The lure of gold brought many miners to Atlin.  At the BC Archives we have several metres of government records relating to mining activity.  There are mining claims, land records and even claim disputes in the Bennett-Atlin Commission records.  But there’s something special about photographs.  When we look at a photograph of a miner in action, we may not know any technical details about mining but we can put ourselves in the picture.  We can look at the clothes, the tools, the tents and imagine the hard work and the difficult conditions.

We can look at a photo of a loaded sled and wonder about the geography and the weather and wonder what it was like to have to haul everything needed in, and how we would get our products out.

“Black terrier bench claim on Spruce Creek, Cornelius Bell, owner”, M. Bro’s. no 117 1901

Loaded sled

All photos from PR-0507 (198205-002) container 000736-0001 Muirhead Brothers Photographers fonds.