ey ey ey

tn fin

&

- GEORGE CUTTING JADE

G eorge

didn't last too long,.. however,

and in between times it was
boring. "One of our little jokes
in the Navy in those days. was that
when we got out of the Navy we were
going to start walking inland
with an ore on our shoulder.

When someone asked us what that
thing on our shoulder.was, that's
where we were going to settle
down. We wanted to get as far

away from that ocean as we could."

George and Audrey were married
while he was still in the Navy,
in 1945. He: also got his 4th class

_ steam engineer's ticket while in

the Navy. After getting his final
discharge in Vancouver in January
of '46 he went to work with his
4th class ticket; then got his 3rd
class. He worked with the B.C.
Distillery for 4 years, then got
his 2nd class ticket and worked ~
in the pulp mills at Port Mellon
for 34; years, and then over to
Port Alberni, B.C.

"All that time I was interested
in the bush. I used to go out
and do a little hunting and
fishing , and then I got interested
in rocks and prospecting. In
1957 I began work at the petroleum
refinery at Taylor, B.C. After
a year I made a trip up here
and had a look at Cassiar before
winter set in. This whole area
was the #1 prospecting area sug-
gested by the B.C. Government. In

the meantime I'd been taking
courses in geology and mineralogy
in my spare time. So in the spring
of '58 I quit my job in Taylor and
came up and prospected in this
area, mostly around Tuya Lake and
Tutshi Lake and Cassiar. We spent
the whole summer here. In the fall
I got a job at the hospital in Whi-
tehorse, where we stayed for over
a year. In the meantime I was coming
down here, starting to get intere-
‘sted in placer mining and in this
property, Centreville. I built

my first sluice box and bought
that old cat that's sitting out in
the yard"

So beg an a pattern for George
and Audrey: working on the Centre-
ville property every summer, and
working Outside for the winter
to be able to finance the mining
operation. They worked at Daw-

"son Creek, Hudson: Hope; and‘:

@ ® ]

Vancouver. It was a gypsy life for
Audrey. ''We had many houses and -:
lots of furniture, sold it all,
bought more, and sold it. We've
been on the move a lot. She's
worked at Simpsons-Sears stores

in New Westminster, Port Alberni,
Dawson Creek, Whitehorse, Fort

St. John; her boss used to come
around and say, 'Here's the gypsy’.

1966 was the year George
uncovered the first jade boulder
on his McDame Creek property. It
weighed 200 lbs. The winter of
1966 was the last time he had
to go Outside and work for the
winter. After that he got into
the jewellery business, as a
result of taking that 200 lbs bou-
lder down to Vancouver with him.
'T got it cut up and in my spare
time I learned to be a jeweller.
There was a fellow in Vancouver
who had a shop set up with all the
machinery, where you could do
lapidary work, and he taught me
how to cut and polish stones.

I also studied under a goldsmith,
an Estonian who was a good cra-
ftsman. He taught me the gold end
of it. I actually received only !

basic training and I don't consider
myself a godsmith, but I can do

simple jobs like sizing rings and

even making simple rings. I buy all
the castings for rings, and then
put the gold nuggets on them. Any-

- thing with precious stones on it

I send right out to my friend in
Vancouver, You need special tools
for that kind of work."

George didn't prospect the
McDame Creek property himself.

"This property was owned by an old

prospector, John Simpson, who was.
well known in this area. He died
in 1959. I bought the three leases<
that he held from his son Bud Sim-
pson, who used to own Rancheria -
Lodge at Mile 710."

George's property is directly~
on the site of the old town of
Centreville. There were 2*main st-
reets in the town. The creek was
being worked for 13 miles and the
town was right at the centre. "There
was Still one of the saloons stan-
ding here when we came, though it
was falling down. This property
was even worked during the 30's and
the saloon had been'made:intoa ~*~

. 4 ‘emen

Eventually the old cat wore out
and George bought another one
from Cassiar Asbestos Corp. This
cat was also the first D8 cater-
piller the company had bought;
they sold it to George in 1970.

George is no longer prospecting
for any new gold sites. "We're
pretty well settled now. There's
enough gold left on this property
that I'll never work it out in my
lifetime. I'm interested in working
it all out. I'll take out what I
need, and let somebody else worry
about what's left."

For the last few years George
has hired a man to help him for 3
or 4 months during the summer. This
man works at the sluice box,
helping the heavy boulders move
through. When George is working
on the cat he works
up on the monitor and washes the

gravel thfough.

blacksmith shop. When we came

there was just a bunch of pipe piled

in it, and old lumber and stuff."

