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Voight Camp - A Copper Rush Cache PDF Print E-mail
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Sunday, 28 March 2010 15:49

Information & Photos from Similkameen Spotlight & Princeton Museum:  Part 1

 

In the 1910 report of the Minister of Mines for BC it was reported “Copper Mountain has been extensively prospected by the BC Copper Company and that the camp has progressed little since it was reported by Mr. Robertson in 1901. At the Mountain and at Voights Camp work continues by means of diamond drilling, open cuts, trenching, tunnelling and shallow shafts”.
 
An immigrant from Europe, the industrious Emil F. Voight had first located the “Centre Star” claim on Copper Mountain soon after his arrival in Princeton in October 1898. Mineral Claim Records also show that his wife Mary, between the years 1903 to 1909, filed many claims under her own name on Copper Mountain, which in 1906 included the “Duke” claim on March 17th and the “Blue Bird” claim on June 1st. Meanwhile, without a railway to transport the mined ore out of the Similkameen, others that had speculated on future riches had lost interest in their claims and it was Emil Voight who collected title to the most valuable of these and was soon acclaimed “King of Copper Mountain”.
 
In 1909 things started to alter as the Vancouver Victoria and Eastern Railway (Great Northern) pushed its way up the Valley towards Princeton. At various times a number of Companies took options on the Voight properties, but no purchases were affected. It was common knowledge that Emil Voight was offered large sums for the claims, but cash offers never seemed to equal the demands.
 
Time and time again he rejected purchase offers from the large corporations such as Granby which wanted the Voight properties to complete their own hold on the then known ore deposits on Copper Mountain, but it wasn’t to be and the family dreams were never realized.
 
On September 14th, 1925, aged 55, Mary Voight passed away. Succumbing to a flu epidemic, her husband died two years later on April 5th, 1927, aged 70, and it was soon after that the Granby Mining Company acquired the properties at their own price.
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