The Basin Record Newsletter Vol.6 Issue 1

Published by the Columbia Basin Institute of Regional History CBIRH Newsletter : Vol. 6 No.1 At an elevation of 1,412 m. (4,633 ft.) above sea level, citizens boasted it was “the highest city in Canada”. For a time, it was the top producing copper area in the British Empire. Phoenix was built on a mountain of copper both figuratively and literally. Copper was discovered in Phoenix in 1891 by American Bob Denzler. His claim began a flurry of activity as prospectors rushed to stake claims and a camp called Greenwood camp was built. By 1896, the town had replaced cabins for frame and brick buildings and had its own newspaper the Phoenix Pioneer . By the end of 1900, the town had been officially re-named Phoenix with the coming of a post office and the Canadian Pacific Railway spur line. By the early 1900s, 4000 citizens called Phoenix home with its own electric company and telephone exchange, 17 saloons and hotels, 26 mining companies employing 1000 miners, an opera house, brewery, a three story miners’ hall with a banquet hall and ballroom, as well as, a covered skating rink. In 1903, a second railroad, the Great Northern, opened a spur line (on a gentler grade than the CPR) to Phoenix. The largest company by far in Phoenix was the Granby Consoli- dated Mining, Smelting and Power Company which also owned the smelter in Grand Forks. The company was aggressive in buy- ing claims in the area. In 1910, Granby’s Phoenix mines loaded over a million tons of ore and processed the bulk of it at its smelter in Grand Forks. By the end of 1913, it was apparent the best quality ore had played out. World War I saved Phoenix for a time because of the rising price of copper. However, the price of copper collapsed at the war’s end. In 1919, Granby shuttered its mine and smelter. Miners with their families left en masse. Buildings and often their contents were abandoned. Some small scale mining occurred sporadically espe- cially during World War 2 when base metals were in demand. Phoenix was reborn, in a way, in the late 1950s, with an open pit mine on what was once the town site. The mine and concentrator ran until 1978. All that remains of Phoenix today, a cenotaph, a graveyard, and some mining relics and a operating Ski Hill. Daniel Chase Corbin was born on October 1, 1832 in Newport, New Hampshire. In 1862, recently married, Corbin moved to Denver and then onto Montana in 1865. Corbin was involved in several ventures in Montana. However his wife’s health caused him to sell many of his interests. They spent most of the 1870s traveling extensively, spending time in New York and in Europe. Corbin would return to Montana in the fall of 1882. Corbin along with Sam Hauser and others founded the Helena Mining and Reduction Company (HMRC). The area was rich in silver and several communities including one called Corbin, boomed. D.C Corbin built his first railroad in 1886. The Spokane – Coeur d’Alene railway linked the mines in Idaho’s Silver Valley to the Northern Pacific Railway. Corbin would sell his railway to the Northern Pacific in 1887. Corbin looked north to the Kootenay region of British Columbia and the boom in mining that was occurring. By the end of 1889, he had constructed the Spokane Falls & Northern from Spokane to Colville. He was also surveying a route to the Columbia River and completed the section from Colville to Little Dalles by 1890 giving him indirect access to the Kootenays by steamship. Despite resistance from the CPR, by 1892, Corbin had gained federal approval to push his track into Canada. Construction of the Nelson – Fort Sheppard Railway was completed by the end of 1893. The line ran from the new town site of Fort Sheppard, across the Pend-d’Oreille River to Waneta through Beaver (now Fruitvale), Salmon Siding (now Salmo), Quartz Creek (now Ymir), to “Mountain station” above Nelson and to a steamship dock at five mile point north of Nelson. The CPR blocked access to downtown Nelson. Eventually a loop was run to Bogustown (now the Fairview neighbourhood of Nelson). It offered connection from Koote- nay Lake to Spokane. Corbin then turned his attention to the booming mining town of Rossland. The Red Mountain Railway was a short 17 miles of track from Northport, WA completed in 1896. Corbin provid- ed the Le Roi Mine owners land to build a smelter in Northport which competed for ore with the smelter F. Augustus Heinze had built at Trail Creek Landing. In the late 1890s, Corbin planned to build a railway into the Boundary country. His plan was to build from Marcus just north of Kettle Falls to the international border at Cascade and then through to Greenwood. However, the CPR strongly lobbied against it and he was unable to secure a charter. In 1898, the Great Northern Railway and J.J. Hill gained control of both Corbin’s railroads. He would return to railroad building in 1905 this time cooperating with the CPR. He built the Spokane International Railway from Spokane through the Idaho panhandle to the border at Kingsgate, BC connecting with the CPR. In 1908, Corbin established the Corbin Coal and Coke Company. Corbin built a short railway the Eastern British Columbia Railway, an extension of the Spokane International, up to the remote mine site in Corbin, BC. D.C. Corbin died on June 29, 1918 in Spokane. His home built in 1898 is now an Art Center owned by the city of Spokane. D.C. Corbin railroad builder.