It was a good news week, then a bad news week for a ghost town located near Princeton, B.C.
At one time, Granite Creek was a booming mining town during B.C.’s 1880s gold rush. Today, though, it’s a shadow of its former self, though members of the Granite Creek Preservation Society are determined to keep its historical importance alive.
“I guess it started in 2004 when my wife and I first found the Granite Creek cemetery,” said Granite Creek Preservation Society Treasurer Bob Sterne, noting that nearly most of Granite Creek burned to the ground in 1907. “We bought a cabin nearby and started to explore the area a bit. (The cemetery) was a horrible mess; there was underbrush everywhere, lots of pine trees and dead branches.”
Sterne said they started cleaning the cemetery as volunteers and got it to the point where the headstones became legible. They started mapping it out, and that’s when it led to the idea of a preservation society and a walking tour, which is now open.
That’s good news for history buffs.
Also good news: A commemorative plaque has been placed on a cairn at the start of the ghost town’s self-guided walking tour. The plaque is a replacement for the stolen original that was placed when the cairn was erected in 1958 to celebrate B.C.’s centennial anniversary.
The self-guided tour starts at the cairn, and 10 interpretive signs display the history of Granite Creek. Tour maps are available in a mailbox showing the location of the signs, along with original buildings and remaining ruins.
The project – Granite Creek, From Gold Town to Ghost Town – was made possible by a B.C. and Canada 150 grant, assistance from the Regional District of the Okanagan-Similkameen and volunteer labour.
And now the bad news.
After volunteers placed the signs on May 24, they strolled to the Granite Creek cemetery and everything was fine. Recently, however, volunteers discovered someone had again been digging in the cemetery.
One grave, occupied by ‘Abdullah’ (d. 1968), had been disturbed. Volunteers say due to the size of the rocks laying atop the grave, and how they had been disturbed, only humans could have caused this.
One year ago, volunteers also say small holes had been dug in the Chinese section of the cemetery. Since then, volunteers have seeded the ground with metal fragments to discourage metal detecting.
Sterne says if you have information regarding this, contact the Princeton RCMP at 250-295-6911.
For more information about the Granite Creek Preservation Society, visit http://www.granitecreekbc.ca/arc.html.
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