Ghost Town on Halloween

Henry seems more content these days. He recently made a hopeful statement about spending a snowy Christmas here and even offered a reflective admission that it might actually be hard to leave his new friends and go back to the city.

It’s Halloween. The tradition is for all the kids in the valley to gather at the Country Store and visit only those townies who have signed up for Trick-o-Treaters. The evening wraps up with community fireworks. No risk of duplicate costumes here as they have been busily consulting for the past month: Bea is sure to be the only Renaissance Lady and Henry the only Lil’ Devil.

Before the evening of sugar and fun, our plan is to re-visit the nearby ghost town of Bradian as this has been Henry’s latest preoccupation and favourite place. The tourism darling of the area is the vintage 1930s gold mining remains of the Bralorne-Pioneer mine which includes Bralorne (a living town of 65 people) and the next door townsite of Bradian. This boom town was one of the few places in British Columbia to prosper during the Great Depression: Bralorne-Pioneer was the richest gold mine in Canada's history (more than $100,000,000 of gold since 1932!) and had the third-deepest shaft in the world. Incidentally, the Bradian townsite, a unique slice of history with 22 homes still standing, is on the market for $1.3 million.

Both kids are fascinated by the captured-in-time vignette with all the eerie evidence of past community and vitality. We adults see broken stairs and verandas (risk!) and squatter mess (risk!) and sickening volume of mouse droppings layering everything (gag!). Henry imagines forgotten gold and artifact treasures. We adults also feel the nostalgia and the incredible power of nature overtaking human effort. Here, in some ways like now, good times came to an abrupt end, the mines closed, layoffs were total, communities were dismantled, endings were everywhere. The experience of What-Is is gone. Humility, adaption, and uncertainty must have been part of their story too as they walked the next leg of their journeys.

This Halloween, I will not miss the gory horror on display at every Canadian Tire and Dollar Store— I will happily take the ghosts of mining history instead.