Downtown Altoona Historic District

Transcription

Hi there, Markerbuoy here. I'm in Sandon, B.C., which is somewhere between Kaslo and New Denver, in Southern B.C. Beautiful countryside here. And in one of the most, well, to me, it's one of the most fascinating kinds of places. This is sort of a ghost town, historic mining town. I'm leaning against the oldest continually operating hydroelectric power plant in Canada. Started in its present form in about 1916, I believe, certainly about a hundred years ago, and operating to this day. Incredible place. When mining was active here, the plant generated compressed air and electricity, hydroelectric power for the mines. One of the features of this place, and I'll show you as the video continues, is that from time to time, it would be washed out by terrific floods. The people who lived here got sort of used to that but there were notable occurrences, and if you read, downstairs here, later. I'll post specific dates and times. It's very, very interesting. Enjoy the tour with me. One thing there's no shortage of around here, is water. The water for the generating station is collected about two miles up in the hills, goes into a wooden pipe about 18 inches in diameter and then, for the last few hundred feet, into a steel pipe where the pressure is the greatest, and then into the generating station. For the last of the while, the station is run at about only 25 percent capacity while the old wooden pipe is reinforced or replaced. Something like a million dollars is going to be spent by the power company here and then, the generator will be back up to full strength, and feeding into the North American grid. Tons of stuff around here, some of which I don't even know what they were for, but note like this one transmission feed with break pads attached to it. We've got compressors and power hammers and excavator bits and pieces. Some sort of old excavator part. I'm speculating here. There's a larger boiler. There's an old boiler taken apart. A vertical boiler, I believe, with the fire tools all exposed. Not much good for anything these days, but very interesting nonetheless. An old rail truck out of the mine, riveted, corroded but it looks like it was only used yesterday. Old winches still with the rope, I'd love to have one of these. This one is a winch that's powered by two air engines. It could equally well have been operated on steam, but you don't want that down the mine. Looks like a water tank right here. Now, over here, this looks to me like an old ball mill where they would have steel balls inside used for crushing ore. I may be wrong. If you know what it is exactly, let me know. This is a Pelton wheel. Here we got what it looks to me like a Pelton wheel, used for generating power with hydropower. Very efficient. Very powerful. And other parts of the old ball mill. Little bit of the transmission. Down here, this is an air powered rock drill. Just a terrific open air museum for all you enthusiasts. It's got an old blower here, presumably used to ventilate the mine shafts. Wanna get the old air down in the mineshaft there. And we've got more rail trucks. This one looks like it tips backwards, this one here looks like it tips off to the side. I'm sure these are the survivors of many such items laying around here. Now I'm not sure of the names for all of these things but what seems to have been happening here is they've been bringing ore out of the mine, dumping it into the box here, and then filling rail cars or trucks or something. Who knows what. And bits and pieces here, held together with nuts and bolts and old rail lines. Tons of this, everywhere. Lots of things to explore here. If you look up into the hills, way up, there's mine tailing and wooden trestles, which, obviously, there's some kind of mining operation going on. I'd love to come back and explore the hills around here. There's so much to see. And here's an old safe. It must be the one that Bonnie and Clyde didn't manage to get. I'm standing in front of a beautifully preserved building. Quite surprising, considering what went on here. We're a little off season, which is good, because there's nobody around. It's nice and quiet. But if you come back in the summer, they'll be open. You can take a look around. I think it'd be a great thing to do. Here's an old air powered locomotive for working in the mines. Maximum operating pressure about 800 pounds per square inch. You don't want any open flame or combustion, internal combustion, down the mine. Early 1900s steam locomotive. Never to run again, I suspect. Where the freight train hooked up to the back. We have some buses down here. We've got trucks. There's all sorts of things here. Something for everybody. It's starting to pour with rain, so we have to go. Thanks very much for joining us, looking around Sandon. Thanks very much to Janer B for her video and how about if you subscribe to my channel, Markerbuoy? You click on the end there and next time I post the video, YouTube will send you a cute little email.