Experience Ymir's booming Mining Days
There were many gold mines around Ymir. Tamarac, Porto Rico, Porcupine, Dundee, Wilcox, Blackcock, Hunter “V”, Yankee Girl, Goodenough and more. The Ymir Mine was the most important one in the area with the largest stamp mill in the British Empire. Known as Quartz Creek in 1893 The Nelson and Fort Sheppard Railway renamed the town after the Norse god Ymir. After the market crashed what remained, in addition to the tales of outlaws and gunfights, are many reminders of the Wild & Woolly Ymir days.
Experience Ymir's booming Mining Days
"…Feeling like I had just experienced Ymir 100 years ago…"
APRIL 22, 2015 • SUMMER JOURNAL • BY ISABELLE HERZIG
Awhile back, my husband and I thought it would be an experience to ride our ATV up to one of Ymir’s local abandoned gold mines and spend the night. As some of the structures at the mine site were falling down, my husband decided to bring along a chainsaw to clean up some of the debris. After a fun afternoon of rummaging around the ruins and hiking up the cliff sides, we had some dinner, pitched our tent, and settled in for a peaceful night at the entrance of the old mine.
A few hours later, both of us were wide awake with an intense feeling that something was outside. Being bear country, we thought that a bear was mucking around. Though there wasn’t any noise, there was a strong presence of something out there. My husband, who is not prone to flights of fear or silly odd feelings, got out of his sleeping bag, turned on his headlight, grabbed his chainsaw and went outside. He started the saw, hoping to scare off whatever was out there. As he turned around, he saw nothing. Happy in our thoughts that the noise scared off the wild animal, we both closed our eyes ready for sleep.
The animal never came back, but neither did our sleep. As the sun started to rise, I looked over at my husband and saw that he was wide awake and puffy eyed as well. I told him that I hadn’t slept all night. He hadn’t either. I told him that it felt like we were sleeping on the sidewalk of a busy downtown intersection. He said it felt like people were walking over him all night. We both then realized; what it really felt like was as if we were lying down in the middle of a busy gold mining operation... We felt the miners around us all night. We both shook our heads in disbelief as we described our similar feelings, it was unbelievable. I don’t necessarily believe in spirits, nor do I profess to have seen the ghosts of miners that night. But one thing is for sure, there was an undeniable crazy busy energy all night long, and I came away feeling like I had just experienced Ymir 100 years ago when the population boomed and the men swarmed the mountain side.
