The Proprietor Review

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Eight intrinsic places

When you come to categorizing you know you’re a statistic.

British Columbia is dotted with ghost towns, each a silent monument to a bygone era of industrial ambition. These towns were often born from sudden economic booms, only to be abandoned just as quickly when their primary resource or purpose vanished.Here are at least eight notable ghost towns in British Columbia, categorized by the primary cause of their abandonment.

Category 1: Depletion of Resources (Mining Busts)

This is the most common cause of ghost towns in BC. These boomtowns sprang up around rich deposits of gold, silver, or other minerals. Once the easy-to-mine resources were exhausted, or market prices crashed, the townsfolk packed up and moved on to the next prospect.

1. Barkerville (Cariboo Regional District) *

Cause of Abandonment:

The end of the Cariboo Gold Rush. * History: Barkerville was the literal heart of the Cariboo Gold Rush. Founded in 1862 after Billy Barker struck a legendary amount of gold, it overnight became the largest city north of San Francisco and west of Chicago. At its peak, it was a raucous, bustling city of 5,000 residents with theaters, general stores, saloons, and a large Chinatown. * Decline: As the easy-to-access creek gold dwindled, the population faded. Hydraulic mining continued, but the boomtown era was over by the 1890s.

* Status Today: Barkerville is BC’s most famous ghost town. It has been meticulously restored and operates as a large living-history museum where visitors can experience the 1860s.

2. Sandon (West Kootenay Region)

* Cause of Abandonment:

The silver market crash and the exhaustion of profitable ore. * History: Known as the “Silver City of the Kootenays,” Sandon boomed in the 1890s following the discovery of silver-lead ore. It was notorious for its rapid wealth, featuring over 20 saloons, several brothels, electric streetlights, and two competing railways. Its population reached 5,000 at its height. * Decline: The crash of the silver market in the early 1900s started its decline, which was finalized by dwindling ore deposits and a series of devastating floods. * Status Today: Sandon is in a partially restored state. It features a fascinating collection of vintage trolley buses, the oldest operating hydroelectric plant in western Canada, and several original buildings still standing among the ruins.

3. Kitsault (North Coast Region) *

Cause of Abandonment: The sudden collapse of the molybdenum market.

• Recent History:

Kitsault is unique for being a modern ghost town. It was built by the mining company AMAX in 1979 to house workers for a nearby molybdenum mine. It was a state-of-the-art town with a hospital, shopping mall, recreation center, library, and modern houses. Over 1,200 people lived there.

* Decline: The price of molybdenum crashed just 18 months after the town opened. The mine closed in 1982, and the entire population was evacuated by 1983. * Status Today: A private owner bought the entire town. It is eerily preserved, with streetlights still coming on at night and lawns mowed, but with a population of zero, frozen in time from the early 1980s.

4. Phoenix (Boundary Region)

* Cause of Abandonment:

The post-WWI drop in copper prices and mine closure. * History: Phoenix was a massive copper mining town that flourished in the early 1900s. It was known as the highest city in Canada, perched high on a mountain. It had a population of nearly 4,000, its own hockey team that won the provincial championship, an opera house, and a city hall. * Decline: Copper was essential for military supply during World War I. When the war ended, copper prices plummeted. The mine closed in 1919, and the town was abandoned rapidly. Its buildings were dismantled for materials, and the area later suffered from forest fires. * Status Today: Phoenix is a true ghost town; nothing remains of the original structures. Today, the site features a cemetery, interpretive signs, and a large open-pit mine.

5. Granite Creek (Princeton Region)

* Cause of Abandonment:

The collapse of a short-lived platinum and gold rush. * History: Granite Creek had one of the fastest boom-and-bust cycles. Gold and platinum were discovered in the Similkameen River in 1885. Within a year, Granite Creek became the third-largest city in BC. It featured saloons, hotels, and a post office, but its fortune was brief. * Decline: By 1888, the “easy gold” was gone, and the population collapsed as quickly as it had arrived. * Status Today: It is a primitive ghost town with very few standing structures, mostly just foundation stones and a cemetery hidden in the forest.

Category 2:

Disasters and Shifting Industries

Some towns did not run out of resources but were either destroyed by natural disasters or abandoned when the industry itself changed, rendering the town obsolete.

6. Anyox (North Coast Region)

* Cause of Abandonment:

A catastrophic fire and the closure of the smelter. * History: Anyox was once Canada’s largest ghost town. Established in 1911 by Granby Consolidated Mining, Smelting and Power Company, it was a massive company-owned copper mining and smelting operation. The town housed nearly 3,000 residents and had extensive infrastructure, including a large dam, power plants, a smelter, and a coking plant. * Decline: The mine and smelter were already struggling during the Depression. In 1935, a massive forest fire swept through the valley, destroying the town. The smelter closed shortly after, and the town was never rebuilt. * Status Today: Remote and accessible only by boat, Anyox is a vast wasteland of industrial ruins. Visitors can see the skeletal remains of the massive brick smelter, power plants, and concrete structures being reclaimed by the wilderness.

7. Butedale (Central Coast Region, Inside Passage)

* Cause of Abandonment:

Consolidation of the salmon canning industry. * History: Butedale was a classic example of a “cannery town.” Founded in 1918, it served a large salmon cannery, a logging camp, and a fishing base along the remote Inside Passage. It was a self-contained community built primarily on boardwalks above the water, featuring a general store, bunkhouses, and a hydroelectric plant powered by the nearby Butedale Falls. * Decline: In the 1950s, advancements in transportation and refrigeration allowed salmon to be transported and processed in larger, more central hubs. Small, remote canneries like Butedale became obsolete and closed. * Status Today: Butedale is a derelict ghost town. Decaying wooden structures, the old general store, and the cannery buildings still cling to the shoreline, offering a hauntingly beautiful scene for boaters traveling the coast.Category 3: Shifting InfrastructureIn some cases, the town was built to support a piece of infrastructure, and when that infrastructure was no longer necessary, neither was the town.

8. Brookmere (Similkameen Region)

* Cause of Abandonment:

The closure of the Kettle Valley Railway (KVR). * History: Brookmere was established in the early 1900s as a critical divisional point for the Kettle Valley Railway, a scenic but treacherous mountain rail line. It served as a maintenance hub where crews were changed, engines were serviced, and snowplows were stationed to keep the track over the Coquihalla Pass clear. The town was home to railroad employees and their families. * Decline: The rise of highway trucking and the eventual completion of the Coquihalla Highway in the 1980s made the costly and difficult KVR obsolete. The rail line was officially closed in sections through the 1960s to the 1980s, and the town’s primary purpose disappeared. * Status Today: Brookmere is a small, quiet community. While some residents still live there, the large industrial railway buildings (like the water tower and roundhouse) are long gone, replaced by a few remaining pioneer homes and interpretive signs. The old rail bed is now part of the Trans Canada Trail.