B.C. Copper Company Smelter
BY: BG EDITOR
Workers on top of the B. C. Copper Company's new smelter chimney, c. 1904
Standing 36 metres, tall, it, was the highest in the province
[ BC Archives, BCABS HP56725 ]
July, 2016 — GREENWOOD, BC (BG)
A description of the Greenwood copper smelter and landmark smokestack, from History Still Standing: A Guide to Historical Mine Sites of the Boundary Country by B.C. Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources:
"The smelter was built by the British Columbia Copper Company, a new York-based organization that bought the Mother Lode mine in 1898. The smelter was erected on a 28-hectar site at the mouth of Copper Creek in the town called Anaconda, just south of Greenwood. The nearby superintendent's house, which still stands today, was the only smelter building built in Greenwood.
"The Vancouver Province" newspaper described the smelter as "one of the most complete and modern… that can be found in the world today… It is a model plant in every respect on which money has been spent unstintingly, and the machinery installed is the most modern in engineering practice."
"Smelting Works, Greenwood BC"
[ British Columbia Bureau of Mines, I-55686 ]
February 18, 1901 marked the blowing in of the first furnace. The smelter was open 24 hours a day, employing forty-seven men during the first year. That year 106,200 tonnes of ore were smelted. On January 18, 1902 a record amount, 416 tonnes (about 9 tonnes for every man employed), were smelted. The smelter operated very successfully until about 1912 when shortages of ore began to affect production. Throughout World War I the smelter worked intermittently at a reduced rate and on November 26, 1918 closed forever. The plant was sold to Leon Lotzkar who disposed of the machinery and later gave the site to the City of Greenwood as a park.
The smelter was originally built with a sheet steel smokestack that was replaced by the present brick stack when the works were expanded in 1904. The brick stack was originally 36 meters tall, the highest in the province, and contained nearly 250,000 bricks.
Copper Smelter, Blower Room - Greenwood, BC
[ B.C. Archives, HP043462 ]
Waste slag was taken from the smelter by rail in 25-ton (23-tonne) bell-shaped slag cars, and dumped nearby. The waste slag glowed red in the night during the smelter's heyday, but is now a black moonscape. A visitor can walk on this once molten pile of black glass and step inside some of the "hell's bells"! One can also visit the foundations of the furnaces and machinery now quiet among the encroaching undergrowth."
Prepared with the assistance of the Greenwood District Mining Heritage Committee
