real places: brittania beach, b c Jennifer Uegama
I n 1904, mining began in Brittania Beach forming the core of a community for the next seventy years. Today, the 20-storey high concentrator mill that separated profitable ore from raw mountain rock, sits silently along one edge of a valley that still houses two hundred residents. This monumental structure has always been more than the physical focus of the community. It was the town’s economy, it dictated the town’s schedule, it was the town’s iconic and symbolic centre. The town and the mine are inextricably linked.
The concentrator mill steps down to a small, motley collection of build- ings from a shared era, severed from the ocean by highway and railway. Buildings at sea level are mainly deserted. The creek that gave the community its name has forced the resilient residents back up the valley walls by regularly overflowing its banks with destructive potential. The mine left behind another, less visible legacy — a contradiction between the beauty of the site and the poison that is seeping from deep within the mountain in the form of acid mine drainage.
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ON SITE review 6: BEAUTY
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