Leechtown, British Columbia
Encyclopedia
Location
The site now is only a clearing in the forest, with little remaining except for some rotting foundations, and is accessible by bike or foot on the Galloping Goose Trail, which follows a portion of the former Canadian NationalCanadian National Railway
The Canadian National Railway Company is a Canadian Class I railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. CN's slogan is "North America's Railroad"....
rail line between Victoria
Victoria, British Columbia
Victoria is the capital city of British Columbia, Canada and is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of about 78,000 within the metropolitan area of Greater Victoria, which has a population of 360,063, the 15th most populous Canadian...
and the town of Youbou
Youbou, British Columbia
Youbou is a community located on the north shore of Cowichan Lake, west of Duncan and a 25-minute drive west of the community of Lake Cowichan, Canada. The former mill town on Vancouver Island provides a public beach and extensive recreational opportunities, including fishing, boating, and...
, on the north shore of Cowichan Lake. The site of the Gold Commissioner
Gold Commissioner
Gold Commissioner was an important regional administrative post in the Colony of British Columbia.In the 1860s, Governor Douglas had three priorities to protect the two colonies he governed: to protect the boundaries, to uphold law and order and to provide access to the gold fields...
's house is marked by a cairn on the north-western side of the Leech River at 48°29.741′N 123°42.705′W. The current stone cairn is a replica cairn erected by concerned businessmen after the original cairn was destroyed by vandals. The original cairn's bronze dedication plate has been stolen but it used to read:
Memorial erected by the B.C. Historical Association on site of gold commissioner’s house to commemorate discovery of gold on Sooke River by Lieut. P. Leech, July, 1864, and to mark the site of Leechtown, which sprang up following discovery. Unveiled by the HON. R.BRUCE LIEUT.-GOVERNOR OF B.C. SEPT. 15. 1928
History
The town was named after Lieutenant Peter John Leech of the Royal EngineersRoyal Engineers
The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually just called the Royal Engineers , and commonly known as the Sappers, is one of the corps of the British Army....
and astronomer of the Vancouver Island Exploring Expedition
Vancouver Island Exploring Expedition
The Vancouver Island Exploring Expedition explored areas of the Colony of Vancouver Island that remained unknown outside the capital of Victoria and settlements in Nanaimo and the Cowichan Valley. The expedition went as far north as the Comox Valley over four and one half months during the summer...
who was later City Engineer for Victoria, British Columbia
Victoria, British Columbia
Victoria is the capital city of British Columbia, Canada and is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of about 78,000 within the metropolitan area of Greater Victoria, which has a population of 360,063, the 15th most populous Canadian...
. The Expedition, led by Robert Brown
Robert Brown (explorer)
Robert Brown was a Scottish scientist, explorer, and author.He was born in Camster, Caithness, and studied in the universities of Edinburgh, Leyden, Copenhagen, and Rostock. He took the habit of referring to his home town, Campster , to distinguish himself from his famous contemporary of the same...
, discovered gold on the Leech River in July 1864. Within weeks, thousands of miners, many were veterans of the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush
Fraser Canyon Gold Rush
The Fraser Canyon Gold Rush, began in 1858 after gold was discovered on the Thompson River in British Columbia at its confluence with the Nicoamen River. This was a few miles upstream from the Thompson's confluence with the Fraser River at present-day Lytton...
six years earlier, travelled from Victoria overland by trail or by steamer to Sooke. By August 14 of that same year, 227 mining licences had been issued and by the end of the year there were 6 general stores and 3 hotels in business along with 30 saloons. At its peak, Leechtown and neighbouring Boulder City had 1,200 mines and 4,000 people but by 1865, the area had passed its peak and went into decline. As much as $100,000 in gold may have been taken out in the first year by a greedy miner, Donny Roux.
Geology
Leechtown is notable for its geologic placement, which is what gives rise to the historical gold finds. The Leech River runs along the Leech River Fault, a major regional fault that marks a distinct geological boundary between the Pacific Rim TerraneTerrane
A terrane in geology is short-hand term for a tectonostratigraphic terrane, which is a fragment of crustal material formed on, or broken off from, one tectonic plate and accreted or "sutured" to crust lying on another plate...
and the Crescent Terrane. The "Leech River Complex" or "Leech River Formation" is a well known assemblage of highly deformed schists
Schist
The schists constitute a group of medium-grade metamorphic rocks, chiefly notable for the preponderance of lamellar minerals such as micas, chlorite, talc, hornblende, graphite, and others. Quartz often occurs in drawn-out grains to such an extent that a particular form called quartz schist is...
underlain by gneiss
Gneiss
Gneiss is a common and widely distributed type of rock formed by high-grade regional metamorphic processes from pre-existing formations that were originally either igneous or sedimentary rocks.-Etymology:...
. The gold is thought to be derived from quartz stringers
Stringer
Stringer may refer to:* Stringer , a type of freelance journalism* Stringer * Stringer , or longeron, a strip of wood or metal to which the skin of an aircraft is fastened...
concentrated in the schists, emplaced by hydrothermal events related to the regional tectonic activity.
Current status
The area around Leechtown is still actively under placerPlacer mining
Placer mining is the mining of alluvial deposits for minerals. This may be done by open-pit or by various surface excavating equipment or tunneling equipment....
lease, almost a century and a half after its discovery and still produces quantities of fine gold and flakes up to 0.25". The area is soon to be part of the Greater Victoria
Victoria, British Columbia
Victoria is the capital city of British Columbia, Canada and is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of about 78,000 within the metropolitan area of Greater Victoria, which has a population of 360,063, the 15th most populous Canadian...
water supply which will protect it from development and public access.
Folklore
Local legends report that a tunnel exists in Leechtown that has been chiseled out of the rock, with multiple galleries. The Colonist newspaper planned to fund an expedition in search of the lost tunnel in 1959, but the only person with knowledge of its location, Ed Mullard, died before the search could take place.The Mullard Tunnel is located in Jordan Meadows, approximately ten kilometers away and there have been several stories of the discovery of the tunnel. Mullard was in the Jordan Meadows area prospecting and went deer hunting one afternoon and stumbled upon the tunnel entrance. A logger supposedly discovered the tunnel in 1928 and ended up in Las Vegas with some of the gold. There was supposedly a gold bar from the tunnel on display at the Mineral Titles office in Victoria, BC until the early 1980s but no one knows the location of the gold bar now.