By Elexis Sande

Imagine a town, about the size of Princeton, completely deserted and utterly forgotten. Such a town actually exists - the town of Anyox, located on Observatory Inlet, 128 kilometers north of Prince Rupert. Anyox is virtually unrecognizable from its prosperous beginnings. All that is left of a town that housed 2, 700 people and provided a superior standard of living as compared to the other towns in the early 1900’s, is concrete and rubble. The only evidence left that a train came through here is the railway irons hanging in the pylons. The inhabitants of the town now are forest animals and curious tourists wandering through part of B.C.’s history. It wasn’t always like this.

In 1910, the Granby Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company, looking for a new source of copper, moved from the B.C. Interior to the Granby Peninsula, opening its mine in 1912. In the beginning, the town of Anyox started as a typical mining mess house, with central heating, bedrooms and a large dining room and kitchen. Frontier-roughened miners arranged their dirty laundry over the foot of their beds, the resulting smell driving at least one worker to seek alternate housing.

As Granby Company’s plans for its new site grew, the town of Anyox followed suit. When the smelter was built at Goose Bay (now known as Granby Bay) in 1914, the company decided to expand the town site, and widened and improved the road. In addition, a railroad needed to be installed from the town to the mine and smelter sites. As more people were brought up to the site, more bunkhouses were built for the workers. The three story house was made out of concrete, with each room having its own entrance. The company could now easily house 600 single men.

Over the next 3 years, Anyox would grow by leaps and bounds. New, modern houses were constructed with bathrooms, electric lights, and indoor running water. Other buildings included a movie theater, which also housed the billiard and pool tables, and the largest and most modern hospital north of Vancouver- 18 beds with X-ray equipment, and staffed by three doctors. And then there was the hotel. 45 rooms, with hot and cold running water, steam heat, and telephone service in each room, it really was luxury living at its finest. In addition, a fireproof, three story, concrete department store supplied all the necessities of life: all types of groceries and dry goods, men’s and women’s wear, hardware, and furniture. It even included a post office. Meanwhile, power lines were connected to the mine, town, and smelter sites. Town streets were strung with lights to provide illumination on those cold, dark, winter nights. At the mining site itself, similar housing was set up, with its own recreational hall and emergency hospital.

Other supporting buildings were also being constructed. A high capacity sawmill and a brickyard were built on the outskirts of town. In the same area you could find the paint shop and the well-used foundry, as well as the carpentry and tin shops. In addition, several one-story rooming houses were built here which were mostly used for the Chinese employees.
The rooming houses for the single men also took on a new character. After the first one on the flats was destroyed by fire, two new ones were built in its place, made out of concrete. Most rooms were occupied by two people, and contained two beds and chairs, a dressing table, and a washbasin with hot and cold water. Chinese employees cleaned the rooms and made the beds daily. Housing about 300 men, double rooms rented for $10/month, and single rooms were $15/ month.

One other building was a concrete messhall, seating 250 people, with the latest improvements in the kitchen, laundry, bakery, and cold storage. In addition, waitresses were hired to serve the miners, and many waitresses married miners, settled down, and began to raise families. Schools were built for the children of these new families, and miners could choose between three churches to attend, including the Methodist and United church.
All seemed well in Anyox. The Granby Company between 1910-1935 extracted 750 million pounds of copper, 140,000 ounces of gold, and 8 million ounces of silver, making it one of the largest and most productive mines in the British Empire. In return, the mine provided their employees with superior tax-free living conditions (the taxes were paid by the company), which employees later recalled with great fondness. Yet, 30 years after the mine opened, Anyox stands deserted.

The Great Depression hit, and hit hard. The price of copper plummeted in the early 1930’s, leading to wage reductions. These wage reductions caused a bitter strike by Granby’s employees, which eventually led to a violent confrontation with police. After a crucial overseas contract was cancelled in 1936, the Granby Board of Directors decided to close the site, selling it to Cominco. With the closure of the mines, most residents deserted the town, seeking work in other locations. Anyone who was left had to flee the town six years later when a fire swept through the rest of the town. The ensuing destruction made Anyox completely uninhabitable. All that was left was memories.

Across the bay from Anyox lies a one-of-a-kind, 950 acre, private property owned by NIHO Land & Cattle Company. It has 23,000 ft of ocean frontage and encompasses the entire end of Granby Peninsula. The view from all parts of the property is absolutely incomparable - rugged snowcapped mountains, crystal clean rivers and creeks tumbling into the ocean, an exquisite bay, fine beaches and lush forest. Serene and silent, Niho’s Anyox neighbour lies dormant, a reminder of better days when it was bustling and thriving, one of the major centres of the north.

That might be coming soon. Pop singer Jewel has signed on as a partner in Anyox Hydroelectric Ltd., a company that wants to use the Anyox dam to generate electricity to sell to the United States.

This ghost town might rise out of the past, and retake her rightful place as a jewel of the north. Clearly, the story of Anyox is not finished yet.

References:
“Anyox had Biggest Copper Smelting Plant in British Empire” by Ozzie Hutchings, The Daily Colonist, July 5, 1970, Pgs 6-7
“Mining the North Coast: A Ghost Town’s Past” by Bob Griffin, Discovery Magazine, Jan 2002
“Pop singer Jewel gives star power to energy project” by Derek Penner, The Vancouver Sun, Aug 29, 2002
http://www.bckayak.com/2000Site/Places/Anyox/Thumbnails.html
http://www.aabc.bc.ca/WWW.aabc/archbc/display.UCCBC-226
http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/PRUPERT/DISTRICT/NCOAST/pts_of_interest/anyox.htm