May 26, 2008 - We're back at the mine - check out the webcam page to see what's happening at Holloway Bar!
February 25, 2008 - You can now watch "A Foggy Sunday Morning", a timelapse video just uploaded to YouTube - made from a four-hour stream of video from one of the Terrace webcams.
September 23, 2007 - Emma, the Holloway Bar Pump Queenwas overhauled over the summer and now has a new powerplant with three times the pumping power to feed The Wizard. Read all about Scott's fabrication adventure on the Pictures and Stories page...
August 16, 2007 - "Painting the Bus" has just been uploaded to the Multimedia and Time Lapse video pages. We finally got tired of the crappy colour on the old Holloway Bar school bus so decided a paint job was in order. Have you ever painted a school bus? Join Scott and Al as they get out the green paint and brushes one sunny day...
August 15, 2007 - The latest web story is about "The Wizard" - Holloway Bar's gold machine. Gold isn't just laying around the property - you have to move and process tons of gravel. We use "The Wizard", a gold plant designed and built by entirely by Scott to get our gold and make your panning kits. Come for this insider's tour of the gold plant now online in the Pictures and Stories: Finding the Motherlode page...
July 26, 2007 - The sixth and final episode of the 2007 Summer Gold Mining Adventure series is now online on the Multimedia - Mining Adventurespage. What will happen when the gold comes? Will the mad miner work it out with his lead hand? Watch the final episode to find out...
Holloway Bar Placer Mine - Placer Gold Mining on McDame Creek in Northern British Columbia
Where are we?
Holloway Bar is located on McDame Creek in Northern BC's beautiful Cassiar Mountains. McDame Creek is where one of BC's largest solid gold nuggets (73 ounces!) was found in 1877 - just downstream from our Holloway Bar project.
Visit our online store to find some very unique gifts not available anywhere else in the world!
* Gold panning kits and refills - pan your own McDame Creek gold.
* Holloway Bar hats and T-shirts - pan in style!
* Gold nugget gift boxes - perhaps the perfect gift...
* Vials of gold - impress your friends and family!
* Multimedia - Gold Panning Kit DVD also available to order on its own (it's also included in the gold panning kit).
What is a Placer Mine?
There are two main ways to find gold. One is to tunnel into rock for gold ore, which is then removed from the rock using a variety of methods. We use the "traditional" method of placer mining, using water - lots of water - to wash the gravel and other material away from the gold, which is caught on its journey through the gold plant.
Waste water and material is captured in a series of tailings ponds where the water filters back into the ground. Unlike some mining ventures, this is a very environmentally friendly operation.
If you have Google Earth installed, you can download this .KMZ file (Google Earth Placement File) to take you directly to the Holloway Bar Placer Mine.
Life in the North is about balance. While we're gold miners at heart, we're not so obsessed that we ignore nature's other treasures. It's berry picking season - so you'd better grab your pail and head for a nearby bush...
Two or three times a summer, I make the 1,500 kilometer round trip to the Holloway Bar Placer Mine from my home in Terrace. I just returned home on Friday from my second trip...
July 14, 2008
The urban legend says that National Geographic rated the Port Elgin, Ontario sunset the most beautiful in the world. The first French settlers would have marveled at the beauty cast by the sun's last golden rays as it set into the waters of Lake Huron. The third-largest fresh water lake in the world, early settlers called this great lake La Mer Douce - the fresh-water sea. While a large copper deposit was discovered on the north shore of Lake Huron in 1846, the earliest settlers were more interested in exploring this vast land and trading furs than in searching for the precious metals that would eventually draw miners further north in Ontario and west into the sunset.
