This week we are off to Paris. No not Paris France, Paris B.C.
Never heard of it? Well it is the smaller of the two cities. The city of Paris was named after a formation underground actually it was the City of Paris vein. The City of Paris was the name of the mine that was built to access minerals in the formation.
There is little left of the actual city. When we visited the location last week we could only see 3 dilapidated old buildings. The underground abandoned mine is far more impressive that the town itself. I would say it was a stretch to call it a city. There is very little in the history books about it.
There are a number of mines within a few hundred metres of the City of Paris. Most recently the Lexington mine last operated in 2008 by the Merritt Mining Corporation. It was a gold, silver, copper and lead producer.
The Lexington closed suddenly in 2008 after only eight months of operation partially because of the low price of gold at the time. All the newer buildings in the area are from that area.
The Lexington was recently purchased by Golden Dawn Minerals who has plans to open the mine once again. There are two portals on the Lexington they are both flooded and one has also caved in at the portal. The Lexington is below the other two historic mines the City of Paris and the Lincoln Shaft. They are not flooded and we were able to access them.
According to records, the Lincoln shaft is 182 metres east of the City of Paris Mine. That would be close to a landing with a large assortment of old core samples. We were able to locate an historic mine in the area that I presume is the Lincoln Shaft. It did not go in very far. There is another location farther to the north that has a huge vertical shaft that we did not go down.
By far the most interesting mine we visited was the City of Paris Mine. It went straight into the mountain and then branched out in every direction linking up to higher levels, with several ore passes, chutes and one raise. The mine was quite stable and there were no cave ins or flooded areas on the main level.
The mine was enjoyable to explore and film because of the good condition of the tunnels and the many colorful formations was saw underground. The video is on my YouTube channel http://bit.ly/BCMINES As always I don’t recommend anyone enter abandoned underground mines there are many dangers and they may not be safe for you to enter. Far safer to watch my videos online!