A4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, July 20, 1994 TERRACE: STANDARD ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, [988 . ADDRESS: 4647 Lazclie Ave., Terrace, B.C. * V8G 188 TELEPHONE: (604) 638-7283 * FAX: (604) 638-8432 MODEM: 638-7247 “is a pity THERE’S AN almost sad inevitability in the way the pine mushroom saga has unfolded. The harvesting of the fungi has gone on for years and years. In the beginning, the pickers were only interested in the mushrooms for their own use and as a sort of recreational hobby — a chance to enjoy the Great Outdoors. Some discover the commercial possibilities and take advantage of it. Tales of untold wealth spread by word-of- mouth and feed upon themselves in the retelling. In time depots sprout up all over the northwest almost as quickly as the mushrooms themselves. And the hopelessly exaggerated tales of small fortunes being made in mere hours spread beyond the region. People flock to the northwest from all over the globe, or so it seems at times, and inevitably the problems associated with any gold rush rear their ugly heads, . Just as inevitably, government wakes up to the fact there’s something going on ‘‘out there’’ that they haven’t managed to get their fingers into. — So now we have had the predictable task force, followed by predictable recommendations for regulation. Those regulations will come, of course. Governments rarely bypass the opportunity to in- troduce people to the benefits of bureaucratic controls. It’s all probably pretty frustrating for those people who went out picking just for the enjoy- ment of the exercise and the almost incidental plus of a little extra spending money. But then they probably fled the forests some time.ago having found their peaceful experience destroyed by the onslaught of gold-diggers. © Shame, really. -—«CUse it THE UNIVERSITY of Northern B.C. has delivered — as promised — a slate of third- and fourth-year courses for students in the northwest. Too bad it comes so late as to be almost worth- less, for this fall at least. The course list was finally unveiled July 7 —— afier students at northwest high schools had writ- ten final exams and applied to other colleges and universities. With almost no promotion and no time to make the pitch to prospective students, you don’t need a doctorate to figure out class sizes will be small come September, UNEC officials say they expect a couple of years of low enrolment —~ especially in areas that have never had a university before, But UNBC’s budget is already being pared by the blade of restraint. It will not be long before the northwest will be expected to produce enough students to justify the courses — or else lose them. Northwesterners will have to start selling this university themselves if they want to keep it. m=) SONA PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link ADVERTISING MANAGER: Mike L, Hamm PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur NEWS COMMUNITY: Jeff Nagel * NEWS SPORTS: Malcolm Baxter OFFICE MANAGER: Rose Fisher _DARKROOM: Susan Credgeur ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS: Sam Collier, Janet Viveiros, Howie Oram. . CIRCULATION SUPERVISOR; Chariene Matthews - Serving the Terrace atea., Published on Wednesday of each week by Catiboo Pross (1969) Lid. al 454% Lazelle Ave., Terraca, British Columbia, . : ‘Slories, photographs, illustrations, designs and lypesty'es in the Terrace Standard ava ihe property of the copyright holders, including Cariboo Press (1969) Lid. it's iMustratien ‘tepro serviess and advartising COMING LUE Repreduction In whote or in part, without written permission, is Specifically prohibited. Authorized as second-class mail pending the Past Office Department, fof payment of postage in cash, Special thanks to all our contiibutors and corraspondente for thelr tlme and talents whe dhe Gperura OKCY WAV- LS, He raised to mW rile afler Ve REN Came Of baseball SC450),. followed by the O04 Sineson Hearings and Chen he tolled right into World cy Seccer', fe XN < _ Ui Mine history to be preserved | VICTORIA -- Lf you’ve ever driven the Hope-Princcton Highway, rather than the Fraser Canyon or more recent- ly, the Coquihalla Highway, you probably stopped briefly at the famous Hope Slide. That’s where on January 9, 1965, half a mountain broke away, slid into the valley and buried a number of people un- der millions of tons of rack. And unless you were in dire need of a cup of coffee or a quick lunch, you probably whistled tight through Hedley, a small community with a restaurant, the last one until you getto Princeton. =| Aside from the restaurant, Hedley doesn’t seem to offer a lot to the visitor, but if you look the time, you would notice the remnants of what was once British Columbia’s” best-producing gold mine, half a mile up the hill, to your left, about a mile north of town. The famous Mascot claim was staked in 1899 by George Cahill for Hedley prospector Duncan Woods. Woods, one of the more colorful British Columbians of his time, had made his way from Prescott, Ont., via Washington State, carrying all he possessed on his back. Reduced to a fractional Closure give Safeway’s Vancouver bread plant closed last week, putting 89 employees on the breadiine. For more than 30 years the Lucerne foods Ltd. plant sup- plied private-label bread and buns to B.C, Safcway stores. From now on, bread baked in Calgary will be trucked fresh tach day to B.C,; buns will be trucked in daily from Bellevue, Washington. ; The food industry is