Photographs depict aerial views of the Cassiar townsite, plantsite, tailings pile, mine road, bench and pit mine, mine buildings (tramline loading station, crusher, shop, and garage), and surrounding mountain range. Here "aerial" refers to photos depicting a large area and taken from the air or from a high point of elevation.
- File contains photographs done to item level description, depicting miscellaneous people and locations at or around Cassiar, B.C. This includes a photograph of renowned prospector William (“Bill”) Storie, Bill Pratt with a fox, a community gathering in a someone's home, and a hockey game.
- Also included but not to item level is a photo of "David Madore" as part of his application to Cassiar, photo of "William Field" a local hire maintenance mechanic, and photos of a RNWMP Post sign (Royal North West Mounted Police) that depicts annotations "Indian grave" , "Miners Cabin" , "Road House" , "Customs House" , "St. James Church" , "Swansons Store" etc., and 15 negatives of various individuals at what appears to be someone's home.
- Also included is cabin at Boya Lake, which used to be named Chain lake, located off the Stewart-Cassiar highway. This land of this cabin may have been involved legal issues , which was related to people at Cassiar.
File contains images depicting the underground mine at Cassiar, showing structural damages, repaired damage ground support, and mining and repair processes.
The file contains a photo inventory entitled “Underground Mine Structural Inspection, Rock Mechanics Dept. Foto Documentation” with a complete file inventory linking the picture number to a location, title, and dated film. This photographic documentation was assembled for the purposes of liaising with a underground mining consultant located in South Africa.
- Images document structural ground support including steel cables, support arches, metal mesh, shotcrete, rockbolts, wooden beams.
- Images show ground support damaged through ground movement, but some depict newly installed or repaired support.
- Images depict ventilation ducting that was crushed or torn.
- Mining processes depicted include miners installing a rock breaker, miners paving the adit floor with concrete, miners inspecting a damaged section of mine, miner loading drill or blastholes with ANFO (ammonium nitrate / fuel oil mixture) explosives, and long hole drilling.
- Technical elements of the underground mine depicted include a mining device and ore in a chute (annotated ‘1290 crusher’), the conveyor, ‘LH drill’, ore processing machine annotated ‘1350 breaker’, and an electrical box titled ‘Weighometer’.
- Specific locations shown include ore draw points, ore passes, access drifts, a hatch and door titled “Fuel station 1415”, and a dead end drift with a stack of equipment and an orange cable annotated “1335 access electrical stations”.
This file includes two major photographic collections concerning the construction and development of the underground mine at Cassiar, title the McDame Project.
The first collection includes fifteen monthly progress reports documenting the development from July 1988 to December 1989. The progress reports are authored by G. Verret, and were distributed to the executives of Cassiar Asbestos in Vancouver as well officials of the B.C. Government and other creditors of the Corporation. Most images are annotated and dated. Many of the loose photographs are accompanied by an inventory sheet.
Subjects depicted include: the staging area prior to mine development, the initial development of the “Vent Portal”, a jumbo drill working on the mine face, the working face marked for drilling and wired with fuses, a Caterpillar dozer clearing snow after an avalanche, scene of a fire in winter time, complete conveyor sump decline, mining vehicle parked on the “Lay-Down Area” presumably near the portal, the working face of the mine at various stages of development, 1563 portal being slashed, the removal of the overburden for the tramline loading station site, the construction of the transfer tower(s), construction of the stockpile area, the construction of a sedimentation pond, a presumed cave in, construction of footings for the conveyor, construction of the tramline loading terminal station, construction of the crusher building, a slash titled “Breakthrough in Access Ramp”, storage of powder and fuses, a washout in conveyor decline, fog at the portal in -30 degrees Celsius, the 1290 junction flooded, a slab of shotcrete which fell on and injured a miner while shotcreting, shotcrete blasted off walls for repairs, images of the “Hilti-test”, shots showing grade of drift, and structural failures in the 1350 adit.
Locations and structure within the underground mine depicted include: yellow ventilation ducting, ground support including steel screen and shotcrete, steel cables bolted unto ground support, puddles in the adits, the access road to the lay-down area, the exhaust drift, “Fans and Heaters in the 1415 adit”, the 1350 sump, the access ramp to the 1320, the exhaust ramp safety bay, the conveyor decline, the ventilation adit, the 1563 portal, the temporary repair shop at the 1415 portal, junctions of various drifts, the ”Fresh Water Pump & Pumphouse on lower Creek”, the “Ventilation Raise/1563 Platform”, a “Diamond Drill Station” at 6066 North in the underground mine, the “Bridge to the Gravel Pit”, the “Crushing and Screening Plant” in the gravel pit, the ventilation bulkhead in the conveyor decline, and the “Powder Magazine”.
