Zeballos camp. The activities of prospectorsin 1938 resulted in discoveries of gold-bearingveins on Be.dweil River, later discoveries were made on upperDrinkwater Creek. Already substantialdevelopment work hasbeen done on several properties located in 1938and 1939 and it now seems almost certain that there will be some goldproduction from the area which is the subjeot of this bulletin. Reports of the Minister of Nines, British Columbia, for 1898and 1899, containbrief references to placer-mining on Bear(Bedwell) River in the 'sixties and to Chineseplacer- minersabandoning the district in the late 'eighties, but give no information about the extent of the operations and the quantity of gold recovered. -2- On lowerBedwell Kiver, between 1898and 1900, surface andunderground work, exploring copper-bearing nlineralization. wasdone on theSeattle group; on ground known as theCastle, "- now included in the Avon located in 1938;and on theGalena, " "_ now coveredby a grouplocated in 1938 also known asthe Galena. On the Castle some workwas also done on gold-bearing veins. " Copper-bearing mineralization was discovered and claims were located on Big Interior Mountain in 1899.Although situated at a high elevation in ruggedcountry, about 12 miles from tidewater andpartly covered by a glacier, this occurrence was considered to have attractive possibilities of developinginto animportant copper producer. Four claims, nowknown asthe Ptarmigangroup, were acquired in 1912by Ptarmj-gan Mines, Ltd., an English company. It was proposed to build a road up Bedwell Riverand toconnect the road to a point near the summit of themountain by anaerial tramway.Road-construction had reached a pointabout 7 miles from tidewater, andequipment for the tramwaywas at thehead of Bedwell Sound when work was stopped on theoutbreak of war in 1914.Before 1906 some work was done on the Big1 adjoining the Ptar'EE and in 1916 I- " preparationswere made for a diamond-drillingprogram. Since that time no activity has been reported at either property. The Prosper group on lower Bedwell River covers ground, believed to have been stakedin 1903 as thePakeha, "_ on which an adit was drivenfollowing a gold-bearingvein. About 1900 gold-bearingveins were discovered near Della Lake, reached from'Drinkwater Creek, and claims known as the Della group werestaked. An arrastra was built in 1906 butthere is no report of goldproduced. The claims of the You group,cover- ing a vein on thesouth-western slopes of Big Interior Moun- tain, were recordedin 1912. Laterreports refer to develop- mentwork and the construction of an experimental cyanide mill but do not mentionthe recovery of any gold.There was activity periodioally at this propertyfrom 19li! until about 1933 or 1934 duringwhich time there was little activity else- where in thearea. Prospectorsdiscovered gold-bearing veins north-west of BedwellRiver on Noble (Clarke)Creek, and staked the Noble andNoble B groups in Augustand September 1938. This was followed by discoveries south of the river near Sam Craig Creek,and the staking of theMusketeer, Shamrock, Joker and Buccaneergroups. Pioneer GoldMines of B. C.,Limited, and Anglo Huronian,Limited, became interestedin the Musketeer- Shamrock property. Undergroundwork, startedbefore the

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