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August 3, 2009
As we find ourselves in the middle of a heat wave on the west coast, many people are heading to their favourite vacation spot this long BC Day weekend. Many people see this hot weather as an opportunity to visit friends or family who have access to a fresh water lake and escape the heat by enjoying a dip in the cool water. Others spend their holiday time in the back country camping or hiking, or perhaps climbing a mountain to find some cool air, but the government is recommending caution in light of the recent dry spell and record-breaking temperatures which have dried the woods to a crispy state. Anyone working with the area's natural resources has to be very careful as well, but placer miners have the advantage of working with lots of water which can help to cool things off a little. Wherever you find yourself this summer, hopefully you can find enough cool air and water to keep cool and comfortable both working and vacationing.
This page was last updated August 31, 2009
August 10, 2009
Summers in the North bring back all kinds of critters in their search for food just to try to survive another day. However, last summer things were different. If you can believe it, last summer there was a shortage of bugs probably caused by the cooler temperatures - which meant that many of the smaller birds that usually come to the valley in the summer didn't stay and instead moved on to other areas in search of better bug hunting. As Christina and Scott have rescued baby birds on several occasions in the past, the lack of any babies in the valley in 2008 was very disturbing. But, this year, things are getting back to normal - the bugs came out, followed closely by the return of the swallows and other small birds. This is great news for life in the valley - and Scott reports that the swallows have been busy making nests this and have filled them up with baby birds, fed by the sometimes endless supply of Holloway Bar bugs!
August 17, 2009
When you're finally out on your gold property starting to move gravel around, you need to have a plan. If you just start digging anywhere, you'll likely run into a couple of problems. The first crisis will take place once you realize that you've dug yourself into a corner with no way to get out again. A better method is shown here - as the hoe digs the raw material out of the ground always moving in the same direction to feed the plant, the cat pushes the waste material and tailings away from the plant and eventually back into the same hole it came out of. The washed gravel and rocks are all returned to the ground, but without any of the gold it used to contain. The second problem with digging haphazardly is that you may not find much gold. Gold is very elusive and often lays in channels left by ancient water flows. Before digging, miners spend many hours prospecting and testing until they can visualize how the old water flows interacted with the lay of the land, and only then do they dig - but now with a plan.
August 24, 2009
A lone star rising out of a decade or more of bad economic news for BC's north coast, the Prince Rupert Container Terminal towers above boaters in Prince Rupert's harbour. This terminal is the first dedicated intermodal (ship to rail) container terminal constructed in North America and opened for business on October 31, 2007 with the arrival of the first ship. Three 1,800 tonne cranes can reach across 22 stacked containers and make quick work of a loading a ship with goods headed for world markets. Although Prince Rupert has historically been short of land near the city, the Port Authority managed to find this 24 hectare spot at the end of the train tracks. Over a dozen sets of working and storage train tracks lie behind its 360 meters of ocean frontage to help process containers that have travelled thousands of kilometers stacked two high on freight trains. This west coast location is the port's big advantage as it's a day's sail closer to Asian markets than other ports, cutting time and costs.
August 31, 2009
Some of the most interesting features on Holloway Bar aren't things you would expect to find on a working gold mine. One example is this man-sized dragon - carved out of a single cedar log with a chainsaw, this 400 pound beast sits in a prominent location above the pond and serves notice to camp visitors that they're being watched, either by one of the Holloway Bar guard dogs or by the many cameras scattered around the mine, both the public cameras seen on the webcam page and the private cameras placed in strategic locations around the property. The dragon is a very important symbol for Holloway Bar as it serves as our logo and is displayed prominently throughout the website. It's also been painted onto on all of the Holloway Bar equipment as shown in this video. The dragon is our connection to the past as it links us to the rich history of the area and serves as a tribute to the Chinese miners of the late 1800's, many of whom never made it home again.
