#8 Mine

This is not Dracs Castle.

Dracs Castle was torn down many years ago and no longer exists as a structure. 

The site of Number 8 Mine, is today nothing but a ruin. Directions in photo above. Click to enlarge. 

#8 Mine Site

Once a job site and home to many people, it now sits, overtaken by nature. Nothing but a memory for some and just an old ruined concrete structure for others.   

 

Number 8 mine came into production in 1913, after Canadian Collieries Dunsmuir Limited sank two shafts into the number 4 coal seam, almost 1000 feet deep, during a time of expansion for the company a year earlier. 

The main shaft was run by electric winding hoists powered by a direct current motor. Hydro for the motor was supplied by the Collieries hydro station, on the Puntledge River, built that same year. The second shaft was used for ventilation to remove gases from the mine and give fresh air from above to the mine below. 

Within another year 73 houses were built near the shafts. These homes eventually led to a small settlement called Puntledge. Many people were working and living at the mine site and many others commuting by train daily.
 

A short time later, only one year in production. After investing a million dollars, building a settlement and employing many workers. The Canadian Collieries let the shafts fill with water. Aug 5 of 1914 it ceased all operations. 

      Leaving it dubbed the name 'Million Dollar Mystery', to the miners and locals. 

All those who seen the money go into the opening of the mine, only to watch it close a year later, were left in confusion at its closure. The fact that it was completed during the miners strike was a contributing factor. Also the seams of coal were of low quality and the machinery of the time was too costly to run, leaving the company making little profit. 

For many years the mine stayed flooded. Until 1936 when they were pumped out and new machinery was brought in and installed. Spring of 1937 the mine reopened.

After its reopening #8 became a productive mine. It employed around 400 men and produced 1200 tons of coal per day during its most profitable years. 

During the war the mines were subsidized. When the subsidies ended the Canadian Collieries was forced to close mines and many men lost their jobs. By 1953, #8 mine had run its course for the last time. Another 400 men lost their jobs. The shafts were sealed with concrete and the site became nothing but a memory.

Today its crumbled structures are all we have to remember it. Those and the many stories you can still hear from the surviving miners and their families.