People depicted include Rose Gay and R. Tyne on a tour of the underground mine, a geologist with a rockhammer, a miner identified as A. Jacobs working, contract miners Bruno and Marbel from Canadian Mine Development, and unidentified miners rockbolting, shotcreting, and drilling using jackleg drills.
Vehicle and mining equipment depicted include jeeps, pickup trucks, a front end loader, an unidentified a small unmanned tracked machine with a long arm, scoop trams, a land cruiser, an ore truck with a flat tire, the cone crusher, a “scissor lift”, a mobile shotcrete machine, a new grout pump, a new Boart Jumbo Drill, and a detached bucket half of a 413 ore truck.
The second collection depicts the McDame Project construction in 1986 and 1987.
Content of these photographs includes: various machinery used for excavating and drilling, underground progress of tunneling, supports, wire meshing, rock formations in mine, and exposed asbestos. There are no annotations regarding this photographs.
Photographs depict different construction projects at separate locations in Cassiar. Photographs were originally housed in envelopes with the following annotations: "POLICE STATION. July 15, 1977."; "Aggregates and Concrete (PERMASTEEL)"; "Fibre Storage and Handling"; "Powerhouse Expansion"; "Sewage Collection Plant."; "Sewage Treatment Plant"; "Single Person Accommodations - Site Work."; "Outside Work - Camp Nos. 1,2,3." Photos generally feature the work sites, supplies, vehicles, machinery, and work in progress at each location.
Additional photographs integrated into file include maintenance project on lining of tubes, lining of aspiration hood, and lining of willow fiberizer. Also five photographs of maintenance in the townsite to fix in ground piping.
Photograph depicts four orange and brown two-story buildings speculated to be bunkhouse residences. Blue car in foreground, forest and mountains in background.
Photograph depicts three long panabode buildings behind trees across from ball park. Power lines and other buildings visible in background. The winter bunkhouses contained double occupancy rooms with a common bathroom, and were distinguished from the summer bunkhouses which were generally considered less accommodating (see item 2000.1.1.3.19.84).
Photograph depicts man seated in chair while reading newspaper, bed on left, chair and mirror on right. Winter scene visible through window in background.
Photograph depicts two fire trucks semi-visible in garage with the sign "FIRE HALL". House and snowmobile can be seen in left midground, truck and power pole in right foreground. Mountains in background. Warning visible on front of trucks: "KEEP BACK 500m".
Photograph depicts two-story main office building in right midground behind sign reading "CASSIAR ASBESTOS CORPORATION Ltd / CASSIAR MINE / MAIN OFFICE". Building believed to be warehouse can be seen behind raised Canadian flag on pole in left midground. New mill building and tailings pile visible behind warehouse and office, mountains in background.
Photograph depicts the new mine garage behind machinery, mountains in background. Mobile blast hole drill can be seen in left foreground (manufactured by Robbins with Caterpillar undercarriage). Two 50-tonne Wabco "haul paks" in right foreground (ore haulage trucks).
Photograph depicts residences and fenced front yards to left of street, trash cans in front. Small tricycle, camping trailer, power poles, and trees also visible.
Photograph depicts vehicles parked in driveways and on street to right of mobile homes. Mountain base in background.
Photograph depicts two unidentified men using weight training equipment in indoor gymnasium. Weights and other equipment in background.
Photograph depicts large auditorium, seats filled with unidentified individuals (mostly children). Rounded stage in foreground, curtain on wall in background. This building was built in the late 1970s and belonged to the community's cultural society.
Photograph depicts Ruston Hornsby diesel engines which turned the generators in the power house on the Cassiar plant. Two unidentified men wearing coveralls can be seen in image.
Photograph depicts unidentified man standing on Ruston Hornsby diesel engine which turned the generators in the power house on the Cassiar plant.
Photograph depicts two unidentified men standing on Ruston Hornsby diesel engine which turned the generators in the power house on the Cassiar plant.
Photograph depicts large building behind power lines, car in right foreground.
Photograph depicts large trailer truck parked at what is believed to be the loading station on the Cassiar plant (possibly in mill building).
Photograph depicts an unidentified man walking in front of orange and brown two-story building speculated to be bunkhouse residences. Second unknown individual can be seen unloading car in left foreground. Trees and mountains visible in background.
Photograph depicts row of houses on either side of street in midground. Forest trees in foreground, mountains in background.
Photograph depicts group of men, women, and children exiting main entrance of building believed to be the school at Cassiar, B.C. Trees and bicycles in foreground.
Photograph depicts what appears to be a Euclid ore haulage truck at entrance of building speculated to be the truck dumping station at crusher plant in mine.
Plant buildings stand in midground. Conveyor believed to be leading to tailings pile can be seen in foreground. Valley and mountains in background.
Photograph depicts large trailer truck parked at what is believed to be the loading station on the Cassiar plant (possibly in mill building).
