Minto City, British Columbia
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Minto City, sometimes called just Minto, was a gold mining town in the Bridge River Valley of British Columbia from 1936 to 1959 when the last vestiges of the town were inundated by the waters of the Carpenter Lake reservoir following completion of the Bridge River Power Project. 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.
By the opening of World War II, the combination of poor showings and most men going away to war brought the mine to a standstill, but as of 1941 Minto was one of four locations in the Bridge River-Lillooet which were used for Japanese-Canadian relocation centres. During this period, the Japanese-Canadian presence transformed the town, which soon had impressive vegetable and flower gardens, with the town's crops becoming a source of produce for the larger mining towns nearby.
The town was mostly abandoned and derelict in the wake of a disastrous flash flood in 1949, although the town's hotel and bar remained open until the bitter end.
[edit] Sources
- The Great Years: Gold Mining in the Bridge River Valley, Lewis Green
- Short Portage to Lillooet, Irene Edwards (self-publ.)
- Bridge River Gold, Emma de Hullu (self-publ.)
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