finding il can do the work cheaper out of province. Nonetheless, il perturbs me when qualified local British Columbians walk the unem- ployment line while parking lots are wedged with vehicles displaying Wild Rose Country licence plates, as is happening cn a construction site in Kitimat. It’s a form of fob roulette designed to give the illusion of economic recovery. Alberta comes here to work while our carpenters go to Toronto in search of a pay che- que. It’s similar to Prince : EFoxy RESIN | FROM THE ‘CAPITAL. HUBERT BEYER claim, the 27 acres produced a - staggering 230,000 ounces of gold, worth more than $100 millign in today’s prices. Refued to as mile-high ‘workings, ‘the buildings ‘are perched precariously on the Steep mountain side. I’m bet- ting my two gold muggets that not teo many miners got drunk in camp. One wrong step, and good-bye miner. I's a long way down. Now, there’s a reason I’m telling you all this. No, the Hedley Chamber of Commerce didn’t put me on their list of friends and insiders. It’s better than that. Bill Barlee, British Columbia’s intrepid minister THIS TONGSIEN ALLOY CARBON FIBRE HIGH DENSITY MICRO ANALYZER WITH GORNITE THROUGH BIFOCALS CLAUDETTE SANDECKI George hunters scouring the Kootenays for moose while Nelson hunters drive to the Nass for their quarry. My kind of bakery is a tasty morsel established in the hub of its clientele, such as the one we patronized while living on Muliner Avenue in the Bronx. The shop itself was long and namow with three-quarters of S f MAKES THIS THE LATEST \- /N INDUSTRIAL POLLUTION |} of tourism, told me the old Mascot Mine will be rejuvenated and become an in- dustrial heritage attraction. Most of the buildings are in temarkably good condition, ac- cording to a study done for the provincial Heritage Conserva- tion Branch by McGinn Engineering and Preservation of Vancouver. The tramway wheel-house still houses the original quad tramway hoist and friction brake, although the 75 horse- power electric motor that powered the hoist has been removed. Then there are the change- dry building, the cook house, the bunk houses, the black- smith shop, the transformer shed, the ore bin, hoist room and ore chutes, as well as of- fice and staff quarters, all in Telatively good condition, nothing beyond salvage. Barlee says the mine site is the last and best of -the cliff dwellings in Canada, and is well worth the cost of preser- vation which, according to McGinn, will be about $250,000. And an avid miner himself, he ought to know. The report says "the Mascot Gold Mine Camp offers a unique opportunity to interpret this largely intact historic min- the front space set aside for waiting customers. Before any major holiday - Christmas, Hannukah, or Haster ~ drooling customers with mesh shopping bags looped over one arm or wire shopping carts upright beside them crowded the shop cluiching a number tag. At intervals a rosy-checked baker in a flour-splashed apron ' emerged through a swinging door holding aloft a huge aluminum pan heaped with aromatic loaves of rye or pumpernickel crackling from the oven, Appetite-stirring aroma waft- ing overhead sent a ripple of movement through the restless throng as everyone checked his number and calculated whether the supply would last until he was served. We had our loaf of crisp- crusted pumpemicke! home, sliced, buttered, and crunched before it quit steaming. My other fond memory is of McGavin's Bakery in Sas- , katoon, although I was far AND THINK OF ALL THE. (NPUSTRIAL POLLUTION) ing camp in its stupendous location. And a nearby gold tefining mill, still being opera- led by Homestake Canada Ltd., but to be decommis- sioned in 1997, could eventual- ly be incorporated into the his- toric site. Legislation demands that after decommissioning, mine sites are to be retumed toa nat- ural condition. In mast cases, that’s a commendable practice, but what, of the histary these sites represent? Like forestry, mining is part of the lifeblood of this pro- vinee. Should we just bury the early history of mining in Brit- ish Columbia, along wilh its historic buildings? I think not. And while development of the Mascot mine as an industri- al heritage site would certainly benefit the town of Hedley, of | far greater importance -is that we preserve something of our past. And mining is very much part of British Columbia’s past and, hopefully, the future. The $250,000 or so it. will take to restore the mine camp is money well spent. And perhaps it may even help the existing mining indus- try convince the more strident environmentalists that mining per se isn’t bad, but bad mini- ng practices are. ood for thought fonder of its production smells than its shelf product, Caiching a 7 a.m. bus on my way to work in winter, the warm, cosy fragrance of cin- namon rolls rose in steamy. blasts from the building’s smokestack to be carried blocks by the wind, It was a puzzle to me how | bread which tantalized my taste buds during the oven stage could be so uninteresting —~ by the lime it sat labelled on a supermarket shelf at quitting time. Our food supply is dependent ona reliable trucking system. Strawbertics come from Cal- _ ifornia. a Blue Ribier grapes arrive | from South Africa, Even tuna caught off our east coast is tinted in Thailand. A major bridge washout and ‘we could starve. We need to support locally- — produced food, including bread, even it it does cost-a penny or two extra. - We'd eat a tastier product. a COLLECTOR . . MV -, ' . eof o et . a . 4 PETE CTION TECHNOLOGY! hg ’