Early prospectors had seen the asbestos as far
back as the early eighteen seventies and the Indians
knew of it before that. In fact, it was the Indians
who told the gold seekers about the “wooly hill” to
the north, and the birds that built their nests of
white fluff that could withstand the heat of fire.
Looking north, the prospectors could clearly
see a prominent green band of serpentine rock
slanting across the rugged face of McDame
mountain, but it would be years before anyone
would do anything about it. Antone Money was the
first. When he prospected the Cassiar region in 1923
he noticed that where the schist and serpentine rock
met there were veinlets of asbestos. He peeled a few
fibres from the green rock and examined them, later
writing, “Although transportation seemed far away
from this isolated corner of wilderness, this could be
an important discovery.”