Fairview Gold Mining town in the early 1900 close to Oliver BC Canada
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Viracocha:
Decided to visit an old ghost town close to where I live. Here is some history:
The first European activity in the area was gold mining, with the staking of the first claim in 1887, and the establishment of the Town of Fairview in 1890 on the benches above Oliver to the west. Folklore has it that a one armed gold prospector named Reid discovered gold in this area, and the Town of Fairview (located just outside what is now known as Oliver) became home to gold miners, ranchers and businessmen. Fairview was one of B.C.’s largest towns at the turn of the century. The gold rush died and sadly, so did Fairview, with Oliver springing up in its wake.
Fairview's life was short; the post office was closed in 1926. One of the few remaining buildings from the town, the Fairview Jail, has been moved to the Oliver museum site.
Off of 97 you take a right on 350... 350 turns into Fairview rd. and you keep going up into the mountains and then you come to a historical marker. There I was ready to dig a few 1800 coins from the hotel that burned down there.
Not one building is standing. All that is left are several fields with tall grasses. I set up my gear and headed off into the abyss....... There is so much junk in them there fields! nails every few inches, very rusty bottle caps, broken pottery and bottles, crushed cans, and rusty pieces of metal everywhere..... And all this under about 4 inches of very loose dry soil. It's like someone bulldozed the town and dumped a thick layer of dirt on everything!
My Jeotech was going berserk.... I didn't even have barely a 2 foot square to ground balance (Turkish two step)
Even the void detection was off the chart.. darn those mar mites
Most of the signals I got came back as Ferrous.. and they where. I dug most of them anyway, just to see...nails nails nails bottle caps, rusty bits of something, crushed cans!...no gold!
Hell yeah i'm going back... there has got to be something in them there hills!
Anyone with old pictures or maps of the area would be a great help!
Posted on: August 03, 2011, 11:21:09 AMHere is the marker close to the town site and the map as well.. not the town map, just the general location.
Posted on: August 03, 2011, 11:54:53 AMHere are some pics of the site!
Posted on: August 03, 2011, 12:12:05 PMHere is a link for more information:
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Viracocha
hardluck:
Hello Virachoca
A very interesting ghost town site. Perhap a good place to swing a metal detector.
Hardluck
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