Photograph depicts two large tanks with Cassiar logo on front, labeled "1" and "2". Road in foreground, garage in background. Mountain base also visible in background.
Photograph depicts a building with a truck parked in front on the corner of Connell Drive and Creery Street.
Photograph depicts four large buildings behind power lines, believed to be located on Malozemoff Avenue. Trucks in foreground, forest and mountains in background.
Photograph depicts woman seated at desk. Chair, bedside lamp and table, and bed also visible in room. Counter area in left foreground, curtains on window in background.
Photograph depicts trees and pickup trucks in front of long building speculated to be an apartment residence.
Photograph depicts unidentified men and women in front of yellow building with the signs "POST OFFCE / BUREAU DE POST / CASSIAR, B.C.", "NO PARKING". Three cars (one with siren on top) can be seen in foreground; forest in background.
Photograph depicts four unidentified individuals walking in front of Cassiar Private Hospital. Sign in foreground reads "VISITING HOURS EVERY DAY / 2 PM - 4 PM / 7 PM - 8 PM".
Photograph depicts group of children standing in front of diving board, watching a peer dive into water below. Group of swimmers visible in background below domed roof of pool.
Photograph depicts two unidentified men playing tennis in foreground. Buildings stand in midground, including what appears to be the All Saints Anglican Community Church. Forest and mountain in background.
Photograph depicts church believed to be the All Saints Anglican Community Church at Cassiar, B.C. Trees and fence in foreground, forest and mountain in background.
Photograph depicts two unidentified men wearing coveralls, hard hats, and headphones, while working at table in garage. Blasthole drill stands behind them in background.
Photograph depicts large trailer truck parked at what is believed to be the loading station on the Cassiar plant (possibly in mill building).
Photograph depicts the old company store located at corner of Connell Driver and Creery Street. Retail store was located under company cafeteria "the Cookery", with butcher shop in back. The Cookery was known for serving good food and providing excellent service.
Photograph depicts unknown individuals seated in chairs of room speculated to be a living room or common area. Potted plants, television, open door, and wall hangings in background. Lamps, chairs, and side tables in foreground.
Photograph depicts long building with blue siding. Security was located at corner of building in centre foreground, behind stop sign. Single red door on left was main entrance into mine dry, where individuals were checked through security. Two larger windows on left indicate the location of the mine store where work apparel could be purchased. Building also housed change house (see item 2000.1.1.3.19.121) and offices of the mine department supervisory staff. Employee parking lot located out of frame to right. Mill building stands in background, tramline dump station on left. Ore car visible, about to enter dump station. Unidentified man and child can be seen in foreground.
Photograph depicts mobile home modified for Cassiar winters (steeply sloped roof added). Yellow suburban parked in driveway in left foreground. Forest trees and mountainside visible in background. Sign reading "686" posted on tree in left foreground. Believed to be the home of Gerry Cooper.
Photograph depicts interior of church believed to be the All Saints Anglican Community Church at Cassiar, B.C. Table and pulpit in foreground, pews and door in background. Stained glass windows line both sides of the building.
Photograph depicts two unidentified men in coveralls and hard hats, working in garage. Blasthole drill stands behind them in midground, walls in background.
Mill building in left midground. Conveyor believed to be leading to tailings pile can be seen in foreground. Valley and mountains in background.
File contains photographs depicting four different tours that took place at the mine, plant, and towns owned by Cassiar Asbestos Corporation Ltd. Tours include Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's visit to Clinton Creek in 1968 and Member of Parliament Iona Campagnolo's visit to Cassiar in 1978. Photographs also depict a party of ambassadors touring Cassiar in 1970, and the dedication of a building in the Cassiar plant in the late 1970s.
File contains photographs featuring the tramline at Cassiar which ran from the crushing plant at the mountain mine to the plantsite in the valley (a drop of 427 meters). The first ore was originally transported by truck to the plant until the gravity chute was built in 1953. This chute was replaced with the first aerial tramline model in 1956, which was succeeded by the second model in 1975. This file also includes one photo of the original gravity chute, and one photo depicting a tramline worker.
Additionally there is a collection of eighteen photographs of tramline cars that were being surveyed for damage and condition, and another collection of six photographs of tramline study. The results of this study determined that there was variances in load sizes of the buckets caused by extra material falling off the panfeeder.
Photograph depicts row of houses behind trees. Power line, road, and vehicles in foreground; mountain in background.
Photograph depicts crusher plant in centre foreground. Shifter shack and vehicles can be seen in front of pit area. West Peak semi-visible in right midground. Mine valley an northwestern mountain range in background.
Photograph depicts plant buildings below, tailings pile in foreground. Valley and mountains in background. Handwritten annotation on recto of photograph: "CASSIAR".