We drove up rougher backroads as high as we could on Baldy Mountain, then hiked to the top and back.   Along the way we passed the abandoned Windpass Mine at about 5000 feet.   We stopped to look one of the old buildings and we saw the tailings from the mine entrance, but we had a hike to do so we did not take the time to explore the site enough, so we will return again to look around some more.

The Windpass Mine beginnings were in 1916. Olie Johson, T. Campbell, and Oscar Hargen staked the area and begun shallow diggings.   Some quality ore was shipped.   The property was bonded in 1922 and the Windpass Gold Mining Company was incorporated in 1923.   The Sweet Home vein looked promising but failed to show continuity and the claims were given up in 1926.   In 1929, the claims were resumed and the mine reopened in 1933.

A 4 km long aerial tram was built from the site to the north end of Dunn Lake.   A power transmission line and telephone lines also reached the mill site.

Some remnants of the old tram line still remain on the mountainside for explorers to find.

The tramline came down to the mill site on Dunn Lake.

The entrance to the mine:

This building (the mess hall) is still standing at the mine site on the mountain.

Inside the Dunn Lake Mill –  the ore is treated by table and flotation concentration was completed and put in operation in March, 1934.  The  concentrate was shipped to smelters.

All of this construction happened during the Great Depression…

We checked out this building, still standing in 2018.

The company charter was surrendered in 1939.   Lessors shipped some additional ore from the site in 1941, 1942, and 1944.   Subsequent drilling, claims, sampling, and studies have taken place on the mountainside from 1972 – 2013.   The site was quiet and abandoned on the day we drove past the mine site on our way to hike to the top of the mountain.

Sources:

• BC Archival Photos
• B.C. Minfile reports
• BC Report on mining, 1935