George says his mining ope- .

rataon is really a very simple
one. "It's a case of mixing the
gravel good with water before
you put it through the sluice-
box. Once you-do that, gold -
being 6 times a heavy as gra-
vel, it has a chance to settle
to the bottom. This takes place
in the headbox, which is in
frong of my sluicebox. The heaa-
box is just a big flat sheet
of steel, and we bulldoze the
gravel into that. The water
picks it up there, carries it
along on that steel plate, and
by the time it gets to the slui-
cebox the gold will be mainly
worked out of the gravel. There
are railroad steel riffles in

_ the sluicebox with 4 in. spaces
in between them. The. gravel rol-
Is over these rails; there's ~~
a vortex in behind each one
and as the water rotates it
helps the gold to dive down

_ - SHACK THE ZIMICH"'S
LIVED IN FOR 8 YEARS ON THE
CENTREVILLE PROPERTY

between the rails, As long as —
you keep the rails active - |
if you don't let them pack with
mud - the gold will keep fal-
ling down between. The type of
gravel you're running has a
lot of bearing on that, too.
The gravel here is an old chan-
nel that's high up where McDame
Creek used to run, and the
gravel is fairly loose, and
easy to mix with the water.
cont'd page 8

STUFF 'N SUCy

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— GRADUATES

Nine students in their final
year of Public School Education
graduate in the first graduation
Class at Cassiar Elementary- x
Secondary School. Earla Anderson,
Myriam Berube, Marie Borsato,
Patrick Connolly, Patricia Mc -
Kiernan, Shelley Overton, Barbara
Schneeberger, Andre Tischler and
Richard Zemenchik make up the
group. P

Graduation ceremonies will
take place at the Cassiar
School beginning at 7:30 p.m.
June 24th. The public is cor-
dially invited to attend. The
graduates and their parents,
along with staff members will
‘attend a banquet following the-
ceremonies. The graduates will
wind-up their school careers .
at a dance later in the evening.

NY

SCHOOL CLOSING DATE --JUNE 29, 1977

School closes for the summer |
break on June 29th, 1977 this year.
Wind-up activities are numberous du-
ring the month of June.. These will
include Sports Day activities for
primary and elementary-secondary
students and the annual awards cere-
mony. School newsletters will keep
parents informed of events.

Photo Tips

WHAT ISAS A?
To many budding photo-
graphers, the term A S A
can be somewhat confusing.

Simply stated, it is a
numbering system that en-
ables photographic films
to be classified according
to their sensitivity to
light. By having films
Classified in such a manner,
the photographer then knows.
(or is able to determine)
the characteristics of the
film and is able to get

-good results without a lot
of experimenting.

If you have an ASA 25 filn, -

certain amount of light at
a certain shutter speed to
give the correct exposure.
An ASA 50 film, on the. other
hand, requires only half the
exposure because it is twice
as sensitive to light as

the ASA 25.

} s. Jack Camroux

you know that it will take a

WITH A NOSE LIKE THIS

In the beginning, you
need not worry toc much
about ASA except that you

must ensure that your set-

tings on your camera and
flash unit correspond to
that of the film you have
in the camera. Also, do
not jump unnecessarily
from film to film, using
many different makes and
many different ASA's un-
til you have mastered one
or two films and fully un-

derstand what its all
ahoaiit’ i ‘
One film is not cate-

gorically "better" than the
other one. Under certain
circumstances a film of a
articular high or low ASA
will give perhaps better
results. It also takes con-
siderable experience to be
able to spot the difference
between photos taken under
identical conditions with
two different speed films:

HAPPY SHOOTING!

Sport News from Cassiar Schoo/

by
Gordy Kamlah

On Friday the 13th, 27 stu-
dents from Cassiar Elementary
Secondary School went to Ft.
Nelson to compete in their
sports day on Saturday. The

results were:

Volleyball

Fort Nelson beat both the
boys and the girls teams 2
games to 0 in a best of three
games.

Badminton e
Cassiar lost only 4 games out of
a total of 27 games. The Cas-
Siar players were much better
than the players from Ft.Nel-
son. és

Soccer

There was a split in this
event. The Ft. Nelson boys

beat the Cassiar boys. The
Cassiar boys were not as skil-

lful but gave a good account of
themselves. The Cassiar girls

beat Ft. Nelson girls. This
was a well played close game.

Girls Basketball

The Cassiar girls beat the Ft.
Nelson team 13 to 8. The Ft.
Nelson girls were good sports

in that they. did not have.a
regular team but agreed to put a

team together to play.
Floor Hockey

Cassiar won both the boys

and girls games quite handily
This was the last one of the

day and most of the students

were very tired as well as hungry

by this time.
Some of the other events were:

Archery

No results were received from

this event but it is understood

that the hall way where the
event was held has to be re-
finished.

Shooting - Pellet and 22

Fort Nelson boys won both the
pellet and 22 shoot. Our
shooters do not have the bene-
fit of the indoor range that
Ft. Nelson has.

Cross Country Run

This run was a 5 mile race

_from the airport to the school.

Cassiar did well in the event
taking 4 of the top 5. Glen
Watson won the event over the
runner from Ft. Nelson...

Ill FIND YOU ANYWHERE !